CORONA MONOLOGUE (10) -By N P Samal

THE UNIVERSE AND YOU

The Corona lock-down is being extended. Indefinitely. Interminably. At first, you had thought it would be a matter of roughly two weeks. But to your dismay, it did not end. Then two months. You thought you would die.  But you did not die. Now six months already into the lock-down, you have not died. Neither Corona nor your fear has been able to break into the shell of your life, although you have been deprived of the zest. You have been sitting idle. Nothing really is interesting inside the house. Everything is hackneyed. Everything is uninteresting. So, you are curled up in your armchair, legs bent up into the tight hold of your arms, head hanging down the lower jaw resting on the knees and the eyes are wide open but seeing nothing as the interior of your visual limit looks insipid...

Please listen to me! Just do one thing to get freedom from COVIDIOCY as well as to exercise your workability with the following activity :

Take a set of crayons and a drawing sheet from your child's school bag. With each instrument in your either hand, do return to your previous place and position. But before that, close the door of your room inside if you fear any intrusion.

Sit comfortably in your chair. Close your eyes. Now, realize your front eyes have turned dark. Look farther into the darkness. Go deep...Deeper...Further deep...Well, you have sunk into the utter darkness now. Remain in that darkness for a few seconds...Now, open your third eye. No! Not your sensory eyes. Think that you have fevicoled those eyes. Open the mind's eye only. Then look around. Then away. Farther from you. From your surroundings. From your locality. Away across plains, rivers, farm lands, hinterlands, swamps, mountains, seas, oceans...till you hit the grand ring of the horizons wherever the earth has touched the heaven... Then look up. No! Do not open your sensory eyes. Remember again, you have fevicoled them. Look up the sky with your third eye only. Look deep... Deeper... Far... Farther... Do you feel awed? No, nothing will happen to you. You are being protected by the brick walls of your airtight room. Even the creepy Corona cannot with all its strength enter. Do not fear. Go into the heavens. Into the space...Into the outer space...Farther away...Light years away... 

Do you come across a limit? No, you will not. You cannot. The cosmos is boundless. The Infinity has no limit. Yet for our purpose, vaguely imagine the size of the universe. Then draw an imaginary circle - the largest you can - involving the space. You stay inside. Do not try to go outside the circle. That is The Yon. Nobody can go. Nobody can imagine what is beyond the universe. Then, very carefully visualize the whole things within the circle -- our sun, our solar system, the other suns, the other solar systems, the galaxies, the stars, the planets (including your earth), the satellites (your moon uncle, also), the asteroids, the comets, the nebulae, the black holes, and any other astronomical conditions and celestial things you can imagine... When you are over, return from the cosmic abyss. Return slowly to your solar system. To your sun. To your solar neighborhood. To your planet earth. Then from the earth's horizon. Again run back your eyes across seas, oceans, deserts, mountains, ice caps, snowfalls, plains, rivers, forests, bushes, thickets...Yes, do not forget animals, birds, humans, sunrise, sunset, things of the day, things of the night, rains, floods, towns, villages, your city, apartments, malls, multiplexes, city-centers, railways, roads, traffics...finally to your flat, your room and your curled up position... Now, you do discover the two instruments - the drawing paper and the set of crayons - one in each hand. Now relax. Feel triumphant. Your space odyssey is successful. Hurrah! Just take a few deep breaths. If necessary, go to the toilet. Take tea or coffee. If hungry, gobble up anything you find in your fridge or kitchen or snack box. When relished, come back to your chair after clicking your room inside if there are disturbing elements. Sit comfortably. Close your eyes and reflect on the whole things you have experienced through your odyssey up and down the cosmos...Now, with the crayons, paint the universe on the paper. No! Please do not throw the instruments away! You need not be a Leonard Da Vinci, or a Pablo Picasso, or an R. K. Laxman, or an M. F. Hussain. Just think you are a teacher of the school in Amir Khan film 'Tare Zameen Par', and taking part in the painting competition along with other teachers and the students. Moreover, there is no time limit. You may paint fast or slow. You may take a day or two to complete, or the whole indefinite Corona age. Have patience and start painting with the hue sticks - green, red, yellow, blue, black, white... Remember, you are not going to lose. Just paint on. I assure you of your win.

Now, give the first touch of the brush on the canvas. Yes, use only one page of the paper. Forget the flip side. Begin with that imaginary circle of your imagined universe bordering The Yon. Draw the largest circle the drawing page can allow and put inside the circle, all the things you experienced during your space odyssey. Do not feel gutted or eclipsed. You can win. You will win. Start on. See, if you face difficulty in retrieving, or your working memory is weak, do not feel helpless. Do not stair at the ceiling or pull your hair in disgust. Just open the WhatsApp page of your smartphone and look up in the following groups I am sending you --

GROUP 1 : 

Solemn expanse of the Creation. Silence of the Cosmos. Space phenomena. Space weather. Astronomical bodies. Dwarf stars and red giants. Solar systems. Solar storms. Navigation of stars and galaxies. Giant pulls of the black holes. Stellar implosions and explosions. Gama ray bursts. Kindleness of the sunny space. Pacificity of the starry space. Revolution of the planets. Drifting of silvery clouds. Rising and setting of the sun. Orbiting of the moon...Even the dark infinity. 

GROUP 2 :

Grandness of oceans. Swelling of seas. Flowing and ebbing of rivers. Sprawling of mountains. Snowcaps of the Himalayas.  Fallings of snow. Sliding of glaciers. Meanderings of the Ganges. Luxuriance of deodars. Landscaping of terrestrial plains. Layings of greeneries. Hemming of seasides. Surfing of waves. Changing of seasonal colors. Melting of the Antarctic ice. Sinking of the Andamans. Showering of the autumnal rain. Sufferings of the elderly. Aging of life. Balding of the males...

GROUP 3 :

Leaping of monkeys. Galloping of horses. Swimming of swans. Flying of butterflies. Playing of children. Dancing of tribals. Toiling of the famished. Milling of city traffickers. Tilling of farm lands. Harvesting of crops. Waltzing of drunkards. Public love-making of the lovers. Begging of beggars. Treating of the diseased poor. Committing of crimes. Pulling of the Puri chariots...

Well, now you have borrowed enough from my lists for the judges' comprehension. If still there is a space left on the page, you can paint your own memory to take some credits. But leave a little space to give final touches later. After you are done, look at your painting. Study it carefully. 

From your painting activity, you can find the three aspects of Creation : The Statics, The Momentums and The Dynamics. 

The Statics are the conditions or states that lie eternally or permanently. The Momentums are events that develop for a certain period. And the Dynamics are the actions that effect a change or changes on a state.

Well, now look about your paper. There is some space you have left blank. Now fill that space with the things that you are subjected to and put the things into the three categories mentioned above. 

Look up in the the short lists on your WhatsApp :

STATES :

Love, hatred, peace, wellness, illness, activeness, ineptitude, immaturity, awareness, happiness, hospitality, hostility, friendliness, sorrow, confusion, pride, indolence, ignorance, violence, anger, indifference, lethargy, enthusiasm, depression, optimism, castism, bigotry, lassitude...

EVENTS :

Growing, enjoying, longing, craving, panicking, suffering, dreaming, doubting, enduring, ignoring, wishing, fearing, planning, forgetting, relaxing, thinking, sitting...

ACTIONS :

Working, reading, speaking, eating, acting, gardening, painting, browsing social media, taking tea, smoking, drinking, abusing, stealing, killing, arsoning, fighting, violating...

Well, it requires few more things to end. Now, look back into the past - the non-living earth - the time of its creation when it was only a rock ball. Come back from there with the events of its evolution. Collect all the things you meet :

Formation of air, water, and soil...; Development of marine life, arboreal life, avian life, terrestrial life...; Extinction of dinosaurs; Evolution of apes, nude humans, wheels,  fire,  floats, boomerang...; human migration from the central Africa, the Mediterranean life, the aborigines, the pygmies, the Farraos, the Greeks...; the rising of pyramids, the Spinks, the mummies...; rising and falling of civilizations; conquests of Alexander, voyages of Columbus and Vasco da Gama...; adventures, discoveries, inventions...; empires, emperors, kingdoms, kings, brutal punishments...; travels of preachers,  meditation of Sadhus, developments of arts, music, dance, sculpture, handicraft, telescope...; birth of religions, division of labor, segregation of the society into castes and classes, superstitious practices, human sacrifice, idol worship, cannibals, sati system; social reformers, philosophers; political system; human diseases, Ayurveda, modern health system; science and technology, cycles, motors, roadways, railways,  ships, aeroplanes, television, computers, World Wars, nuclear bombs, statesmen, civil servants, economists, socialists, social workers, educationists, scientists, doctors, businessmen, common men, beggars, criminals...

Now, you have returned to your existing world. Study your own genealogy - your parents, ancestors, the then society, your contemporary society, lifestyles, biographies,  beliefs, practices, existing conditions, events and actions...  

Then cast a look at your own biography - your birth, your growth, your age, your state of mind, your work, your position, your feelings, your actions, your reactions, your survival system, your balancing, your identity, your vision, your remaining lifespan, possible threats on you, old age, helplessness, social support, ultimate death. Then compare and contrast yours with those of others - your spouse, your children, your relatives, your friends, your enemies,  your countrymen and of the world... 

( Heck !!! )

I can see you just threw away your blunt crayons. I know you gave up. I know you do not like to draw any interest in others. You are yourself. Your own conditions, your own momentums and your own actions are in your subjectivity and interest only. You individually are subjected to natural as well as human phenomena. Things of others are quite objective...Leave them. Do not paint them. Extra painting is no more required. The purpose of painting has been achieved. You have already killed the Corona anxiety. Now relax. Take deep breaths. Before submitting your paper, just look at it once more and surmise if your painting is rewardable. 

Oh, horrible! 

You can notice you have scribbled your whole page. Everything has been smudged up. No skies. No galaxies. No sun. No stars. No moons. No clouds. No oceans. No seas. No mountains. No humans. No natural phenomena. No human phenomena. There is no 'you' - all lost in the spoil of your own 'unwarranted handiwork'...

Painting is not your right action if you are not a painter. But you obliged because you are caught in the Corona momentum. With the inaction of isolation and lock-down, the whole things seem uncertain. You are confused. There is no valid task in your hands to do. So you did this non-sense work of painting. And, finally, your undesirable action spoiled the beautiful Creation as well as your own life. Thus, being involved in undesirable actions, we spoil the true system of the Creation, essential for perfect, peaceful and happy state of living. 

MESSAGE :

The right Condition, the right Momentum, the right Action are 'The Triad' of this beautiful Creation. When you get absorbed into this Creation with your right Triad, you feel the paradise. But if you stand separated for your own identity and are indulged in selfish actions, you will spoil your happy and peaceful life and living. 

-- N. P. SAMAL, POET, AUTHOR, ACADEMIC