Thursday, March 18, 2004

 
Flame and Fire

There is a beautiful candle which lights up my living room many evenings. It is a white-coloured, rolly-polly work of art in wax. And it sits on a wrought iron perch. Yesterday evening, the candle called out to me, since I had not lit it for some time.
“Kya re? You think the tube light is better than me or what?”
“Uh?” I replied.
“You bought me as a showpiece or what?”
“Uh?”
“Do you know how irritating it is, to sit here and wait for you to notice me? Wake up!”

For years now I have been living in a tube-lit world, adding to the power of my spectacles. The tubelight is the harbinger of one-dimensionality - everything seems the same in its light.
The sodium bulb on the other hand highlights the little nuances of every piece in a room, raising it to the status of an objet d’art, adding aesthetics to art. But it is the candle which makes life worth living.
As a child, I remember visiting our ancestral home in Varanasi. I remember watching dusk slowly creep up on daylight and envelop the world in an ethereal glow. I remember, clearly, the purple sky and dark silhouettes. And I distinctly recall the aroma of rotis coming alive on a mud choolah, while my grandmother lit the diya and incense stick, taking both on a tour of the house.
I remember sitting in a room lit by a solitary candle, listening to the souful voices of my uncles and aunts singing bhajans. Later, after dinner, I remember coming alive, with tales of everyday life and fiction, recounted by family members.
So what, you may rightly wonder. For starters, every evening I would see a new perspective to the room, depending on the playful mood of the candle. Every day, the flame would fan my imagination with its soulful dance to the music of the wind. And every day, I would live a new life, learn new things about the room and learn new lessons from the same old stories. The candle is a great teacher, because it reveals the secrets of the world layer by layer.
The tubelight on the other hand, washes everything in its own colour. And soon the room becomes boring, with no new lessons, no new secrets. The only life left in the room flashes by on the television screen and we become a part of the furniture, stagnant.
Throughout the week, we burn in the fire of expectations, routine, achievements, disappointments, hard work and harder partying. Once in every week, I think it is necessary to become a flame instead of a fire. So that our minds are free and our bodies rested. So that we can get up and see life in a different perspective.
Recently when I chanced upon this place called D’s Gallery in Baner, I found a new perspective to the candle. There are many little children in special schools around the country who toil to make candles for you and me. One of the candles that light up my house was made at one such school.
Always remember, it takes a flame to spread the light. And you have it in you to be that flame.

posted by Sanjay Maya 8:09 PM