பின்வரும் கடிதம் லொயோலா கல்லூரி மாணவன் அர்ஜுன் மோகன் எழுதியது. முன்பெல்லாம் இது போன்ற கடிதங்களை நானே தமிழில் மொழிபெயர்த்துப் போட்டு விடுவேன். இப்போது ஔரங்கசீப் அழைக்கிறார். அதனால் ஆங்கிலத்திலேயே வெளியிடுகிறேன். பொறுமையாகப் படியுங்கள். உள்ளே செம மேட்டர் இருக்கிறது.
Dear Charu ,
I got to know about the recent happenings and three very distinct imageries find me.
1)Wolfgang Von Goethe once remarked that ” He who cannot draw on three thousand years, Is living from hand to mouth ” There are writers and there are typers who think there are writers, the problem arises when the typers are confronted with the works of true masters like yours, they are often dumbstruck that they not only do not possess the ability to harness but also comprehend the wisdom of past that you offer in a platter and your writing further questions the very existence of the pseudo scraps that they swear by. Our pseudo convivial social environment is active in blurring these distinctions, upholding the averages, and evading the extremes. Not to mention firstly it takes an astronomical amount of rewiring and unlearning to even understand your works, to critic it without any understanding of the fundamentals about postmodernism is akin to letting loose an elephant in a mine field!
Insults are the last resort of an insecure person trying to feign a character of modesty, so often the insults end up feeling like a description of the person who wrote it when one cannot address or possess the ability to critic the text or its essence, it’s a natural tendency to attack the writer. Forced down to crawl on all fours constrained by the circumstances their only resort/response is slander…
Spitting is often considered as a symbol of hostility and disrespect, but having this context in mind, with just a bit of keener psychological observation we also get to know: spitting is a manifestation of anxiety, in the context of sensory pathology, as a result of automatism in the temporal lobe. Intellectually disabled persons spit as a maladaptive way of expressing hostility which is more apt in this scenario.
2) secondly I’m reminded of Akkosa Sutra: when Buddha was hurled with insults by an entire village of belligerent people he listened to them patiently and attentively before calmly thanking them for coming and asked them to come again tomorrow as he’s got to attend to other villages and he also promised them with more time in future. This left the villagers staggering, if one can understand the nature of buddha they can make sense of how you react to this kind of silly remarks!
“For your foolishness, I cannot punish myself… It is for you to decide to insult or not, but it is my freedom to take it or not,” said Buddha.
Once it’s not accepted, it’s baggage for the person who spoke the words to carry, which will follow him like a shadow, guilt slowly transmogrifying into a gnarly tumour, as a result of being eternally haunted by it.
3) Before trying to wage wars against a river one must know that there is something known as a meandering process when there are more obstructions and intrusions in a river bed, the river changes its course by changing its speed and flowing faster (Gotta mention I Am Aurangzeb here. )
Can’t help but quote Nietzsche here “…Mirabeau had no memory for insults and vile actions done to him and was unable to forgive simply because he – forgot. Such a man shakes off with a single shrug the many vermin that eat deep into others.”
Note to the mind behind the slander: When a man who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon during the 1500s could come up with such bone ticking efforts like ” Thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows” , Is it a crime to ask for a bit more of wit and verbose to the remarks, especially when it’s intended to take down the person who came up with stuff like: the joker was here and The Book of Fuzoos in message bearers…that too decades ago!
Arjun Mohan