Choked up or breaking free
Yet another book down, not the bottoms up variety, but the savoury and quiet one, heady and morose in the same breath, in a dark sort of way (ref.-Manjula Padmanabhan’s Kleptomania)
How would you define ‘freedom’? The feeling of not being bound by any external entity, be it time, space or spirit; the not being weighed down and pinned to a wall, emotional weightlessness of a kind or the soaked in emotion so frothy that one floats to the top and skims away aimlessly, radar-less. Priya used to assert her freedom by revolting against the very concept of time; ‘no watches for me’, she would say. She climbed high on my respect ladder for free thought, based on just this assertive act. For Angad, it is probably about humming in the gurudwara; a place of peace and godliness right? What could be a better connect than soulful music rendered straight from the heart? Isn’t the idea to invoke an atmosphere of lightness and happiness here? His logics… always bang-on. Bharat finally physically clasped his hands around the concept by losing himself in a free-fall; yeah… it helps and makes you fly; defying the boundaries of one’s physicality to assert victory over the contraints.
Freedom, to some, lies in self-expression in the best way we know, thereby making it the most apt self-defining route. Freedom, therefore, to some becomes not a break-away mantra, but about stamping the footprint deeper in the cast, making it last for forever more. Sparsh asserts his mini-package to the max by being crystal clear in his articulation and therefore, being his most persuasive self in most situations. Aayat has honed her goal-setting ability to the hilt; set your target and adorn blinders to all but the fish-eye and then, go for it and how!
For some, even the concept of freedom lies outside of us making it a little complex to attain at sheer heart’s will. Nupur wants to throw herself down the river and finds solace and peace (read; freedom) in being rescued. The only way she knows to salvage herself and her freedom lies in the hands of another, scary, isn’t it?
The classics, Vedapuri, our odd slipper, would turn to the clichés for seeking freedom. She would transform herself into the ‘cliched rebel’ and do everything ‘un-Vedapuri’; albeit clichéd (very irregular for her odd sized self) to break free from her self-created, made-to-order, customized mould – breaking out of the Plaster of Paris like Sunny Deol in Narsimha. Used to be quite a spectacle, but then, it was meant to be. Lakshmi is born a free- spirit. Nopes, no antidotes for this one. You just cannot bind her down. Her every act, every monotonous seeming chore, even the excessively routined hard working day- all are assertions of her free choices – the ones she has made more from the heart than the mind. Therefore, each and every one of them is charged, pulsating and throbbing with life. The classics, well, I salute thee! Proud to say that they would go down the anvils as two of my closest co-conspirators in the game of life.
How would you define ‘freedom’? The feeling of not being bound by any external entity, be it time, space or spirit; the not being weighed down and pinned to a wall, emotional weightlessness of a kind or the soaked in emotion so frothy that one floats to the top and skims away aimlessly, radar-less. Priya used to assert her freedom by revolting against the very concept of time; ‘no watches for me’, she would say. She climbed high on my respect ladder for free thought, based on just this assertive act. For Angad, it is probably about humming in the gurudwara; a place of peace and godliness right? What could be a better connect than soulful music rendered straight from the heart? Isn’t the idea to invoke an atmosphere of lightness and happiness here? His logics… always bang-on. Bharat finally physically clasped his hands around the concept by losing himself in a free-fall; yeah… it helps and makes you fly; defying the boundaries of one’s physicality to assert victory over the contraints.
Freedom, to some, lies in self-expression in the best way we know, thereby making it the most apt self-defining route. Freedom, therefore, to some becomes not a break-away mantra, but about stamping the footprint deeper in the cast, making it last for forever more. Sparsh asserts his mini-package to the max by being crystal clear in his articulation and therefore, being his most persuasive self in most situations. Aayat has honed her goal-setting ability to the hilt; set your target and adorn blinders to all but the fish-eye and then, go for it and how!
For some, even the concept of freedom lies outside of us making it a little complex to attain at sheer heart’s will. Nupur wants to throw herself down the river and finds solace and peace (read; freedom) in being rescued. The only way she knows to salvage herself and her freedom lies in the hands of another, scary, isn’t it?
The classics, Vedapuri, our odd slipper, would turn to the clichés for seeking freedom. She would transform herself into the ‘cliched rebel’ and do everything ‘un-Vedapuri’; albeit clichéd (very irregular for her odd sized self) to break free from her self-created, made-to-order, customized mould – breaking out of the Plaster of Paris like Sunny Deol in Narsimha. Used to be quite a spectacle, but then, it was meant to be. Lakshmi is born a free- spirit. Nopes, no antidotes for this one. You just cannot bind her down. Her every act, every monotonous seeming chore, even the excessively routined hard working day- all are assertions of her free choices – the ones she has made more from the heart than the mind. Therefore, each and every one of them is charged, pulsating and throbbing with life. The classics, well, I salute thee! Proud to say that they would go down the anvils as two of my closest co-conspirators in the game of life.
Bringing things to me, moi..i lie somewhere along the continuum and can be extremely mobile along this scale. I want to be the Sharmila Tagore of Greh Pravesh at one go and Umrao Jaan at the next stop; with equal measures of honesty and feisty-ness infused in both the masks. But peel it all off, and beneath the moulds you might find an individual who is at once the prey and the predator, trying to figure out where exactly does she stand in the food chain? High enough to be free from looking over her shoulder at frequent points in time or down the pyramid, free to be resigned and enjoy it while it lasts.
posted by amna at 11:49 AM
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