Things fall Apart......

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned -  "The Second Coming", William Butler Yeats

It is interesting to note how easily things, which till yesterday were absolutely perfect to the eye, disseminate and fall apart...leading to misery and desolation. During my graduation in English Literature, I had read 'Things Fall apart' by Chinua Achebe. The novel had these lines of Yeats's poem in the beginning, as a precursor or a curtain-raiser to the destruction, solitude and pain to be painted and captured in pages there after....

The novel had left me feeling hollow and sad inside. A definitive strength, the human spirit is what that is broken at the end of the novel, symbolized by the cursory  death of the human body through self-approval. An acute sense of sadness had seeped into me, upon witnessing the fall of the Okonkwo, the lead protagonist, who is reduced from his glorious stature and bought down on his knees and ultimately pushed to humiliation and disapproval. It was disturbing to realize the truth of a the phrase "this too shall pass"...how gradually with time, even the best of moments and the mightiest of forces loose their sheen and are defeated by mere splashes of waves. Oh yes..I do agree...it sure holds true for the sorrow as well..which again passes on to give space to life...

A I stand at this juncture of my life, I am left to ponder over and understand many an aspects which are undergoing change at lightening speed. If not for the sake of it, but the truth is I had been aware of many a cracks. But the sheer gravity of creation and destruction, of life and death are simply too magnanimous for me to comprehend and follow. Isn't it the reality, the unspoken facts of life that things no matter how strongly we wish, do not shape up the way we had expected them to. On the contrary, the most unexpected of events tingle-up together to form a chain of weird-shaped paper-doll chain, which wrap around us and hold us down, leading us to paths we had never expected we would tread...and yet with the childish ferocity we keep yearning and wishing for that which often deludes and vanishes behind the veil...


For a long time, I was under a belief that things happen for the greater good...and to be frank I still have faith in this profound thought...but often late I have been wondering a lot as to whether not it is just a fiction created by the forces of our thoughts which have led us towards deluding ourselves to believe in the fact that all that happens is infant for our own good. In consequence, isn't it actually blinding ourselves to the basic truth that the course of history could have been absolutely amazing and wonderful if not for that one decision. If not for that one decision, we could have been spared a lot of pain and suffering. 


But as I suppose, and most would agree...this particular variety of thought-process, which often is termed as negative and destructive, in fact doesn't help much in keeping us 'happy'. The thought of such nature which would dilute the dictate given us, that we, in fact have the best of life in front of us, the most promising we can ever wish for, instantly leading to the production of that hormone and that substance which brings smile to our face and gives us strength to go on in life. Recently I had heard it again in a new garb of 'all izz well' uttered by the protagonist in the famous bollywood flick 'Three Idiots'. So technically, I should tell myself that whatever is happening, is for my best...and I shall be happy tomorrow as I am today...or as I should be..coz all is happening in my favor..isn't it..


But then again...is it right to live in delusion...is it right to wear brightly colored blinds..and go on in life..maybe it is..it keeps others around us happy, I have experienced that often..but then again...how justified is living shaded for others..is it in fact the absolute mantra...maybe it is...maybe yes in fact it is...