Dear My Blog Reader,
I am writing this post as a reply to a comment posted by one of my good friends, Debotosh Poddar, on ‘La vita e bella’. His comment was thus:
“It would be too simplistic a view and an unnecessary romanticism to claim that life is all beautiful, grand and ethereal. In fact it is very often cruel, ugly and deceiving. The beauty that we see is so much more like a mirage that is ever running away from us and only leading us to greater and greater sorrow.
But then happiness must surely exist in life. May be we are only trying so get hold of its shadow and hence we are never really finding it.”
I could have replied in the comments section but this is a better path…
It is very presumptuous to think that I am unaware of the brutalities of life. I have lived on the face of this planet for almost nineteen years (a bit less, if I exclude the years of which I do not have a conscious memory) and I have seen something of this world. I have developed some analytical power through all the experiences that I have had during this short journey and I have developed of a power to distinguish between right and wrong, beauty and ugliness. And I have come to many conclusions about life, also. Though these conclusions are not rigid, they are not arbitrary in any sense.
I believe that life shapes itself up into the way one chooses to look at it. If I choose to look at life as some adventure, life will become an adventure for me. If I choose to look at life as a burden, it will bend my back. If I choose to look at life as a serene morning stroll, I will be able to smell the fresh air of dawn. It all depends on how we choose to see what we see.
I shall take an example, though I am not too sure about its applicability here. Still, to err is human…
Let us step into the shoes of a soldier. He fights, he kills. Let us assume ourselves doing that. The feeling is nauseating. It is painful even to imagine that we are shattering the skull of another person with a rifle. But for a soldier, it is life. It is all about survival. It is all about setting the dial of mind at a certain frequency. A soldier has to look at an enemy as an enemy and not as a person. If he cannot do that he cannot live. Maybe he will survive the bullets but he will not win over his conscience. So he chooses to look at life in such a way that it would be easier for him to live.
Here it is important to understand the difference between leading an easy life and choosing to live an easy life even in the midst of all hardships.
Now I come back to the question that has led us this far into the post. Why am I writing this blog? Why am I so strongly emphasizing on the fact that life is good and beautiful even though there is a lot of ugliness around us? The answer is simple. It is what I choose. I choose to preserve only the beautiful side inside me while being completely aware of all the grotesquery. It does not mean, however, that I shall remain unperturbed by the darker side. I shall analyze the mishaps, see what I can do about them and then let them go. I shall always remind myself that there are things in this world which are so graceful that even the thought of preserving them makes my fight against the hideousness of the world a worthwhile fight.
Will you call this eagerness to lead a happy life, a life of contentment, this determination to hold on to these beautiful things a vain romanticism? Aren’t grandness and ethereality one side of this life that we live? Why should we let gloom to overshadow such wonders when we have the capacity to choose?
This is the prime reason why I am writing this blog—to look at the beautiful side and be fascinated by it. I wish to present this blog as a breath of fresh air to those who are disgusted by life’s ugliness. Isn’t that a job worth doing? Will you still call this proclamation—La vita e bella—a vain romanticism and a very simple approach towards life? It is the toughest way, friend, it is the toughest way…
11 comments:
Absolutely: it is the toughest way. That is precisely why those who shrink away from the philosophy of open-eyed yet adventurous and robust optimism call it names and mutter inanities about how 'tough' life is: they will be the ones who choose to avoid all difficulties, challenges, hardships in life in favour of being common nobodies ('I too have a flat, a car, a mobile, an ipod, a credit card, and stupid and lazy children just like all my neighbours, and so I am 'established' and 'successful' , though I have never done one thing in my life that I will be remembered respectfully and admiringly for'!)It is the fighters who enjoy life, not the shirkers. Just ignore them and go your own way: you have my blessings. As George Clooney says his father warned him, you must not wake up one morning as an old man to realise your whole life has been wasted. Nothing can compensate for it, not even a billion dollars (you can read up about all the tycoons and their sons and daughters who have become dope-addicts or committed suicide out of emptiness and frustration). 'Hang on to your dreams/for if dreams die/ life is a broken wing'd bird/ that cannot fly'.
In this connection, you might read up a post called 'A Great Day' on the blog of one of my current pupils. She is a 17 year old. The blog url is suprawondering.blogspot.com. I have written a comment there, too.
Thanks a lot, sir, for all those encouraging words. It was a great feeling to have you voicing for me.
Truly, Sir, I donot want to discover at the old age that my entire life had been wasted. That is why I wish to walk on a path less travelled. The words 'success' and 'happiness' has completely different implications in my life and when I hear the views of some of my peers about these words I am not just amused but also pitiful towards them.
And sir, I truly believe, 'Never let your dreams die, for when your dream is dead half of yourself is dead'.
It is unfair that you should concentrate your attention only on the first three lines of my comment and neglect my last two lines. The fourth line voices the same faith that I share with you about the inherent goodness of this world.
Although no one wants ugliness but still we end up having a lot of it in this world.Is life not cruel?Ask that from a mother who has lost a young son.Is life not deceiving?Look around you, don't you see people struggling hard to find happiness but in the process getting more and more entangled in the meshes of sorrow.Why all good things flash like lightening and leave us in a darker world? Is life 's goodness not transitory. Why then we crave for happiness and never find it? I have attempted to find an answer to this riddle in my last line.
Also, my friend let philosophical discussions be objective and not emotionally charged.I might criticize your idea but never for an instant believe that I am criticizing you.
Now that my examinations are finally over, I can write a comment with the assurance in my mind that I'm not writing just for the sake of it...
I think that your thoughts make perfect sense: while life is certainly not a bed of roses, we must choose to live it the beautiful way. I remember a certain man who said these immortal words all his life, and that is Albus Dumbledore. Don't you think that when Dumbledore told Harry that choices matter much more than eprsonal talent, he implied somewhere that choosing to be happy is the ultimate choice in the world? Don't you think that Dumbledore wished to convey the same thoughts when he said 'Happiness can be found in the darkest of times; all we have to remember is to put on the light'?
Another man invades my mind as I write this now: and it is none but Guido, the protagonist of 'La Vita E Bella'. He could have chosen to make a sad face the last time he looked at Joshua hiding in the sweatbox; but he smiled widely just to cheer his son up. All he wanted was to give his child a last moment of blissful happiness. And when you take into account that he was quite aware that he would be bloodily shot down in a few minutes, don't you realise that Guido gave Joshua the greatest lesson of his life? That, my friend, is the power of happiness: and happiness never comes easily-- you ultimately choose to embrace it!
Dear Debotosh,
I suggest that you read the post once more. My point had been that even though we live in a world surrounded by gloom, we can choose to see the brighter side and this choice to see the brighter side cannot be called vain optimism. I am aware that life is not fair to us most of the times but what I am also aware of is that we can find the beauty of life if we try a little. We can see the fairer side if we can 'set the dial of our mind' to that particular frequency. I accept that 'happy times' are indeed short lived but I also believe that a person can find happiness even in the darkest of times, he must know how to turn the light on. Only those who let life to dominate their lives will find life to be too unbearable. If you want evidence for what I firmly believe then remember the movie Life is Beautiful, remember Guido.
I fully concur with Dumbledore's idea that we have to turn on the light to see happiness even in darkness (I believe it is the only way). But how do we do that? Is that not a most vital question whose answer has to be pondered upon. So for the third time I recommend you to read my last line. It appears to be a very probable solution.(by the way it is not my original idea)
Not sure if this comment will do any good to anyone, but my life has proved true what Percy Bysshe Shelley said long ago –
“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
So, if one ever falls in a really cold world of loneliness, have faith that there will be people to shower love and warmth to you in the coming phase of your life.
The previous comment I posted got deleted somehow.
Sriranjani datta
Here is what Srijani had said:
"Dear Shubhabrata,
True we should look at the positive side of life but how do we close our eyes from the harshness of life? There is so much pain everywhere!
if life was so easy there won't be suicides. But the truth is we have to look at the possitive side of. a coin has two sides but the greatness is in looking at the better side and avoiding the darkness. as dumbledore said-'Turn on the light to see happiness even in darkness' Thats the only way! "
I do not know how that comment got deleted Srijani. My apologies to you.
Shubhabrata
thankyou for posting my comment. But I would like to tell you that I am Sriranjani and not Srijani.
http://sriranjanidatta.blogspot.com/
This is the link to my blog. Do visit it when you have time.
My apologies to you, once again, Sriranjani.
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