I
guess Woody Allen saw life in a far more humorous light when he said,
“Interestingly, accordingly to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a
very comforting thought particularly for people who cannot remember where they
left things”. He makes light of a key
aspect that holds our imagination most of the time – space. And for the last
few days, I seem to have interacted with people who in more ways than one seem to be
talking to me about this.
The
use of space in our typical Indian TV serial is one such case in point. I was
watching the daily soap ‘na bole tum na
maine kuch kahaan’. The story line is pretty much standard –a romance
blooms between a newspaper reporter and a young widow with 2 kids in season 1.
They fall in love and despite all odds as confronted in a typical Indian
setting, get married; only to lose their son to a kidnapper. The husband moves
out with a promise to get the boy back. Season 2 commences (12yrs later) depicting
their struggle to locate the lost boy. The relationships play out in as routine
a manner as would in any soap. What differentiates Na Bole Tum from the rest is
the force of the dialogues.
Experience this moment when the lead character is
compelled to rationalize the situation and is asked to look at the
kidnapping from a different perspective. It’s about looking at the same
situation from a different space.
Holding
a space (happy, sad, celebratory, ambiguous, or empty) has its advantages. The
individual, in that moment is looking in, and at the variables that impact the
situation that he or she is in. However, there comes a time when one needs to use
their two feet and move beyond the immediate and enter into an open space – an
area that is relatively neutral with greater choices and where there exists a sparcity
of 'already made' connections.
“If at any time during our time
together , you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning
not contributing, use your two feet, go someplace else”
One
can only hope that we see this movement effervescing through this week with ‘na maine..’…. And for all of us who
want to look for indulging in the proverbial ‘pushing the envelope’!
No comments:
Post a Comment