There is purpose at times in nothingness. Nothing to do, nothing to think about, nothing happening, nothing served , nothing ate, nothing entering the body or mind, giving out nothing, taking in nothing, nothing to see or feel, nothing absorbed or digested, nothing compelling, nothing to object to, nothing to accept nothing …

The first day of a new beginning and it ends up in nothing !!

Not a very auspicious start. Or maybe it is. Who knows. Who knows what time holds for us. Who knows where the year will take us. Who knows what lies in store for us. The good, the bad, the unseen, the sad, the exciting. Who knows.

I do not. But does somebody ? Does anybody ? Questions erupt at this late hour, when the world sleeps. I did too, a little prematurely late in the afternoon. But vivid scenes that visioned my dreams woke me up to discover the odd passage of time and space and situation. In such a state then, you reminisce, and when you reminisce you wonder if there is someone that hears you feels for you, listens to you.

So I come to you. In faith and love and hope, to just spend a bit of time. Nothing big or important. Just being here, knowing that a large world of known and unknown FmXt listen in, read, react and respond. It is wonderful to know that you are not alone !!

I remain indoors closeted within the walls of my room, in silence and calm. It is rare to hear the silence I experience and feel. It is a shrill uniform piercing needle like sound almost, that you hear but that you cannot place. There is nothing around, yet its there. Peculiar. And if you dwell with it for long it has the capacity to take you over. Brings you closer to thoughts and images you may have ignored or not thought of. Of feelings past and present. Moments that you brushed aside, now desperately trying to come forward. Of people you met and spoke to, of what you observed of them and what they had to say. Incidents in life, that, due to your excessive pace had driven past you in a whirl without knowledge and sufficient recognition.

Now it all comes back. Now you wish to be with them to spend time and attention. Now you realize that you needed to give them more. But time and circumstance have passed away. Now only time exists. Real time. Where we are, what we do what we say, now. Not then, now !!

And now says that it was good when then lasted. But think of tomorrow and beyond to day after and the after. That will come and be with you. Are you prepared for it or do you wish to be prepared for it. Does it matter that you do, or would you rather not. At times it is better to be not too prepared. To allow to flow to go with it. Take what comes, as it comes and stand it, suffer it, enjoy it and not allow it to rob you of the surprises it may bring along. Some may not acquiesce to such thought. Being prepared for it to confront it ably, may be their mantra. Nothing wrong or objectionable there. Just a state of mind. A mind that entertains, resolves and acts. Perhaps more practically than others. But for some it is still the nothingness that prevails.

I admire both. I do not know which I shall practice if asked to. I am afraid to judgement, to accusation, to pointed fingers. I may shy away from this. Yet I am strong and definite in fact and facing the untoward. Can we all possess both ? Can both these attitudes coexist ? Man and woman will need to decide themselves. Decide in the solitude of silence. For it is then that they think best. Or do they really ? Are they at times the Hamlet of the Russian version who ‘to be’s or not to be’s’ within the conundrums of palace celebration - crowded yet alone, surrounded yet aloof, there in physical but not there at all.

The insignificant chatter and volume of unwanted words can at times build a wall of transparent vacuum, within which you reside temporarily. You listen yet you do not. You react without reacting. Other words overcome you, flood you down, submerge you in wave after wave of incessant seduction. Your eyes in glass like obscure concentration belie fact. Those that read you, know. Those that do not, may not either. Pretense then becomes the active firmament. Can we pretend eternally without a trace of fact and reality ?

The answer. We all can. It all depends when and where we want to and who with !!

The fountain that musically musters projection upwards to touch the sky in vain, erupts every 15 minutes within the artificial lake that surrounds a part of this massive emblem of poetic architecture, the Burj Dubai, in front of me. Its lights, to ward of flying objects in the vicinity, flicker incessantly in unison. There it stands unmoved by all around it, dwarfing the highest and the tallest in the world as a symbol of hope and achievement - singular, alone, tall.

It is a symbol of life too. When you achieve height and strength to be as tall. When you through your architectural achievement out weigh others in competition. When nothing else will be noticed around you because of your imposition. Then shall the world find it difficult to not notice you. You may have been insignificant and weak ; unnoticed and ignored. But because you stand so tall through your own effort, you compel all else to notice you and admire you, for, not doing so would bring disrepute to those that looked past you not so long ago.

Be then the height. The immenseness. That one property of notice. That ball hit out of the park. For nothing less shall ever attract attention or praise and recognition.

Tall within will be tall without !!

Amitabh Bachchan