The soft sound of a pin dropping on a rug. Even the whimper of thoughts as I gently scratch my head as I think. Or the thunderous buildup of musical notes as someone unknown somewhere strange walks in or rushes out or does whatever has to be done. There are no rules of any of the sciences dictating lives. Plots merge. Themes flow into each other. Fiction pretends to be a faithful chronicler of the sociology, politics, and the economics of moments – mostly even before they happen. And yet there are no streams of anxiety swelling up like unworldly blisters inviting me to pierce them with a sterilized needle, leaving a long thread partly inside, to siphon out their toxic treasure. Scenes change far faster than expected and time flips through as if… as if the world inside the mind when the eyes are closed is the real world and the one that I see when I open my eyes, is a world that the mind conjures up.
And as I roam around in this conjured up world with my eyes open, I look at or listen or read what others are doing and sometimes detect the truth behind closed eyes. That world isn’t as mad as we think it is, I know. Who knows there will be yet madder scenes when I close my eyes in the world that I see when I close my eyes in the world that I am now in. Is there really a final destination?
I believe the sanity of madness can be realized only in small doses. And that there are forms and formats of true madness that hide securely behind layers that I do not even know of. How many such layers, you ask. I do not know. I fervently hope this probe from one to the other layer doesn’t do on forever. Infinite is such a dreadful word.
Nirvana obviously isn’t as easy as a dip in the Ganges or a few living and breathing years of meditation or penance. It is just the beginning. The start of an unending journey of peeling layers in the quest of that final destination. This could also be a game where the layers go on infinitely and only a few are able to crack the code and jump across… to the infinitely finite world of the creator. Whatever be the case, let us just have fun in our travels.
We are all travelers.
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Note: This piece is based on a visual prompt by Visual Verse
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Arvind Passey
Written on 04 November 2020
