Page 14 - Eloquence 2017

Being Wise

TM. Suresh Karunakaran

I am No Body. Yes! That’s my name. I am 17 steam engine that later morphed into an elec-

th
years old. I just finished the 12 grade board tric engine graduating into a diesel engine and
exams and like all my friends I am waiting to finally levitating as maglevs. That’s evolution in

get into a good college. For the last two years, a sense but it is always on those parallel tracks
th
ever since I finished my 10 grade I have been that could stretch to anywhere as well as no-
living a ‘pressure cooker’ life. Not that the where.
years prior to that were any better but the reali- Am I the tracks, the train or the station? Am I

ty is that the last few years have been truly the passenger on the train or one of the hun-
challenging – no, not just for me – but for my dreds of passengers waiting for the train? Apart
parents, too. from all this conjecture, let me tell you. I know. I

Hi! I am Yes Body (the other twin of No Body) know because I am Some Body – so I am sup-
Let me bring into perspective what No Body is posed to know – that’s what my parents keep
trying to convey. The pressure is to conform. telling me. But the reality is quite different.

The pressure is all about being successful. Not Meet my friend Any Body.
just being successful but being more success-
Any Body is lucky. He is a non-conformist. If I
ful and better than other children. The endless
ask him: Am I the tracks, the train or the station
comparisons, the abject surrender to notional
or one of the passengers. He will tell me: You
thoughts about what is best for us and the trials
are all this and more. You are the journey and
and tribulations of having to qualify. All these
the destination. So Go! But to go - Just let go.
and more make me question the validity of ex-
ternalizing education and internalizing qualifica- At this point Every Body just takes over the
tions. The more I am forced to qualify, the more conversation. This he believes is his right. He

I am alienating myself from education. Honest- can barge in make his point and exit. He has
ly, I am confused. I don’t know who or what I not understood what we are discussing. He has

am. no interest in knowing what we are discussing
but he does have an opinion on that fragment
Wow! Finally Yes Body is speaking the truth.
of a contextual conversation, that he stepped
He is confused. But not I. I am never confused.
into and now wants to dictate – leaving us none
I am Some Body. I know. I am caught in the
- the wise or other-wise.
paradox of parallel pathways that stretch to-

wards eternity. Earlier, I could have been a

Doubt is good-it means you are searching for truth. Suspicion is sickness

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