As the day passes by, the spirit of Holi seems more and more distant from me. Even more distant than the sun itself. I can see the sun and I can feel it. But I really cannot feel the spirit of Holi today.
Maybe Liverpool thrashed Real Madrid, and India did the same to New Zealand, but still today seems so gloomy. The colors on my face just seem to be another symbol. And I hate symbolism. I hate it when we wear headgear as a display of symbolism. I wear a cap because I protect myself from the sun.
Nothing seems to alienate me from the thought (or fact ? ) that the world is spiraling downwards. My friends here in college play around with water and colors as they know nothing. But it’s hard to believe they’re so ignorant. It’s becoming harder to find a reason to smile. It’s so hard to believe the world has come to this.
The (so-called?) God we pray to has become the basis of hatred amongst each other. In the common room next to my room, some students do their Namaaz 5 times a day diligently. I don’t understand what they’re saying. It sounds beautiful. I stand in awe, listening hard, wishing I could understand them, their message, and tell the world how great they are. (I have lived in an Arabian society for over 10 years now in Oman.) But then these students walk past the common room. They scoff and they laugh “Terrorists. “
I fail to believe what just happened. Have my ears defied me ? Should I trust my ears or should I trust the people ? I do not know. I fear to think what’s the truth.
We haven’t progressed much from the Dark Ages. We just don’t execute and kill people the way they used to. We’re not any more humane than they were. We’re just some generations below them. Do we really think we’re civilized enough ? We still think, imagine, in our hearts, how we could punish people that we don’t like. We hate to admit it. But it’s true.
It’s true and the world has only gotten worse. Technology has done it’s part. Before we could love each other and eradicate diseases like communal hatred, we’ve found myriad ways to destroy each other.
On such complicated days, nothing seems to cheer me up. Not even good jokes. They only bring a smile. Or probably two. I go back to my magic, and my deck of cards refuse to vanish like they should when I wave my hands ( I don’t yet have a magic wand…)
I look around and see how colors have made a difference in the world. Skin colors from white to brown to black to yellow. The colors of things around us influence us. Thanks to The Discovery Channel, I know that colors play a major part in our personality, society, development and hence communalism : Orange, Green, Yellow, Blue and the Red.
That brings me to imagine a day we all woke up to be colorblind. Would we still discriminate against each other ? On religion, color, race, sex, minorities, political parties and other interests ? What if all our lives lost color ? Would we be distressed enough to forget our differences ? Or would we get further enraged and kill each other with nuke bombs ? Would we realize that color actually had no importance and meaning in our lives ? Would the European countries be able to distinguish one flag from the other ? Or would we use our memory to record which object was of which color and continue living pretending that we still saw colors ? Would we still fight over shades of gray ?
Pretense has been one of the most important factors for survival in this world. I’m sure someone would’ve said this :
“Shit happens. Just pretend it didn’t and get on with life.”
If nobody has said it before, well it was just too general and accepted a fact to be even stated explicitly.
Today literally has no significance to today. All we can do is go back to our lives and look at the simple things in life. That brings me to the age old question asked by so many wise men and women:
“Why are we here?”
And I say we are here to enjoy the simple things in life that delight us. For me it’s chocolate. Chocolate has helped me resolve many a strife, and many internal disturbances. Chocolate is one of the biggest motivation factors for me. I’m off for a bar of Cadbury’s.
Happy Holi.
