Illusion

“Dur ki cheez hi kyun laagi hai haseen
Paas ki cheez ka kyuh nehi hai yakeen...”

The apparently shallow lines evoke an absolute truth. Now you'd say nothing is absolute, everything is relative and I’d ask you about the statement you have just made and this would go on for a while…so coming back to what I wanted to say: Things appear far more appealing from a distance than when you approach them.

Instance 1: Nature. The verdant forests, the lush wily pastures, the pristine saintly mountains, the meandering coquettish rivers, the silent celibate deserts, all look to be beckoning us, enticing us to give up mundane daily chores and to join them in their salubrity. But before you give up your life…let’s take a closer look…everywhere you would go you would have to live among muck. Yeah…I know birds and animals look so happy and free. But would you be ok to live in unsanitary (yuck yuck…) environment without the amenities that you are used to?

Instance 2: (Apparently) timeless songs. You are sitting in the window seat of the bus…a gentle breeze is wafting through your hair...the background music is a beautiful song (the lyrics of which may well have been written keeping you in mind)…you are completely lost in your fantasies… And then the bus starts to move…you strain your ears to catch the fading tunes…but the song fades away in the chatter. What happens next? You go home, download the song, listen to it a thousand and one times, get your eardrums fatigued and replace the song with a new one.

Why do we inevitably do this? Why are we hellbent on killing the aura? Is it not better to observe from a distance and pine away for the surreal charm rather than possessing it only to plunge into the smothering monotony?

PS: Alternative title for the article could have been “Commitment phobia”.