Ramjas College, 2018Do you remember the days when Flamingo and Hornbill were not just birds, but our English books too? The days when T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, and Sylvia Plath used to scare us with their works. Those were the days when literature used to be discussed within the classroom walls, and these walls were not sour unlike in that elementary school classroom in a slum.
There was something exotic about the days when The Last Lesson was the first lesson and My Mother at Sixty-Six, the first poetry.
At that time, the literature was not felt but just rote to get some good scores. The lesson from Rattrap, the agony in The Lost Spring, the beauty in A Thing Of Beauty and the satire in the Tiger King; all of them are more meaningful now than they were ever before.
How ironical is that our ego is fragile and yet the strongest!The Last Lesson seems to become reality when the school days have become a thing of the past. There is no more ringing of bells, no more teacher’s punishments and no more hustle-bustle of the school. Now, we admire beauty in the natural things, in a petal of a simple flower, in the woods, in the Brooks, and in the hills. Every day, we see this world, and every day the Tiger King makes more sense. How ironical is that our ego is fragile and yet the strongest! Every day we see, the poverty-stricken poor children living in their small holes hoping for a good life. On one hand, we see the children deprived of necessities and on the other, the million dollars being wasted on showing off the material things. Money is the cheese and people being mice, revolving around the rat trap.
But unfortunately, in this world, a person like Edla Willmanson is hard to find.
Wait, there is another side of the story too, how can we forget Evans? Remember the one who fled from the bars. Umm, the one who fooled everyone from the governor to the special agent. He was a lunatic. Wasn’t he? But he was happy too. He was happy in his condition, in his own world. A happy insane. Just like him, there was a teenage girl, Sophie, who had unrealistic dreams, the dreams that were not within her reach.
But then too, she never stopped dreaming. Her dreams were high, higher than the girls like her should have and the highest her mind can think of. Was she right?
May be not or maybe yes. But one thing is sure, it proved that Going Places is not just the thing of physical movement, a mind can do it too. Traveling thousands of miles yet remaining at the same place.
Now, let’s recall the story of a little girl who was having a problem in the father’s story. Do you remember her? No? Let me remind you. A two-year-old Jo who wanted a different ending of the story of skunk. The girl for whom, fitting in society is more important than anything and individuality is of no use. Well, doesn’t she reflect on us? Aren’t we trying to do what others are doing? Aren’t we seeing our lives from others’ perspectives? Aren’t we losing ourselves so that we can be accepted in the peer groups? But is it worth? The society still judges, discriminate and alienate people. Let’s move on and look deeper into the literature we have read but not understood. What we all hold in this world Love, memories, humanity or grudges, hate and enmity. We always say love and peace. But, in reality, we are full of negativity. We bring wars, deaths, injuries, and havoc. Not only to humans but to the environment as well. Most of the times, we forget our first identity as a human and act like hooligans. The hollowness takes over us and we act madly. However, we still have good men on this planet like Dr. Sadao, one of a few men with humanity in them. Yes, we humans have lost humanity and to regain it, we need to introspect ourselves just like Pablo Neruda has recommended. We need to keep quiet sometimes. Maybe, then we can experience heaven in this world just like in the journey to the end of the world. Maybe, then we can create a better world for ourselves and for the generation to come.
