Friday, February 22, 2008

The Rhythm of 'Eternal Rhythm'

Last night was one of those nights when my older sister and I have really long conversations on phone talking about everything under the sun including life in general, philosophy, the old times, her kids and her usual motherly concerns. It was one of those times I get to advice my sister, because, after all, I have all the theories and no parenting experience whatsoever (if you don't include Caesar, that is!). During the conversation, which went well past midnight, I narrated an anecdote to her, the anecdote I had read in Nikos Kazantzakis' Zorba The Greek, back in 2005, the book I happen to be rereading now (I don't know why I do that, but I do reread a lot of books I like). I had blogged this story on my other blog, which has been down for over a year now (because it used to run on one of my personal Linux boxes which I had to shutdown for maintenance). The title I had given that post, back in early 2005, was 'Eternal Rhythm.'

Barely 6 hours after I narrated this anecdote to my sister to reinforce a point I was making, I get a scrap from a good friend of mine all the way from Belgium. Along with her usual 'Good Morning' greeting, she wrote: "Your 'Eternal Rhythm' storyline was very touching!" I fell off my chair when I saw that scrap from her. Did I call Bijapur or Belgium last night!?!? My friend had NOT seen my other blog at all! I had never even talked to her about that post! How in the world did she know it!?

Anyway, since it will take some time for me to revive the other blog, and since this particular story came up in a peculiar manner today, I thought I would post it here too.

So here it goes:

I remembered one morning when I discovered a cocoon in a bark of a tree, just as a butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out. I waited awhile, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to warm it. I warmed it as quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes, faster than life.The case opened, the butterfly started slowly crawling out and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its wings were folded back and crumpled; the wretched butterfly tried with its whole trembling body to unfold them. Bending over it I tried to help it with my breath. In vain.It needed to be hatched out patiently and the unfolding of its wings should be a gradual process in the sun. Now it was too late. My breath had forced the butterfly to appear, all crumpled, before its time. It struggled desperately and, a few seconds later, died in the palm of my hand.

The little body is, I do believe, the greatest weight I have on my conscience, for I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.


8 comments:

Niveditha Sunderraj said...

Freaky! LOL! Life's full of freaky co-incidences I suppose!
You know you should write more often, you write well!

L'Étranger said...

Yes, some events just cannot be explained!

Thank you, Niveditha, for your kind words. It does feel nice to know that your writing is liked, or better still, critiqued, by others, right!? That makes it even more worthwhile to write. :)

Rayapeddi said...

You have spent 6 years in rearing Ceaser. The way you love and value him is enough for you to advise people on parenting. :)

Wow! Whataa coincidence! It’s all the power of subconscious mind, when in the alpha state, is such that, the power of communication and manifestation becomes noticeable. Chicago to Belgium – transfer of brainwaves! Amazing! I do not want to go that far. How I wish I could communicate with brainy fellows inside an examination hall? :D

A very nice anecdote! The literal meaning of the closing text conveys a very significant point.

Thanks for sharing. :)

L'Étranger said...

@Anu:
You are right on. In nature, everything happens in its own pace and in its own way. If we try to alter nature's ways because we are either too impatient or because we want things to happen the way we want, it won't work. Worse still, our actions might backfire. To some extent, young children need to be dealt with the same way. If we try to force things, it can have serious consequences.

About parenting -- you probably are right! :)

@Jayantha:
Yes, I have had some experience with Caesar who is and will always be a baby! But he is very very loyal and knows that he is not at all independent. And that is not the case with kids! That is a huge difference! :)

I don't know about any brainwaves -- you should ask Roopa because she was the one who read my mind. Maybe we both should get some tips from her! :D

Sree said...

lovely anecdote! thanks for sharing:)

Roopa said...

Relationships – have been thinking quite some bit about offlate.

Every relationship is a journey of sorts and has to be carefully nurtured. Personally I look at every interaction (Personal & Professional) as an opportunity to augmenting relationships.

In this journey ‘Success’ provides us reinforcement and ‘Failure’ is a stumbling block that needs to be overcome.

Even as I was pondering about the niceties of relationships & how things can sometimes go wrong even with the best of our intentions; I chanced upon this article.

Sipping my morning cuppa of ‘masala chai’ I rejoiced the way I got a logical conclusion to the conundrum of thoughts :)

Nice coincidence and may be something more, as it has been more than once that we have thought about the same thing concurrently :)

L'Étranger said...

@Roopa:
Glad you found the post useful!

Sometimes it really is freaky how two people think of the same thing at the same time... If it is not coincidence, I don't know what to call it... Jayantha was trying to explain his theory.. I will leave that to the 'brainy' guy. :)

L'Étranger said...

@Sree:

Thank you! :)