Distanced Love

Distance is important in all love!

-Tagore

Another friend of mine came up with this statement, "When you want to move away, when you want to distance somebody, that is because you love that person. You already feel the attachment and hence want to step aside."

I don't want to agree or disagree with it. I neither approve it nor disapprove it. All I'm thinking now is about love that is distanced.

Tagore's Universalism and Modi's IPL

"Home and the world" was one of the books, I read last year. This work of Tagore on the face of it, may only seem to be a romantic trio, where the woman happens to be caught between her husband and the new found love. Digging a little deep, you may also find allegories, that it's actually India's struggle to be on the "swadeshi" terms or to be more enlightened soul and be on the global perspective. It's not hidden that Tagore was not keen on the "swadeshi" moment and he had difference of opinions with Gandhi as well. And this work of his, I personally feel is just to highlight his point of anti-swadeshi or to profess Universalism or both. You may end up finding this book absolutely boring or too biased. All said and done it's one of my favourites.

Universalism - a world with no boundaries, no way to differentiate or discriminate one individual from the other. I always considered, myself patriotic, even if that has to be certified by trivia that my blood boils when heard something against India, that I passionately celebrate any of its victories in any of the fields and the likes. At the very same time, courtesy to my upbringing, I always despised the conceptual separation among ourselves, be it in the name of religion or caste, creed etc. The point that struck me hard, while reading "Home and the World" was that, if demarcating on the lines of worship or the traditions followed were wrong, then why limiting ourselves in the name of national boundaries should be good feel. If its only hatred, vengeance and enmity that's passed on, even "patriotism" is certainly not a positive energy.

IPL has conceptualized and materialized, too soon after I completed this book. The concept of universalism in action. The best part of the IPL was, that it has crossed boundaries and the worst part of it could have been the very same, if not for the intensity the guys showed for their respective franchisees. That went over the roof, when Sri and Bhajji involved themselves in the slap episode. Under the heavy influence of Tagore's universalism, I thought I'll find a new fun of enjoying a sport, not egging on anybody in particular. The fun of watching a game with no intense passion, a constant attitude of "who'll win?" rather than, "we'll win".

It just didn't happen. I found myself  fanatic over Deccan Chargers, my home team. I was praying against the likes of Saurav, Anil, Rahul which was not possible even in dreams a little earlier. Yes, it turned to be a disastrous season for DC leaving me with a very familiar taste of "let-down", which was soon to be overcome by another very familiar feeling "oh-next-time-it's-ours". I don't give a chance for the Chargers to be crowned even this year, but I'm very sure, I'll follow them with the same intensity I support India. That, by no means, is an overstatement.

One of the reasons I enjoy IPL to the fullest, may be!

Fruit Gathering

The Cloud said to me, "I vanish"; the Night said, "I plunge into the fiery dawn."

The Pain said, "I remain in deep silence as his footprint."

"I die into the fulness," said my life to me.

The Earth said, "My lights kiss your thoughts every moment."

"The days pass," Love said, "but I wait for you."

Death said, "I ply the boat of your life across the sea."

Tagore (Fruit-Gathering)

The Gift - Tagore

If you would have it so,
I will end my singing.

If it sets your heart aflutter,
I will take away my eyes from your face.

If it suddenly startles you in your walk,
I will step aside and take another path.

If it confuses you in your flower-weaving,
I will shun your lonely garden.

If it makes the water wanton and wild,
I will not row my boat by your bank.


Rabindranath Tagore

Proof to be alive!

Just now, read a short story by Rabindranath Tagore named "Living or Dead?" They say, "Seeing is believing". No, actually we see only what we believe or want to.  And for me, this is what the story hold. You got to prove, time and again to the world, according to the beliefs and senses it holds. What's living and what's dead is what is thoroughly failed to understand.

Few lines, that I loved in this story:

Love cannot prove its claim by any document which society accepts, and does not wish to prove it; it merely worships with double passion its life's uncertain treasure.

Every one knows that, even when there is no sign, life is often secretly present, and may begin again in an apparently dead body.

...in the House of Yama, where there is nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to do, only an eternal watch. 

Men and ghosts dread each other, for their tribes inhabit different banks of the river of death.

...when a woman cannot understand a thing, she either destroys and forgets it, or she shapes it anew for her own use; if she fails to deal with it in one of these ways, she loses her temper with it.  


By dying, Kadambini had given proof that she was not dead.