Its been a long time since I posted anything new. In the beginning, it was just that I didn't seem to have much to say. As time went by, I started plotting my comeback post (which only turned out to be a mild diversion because I soon realised that I still had nothing to say).
Slowly, laziness (my best friend) made itself comfortable, until today, when I chanced upon one of my all time favorite poems and sat wondering why I hadn't written about it yet. So bye bye laziness and here goes.
Short poems are always a delight. Specially ones that seem to convey so much in so less. Seth is a favorite with me and so is this one:
All You who Sleep Tonight
All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above -
Know that you aren't alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.
-- Vikram Seth
Loneliness is, to me, the scariest thought. Indian society and culture never quite prepare one for loneliness in its true sense. Well the next question , of course is, does western society? I don't know too much about western society or culture, but of course its also rather naive to use one term to describe all the cultures that exist west of india..:)
Then there's the other thing.Are you lonely if you are alone? How many people explore alone-ness? Its interesting to note how, to many people, being alone is synonymous with being lonely!
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9 comments:
hmmm..:)
If you are already alone, what else then can you explore?
You mean being alone means without people or without anything..Point blank??
Thats a nice one from seth.
Very true about Indian society never preparing an individual for loneliness. Infact, on the contrary.. all I remember learning when growing up is to adjust to others in your life, share what you have, etc. etc (it didn't feel so much like etc. etc. when I was growing up actually.. more like blah blah, or yada yada). So much so that I really yearned to be away from the crowd. "Far from the maddening crowds"!
Ofcourse, someone wise said "Don't wish for something you don't know about.. You might end up getting it :-)."
Guess its part of my 'mental conditioning' to adjust to others, learning to share and so on.. which has lead me to realise.. that "alone" is not good for me. Thats the point when alone = loneliness.
"Indian society and culture never quite prepare one for loneliness in its true sense".. i wouldnt say "indian culture". id say pop culture. indian culture spoke at length about sanyasa remember? :)
Your post started out right but lost focus somewhere in between, or at least that's the feeling it gave me when I read it.
Guess it's just an indication that you actually have a lot more to say about the topic but are not able to bring it all out, yet! Which (if it's correct, that is), in turn, means that you are quite a 'deep' person who, though, needs some stimulation to plumb her own depths thoroughly! All right, enough of my psychoanalysis. Would like to see you plunge deeper and bring out pearls. :-)
hey!!! welcome back :)
nice comeback post :)
Hi.. I just chanced about your blog and really liked the poem.. good work..
I'd agree with m. although I know it would be something very dangerous to do!! ;-)
You raise a very valid point in the separation between alone-ness and loneliness. There is so much of an emotional and psychological difference between the 2. Alone-ness is constructive whereas loneliness doesn't seem to be...
Nice post... nice poem....
Did you forget that you had a blog???
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