Dregs of Yore

As a child, my parents made several absolute statements to me out of sheer endearment.  Some examples of absolute statements:  You’re the most beautiful girl in the world. There is nothing in the world you cannot do. You are smart enough to become anything you want. Needless to say, such statements are not literally true, of course. But they are true in another sense. Statements of absoluteness capture limitlessness. A child needs to believe in it. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that limitlessness is the birthplace of faith itself.  Your son will never be 6ft tall. How do you prepare him for that? What do you do when the facts are lined up against you? You bring in faith. There are other games he can win at. That’s one confidence-boosting outlook. As adults, our efforts, energies, even opportunities are limited. Or rather, they are constrained by time and circumstance, responsibilities, our own vices and the daily drudgery. Amidst the inevitable disappointments l...

I like to sit on the floor and eat. Or draw. Or read. Sometimes, I use a chattai (a mat made of jute or other grass). Other times, the floor is vast and cold, and there is no one way to sit on it. Better still, if it is made of stone. With the mosaic-like pattern that reminds of home. I like to sit on the stairs too. Especially ones that open out into a courtyard or backyard, and have patches of sun falling on them. What I do not like is apartments with beds and cupboards and tv-stands fixed into the walls. Rooms that look like posh hotel rooms and not like places for human beings. Rooms that tell you where to sit, sleep and walk. A human being can’t just fit into whatever place is left over after the furniture has been arranged and fixed. Am I a business suit to be hung up on coat hangers and be carefully hung in the wardrobe every day at 5? It sounds a matter of frivolity, and perhaps it is. But must our every opinion be on the big matters of the world? (For a more erudite mob, I’ll...