MOVE ON

A world full of secrets! A stream of thoughts that would never emerge out of the deluge! A dark hole that threatens to engulf human consciousness! The light at the end of the tunnel is not good enough to spark off even ephemeral hope!!

As I move from one side of the peninsula to the other, the only question that keeps recurring in my mind is – “Why do humans have to move on?” Why this phrase – “move on” – is so brazenly exploited all over the world?

Today my house is targeted by a group of terrorists. Tomorrow I go back to earn my bread, believing I would not be targeted as all my loved ones have been reduced to ashes. I return to fulfil my obligations that were never mine but instead were imposed upon me by the spirit of civilization. I re-establish myself at the doorstep of the ceaseless desire of living despite witnessing carnage around me. Though death crossed my mind a zillion times, I choose life because life after death is unknown. I would want it to be explained it to me like any other concept that has been drilled into my supple mind since I was born but no one has the answers. Suicide clubs of Japan can bring no solace to a mind that is torn between the fear of life and the fear of death. If I choose to mourn their bereavement for a longer time, I would meet their same fate but in a completely different manner – what people often refer to as ‘slow death.’ So is moving on a boon or a bane?

Today I’m in love. Tomorrow I might get dumped and lose my belief in love. Is that ‘moving on’ or ‘living in denial?’ Even better, I might find love somewhere else. Whether I live or exist or survive, I continue do the same irrespective of our circumstances. The second stage is always a continuation of the first stage, how much ever I have deviated from the first stage. Just as the past, the present and the future are interconnected, each stage of our life is connected to every single moment in our life. Thus, no one moves on; rather everyone turns over the leaf and continues to believe in the same ideals as before. Whether I embrace ‘pragmatism’ or ‘idealism,’ every horizon slowly makes its way to the centre of my existence to gobble up a piece of my cake. Again, moving on becomes figurative; in actuality the void remains till my ashes are burnt. Similarly, when I change my occupation I only alter my association with a name, from an employee to an outsider and affix it to another name, thus becoming an employee again. What is in a name when all organizations are run on the same underlying principles and goals? Am I really ‘moving on’ in that case? Or am I simply hunting another route to the forbidden fruit of success, all routes being embedded with the same stones? Principles can be compromised provisionally, they can never be erased.

Today when I hear the news anchor scrambling to finish the stories in the stipulated time period (not forgetting to take the all-important breaks at appropriate times), very often the stories get juggled up as the news anchor fails to draw the boundary between one story and the preceding or the succeeding one. The news of the Mangalore plane crash and the news of the triumphant return of Vishwanathan Anand to India are read out sequentially. What separates the two stories at times is the phrase – ‘Moving on.’ This phrase is so powerful that the melancholic tone of the news anchor transforms dramatically to an exultant tone and vice-versa. Has anyone ever wondered why humans need to exploit this stock phrase to avoid clash of interests or to confine oneself within the perceptive region? So much so that even normal conversations are ridden with this phrase that is supposed to signify the change in state of mind. While we resume our act of spewing meaningless words to please a tangible or intangible entity, the state of mind does not ‘move on’ or even if the state of mind makes a slight move, the mind does not. The mind does not stagnate, but neither does it revolutionize. Transformation of mind is a very complex phenomenon as the origin and evolution of human mind is debatable. So the philosophers and psychologists might claim that the human mind is constituted of atoms and particles just as matter, yet its working remains a mystery to the masses. Very often, the words do not correspond to the state of the mind. First, the ability of language to communicate the true state of mind is extremely limited. Second, the mind functions in such a way that sensation, perception and conception very often merge, thus leaving a gap between what the mind wishes to convey and what one ends up conveying in reality. Third, the mind is as strong as the Great Wall of China as it tries to defend itself from any external hazards. As it turns into the erstwhile Berlin Wall that divides every thought into two chambers – one realistic and the other idealistic – it becomes vulnerable yet stands the most destructive shock wave until the body betrays and the spirit wears out. Hence, ‘moving on’ is either imaginary or dicey or superficial or even a make-shift formula.

Physically, each one of us is moving mostly purposelessly and hopelessly. When both purpose and hope perish, ‘moving on’ itself becomes superfluous and perfunctory. But when I am given the choice of mobility and immobility, I would gladly choose the former as I would like to take refuge in the make-believe sanctuary of opportunities rather than the ambiguous vacuity of decay. Despite the questions surrounding ‘moving on’ it remains a romantic concept that encompasses human existence. Whether it is real or unreal, tangible or intangible, transient or eternal, affirmative or detrimental, constructive or ineffective, the life of human beings in this ‘world of secrets’ continues to revolve at the rate of 365 days per revolution and rotate at the rate of 24 hours per rotation. Alas!