At night, rummaging through the pages before you, trying to make sense of the volumes of data laid out in front of eyes….suddenly…. the power goes out!
A wave of exasperation and then of resignation. You know then that like you many have come to a stop, a stage of complete purposelessness.
This becomes one of the rare occasions, or probably the only one when you sit in front of your open doorway starring outside, not because you should be, neither is it because you want to, but just because you have nothing else in mind. A period when purposelessness is the only driving force behind the minimal activity among the stillness!
Sitting there, staring out…seeing, hearing and feeling everything but nothing.
This, the time when you realize that the tree in front of your house is huge and that the intricate patterns made by its vastly spread branches is actually very beautiful, and yes, very interesting. When you realize that the darkness, when you are pushed into it, is after all, not so bad. That in fact, it is very elegant.
This, the minutes when you ‘hear’ silence. Had silence been the propagation of motionless waves, a transmission of immobility, then you know about the existence of the concentration points of these silence waves, where motionlessness is the only motion, the only action.
This, the period when you realize that the movement of paper does produce a sound, that layers of clothes rub noisily against each other, that a hand through your hair creates music, in a weird sense….
This, the hour when your coffee, the usual dose of caffeine that keeps you awake through the night actually tastes and smells amazing. The only evening when the wind on your moist skin produces a cooling effect forcing you to appreciate the engineering of your body.
These moments marked by complete uselessness, complete inactivity, yet filled with sights and sounds that come uniquely with them. When a tear and a smile goes without an intruding question.
You sit there, wondering how you could have missed all these things and more that were always around you, as you pursued things that were beyond your reach, and then…
First the blinding light and then the whirring, followed by the return to motion of everything as though awakening from a slumber. And then you leave for your papers, vowing, unknowingly never to come back to that doorway till the next power cut.
this was the one published in nxg right? i remember it :D
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