Skip to main content

Fantasy or reality: Where do we want to live?

An eagle is told that it once lived in huge nests on high mountains and tall trees at high altitudes and the big bird scoffs at such a preposterous idea. How can such a big bird living in caves and hunting on rodents soar in the skies over mountain tops and oceans. Not a bad idea but quite unlikely. Seems like these humans are crazy and think of anything about other animals to hide their own embarrassment over their monkey ancestry.


Pick up any great novel, Hundred Years of Solitude, Blindness, Beloved, Alchemist or any others that you have read where imagination is stretched but you flow with the narrative. You easily believe what the writer is asking of you. It seems plausible and hence possible and you like a bird open your wings and fly where the winds of possibilities take you. Marquez creates a parallel world of freedom and we camp in this world with him; Morrison brings a spirit from the dead and we unblinkingly accept her character; Saramago presents a sightless world to us and parades the humanity stripped of its humanness and we willingly embrace it, we believe it all. Why? Why do these writers write these fantastical novels and why do we have a tendency to believe it all?


Possibilities that we cannot fathom nor explain are now left only in the domain of arts. Even in our own lives we have seen to a certain degree stripping our lives of the extraordinary. Whereas we listened to stories of Djinns and witches and fairies and inexplainable things are now not repeated to young kids. They grow up on stories which we can explain or more importantly which science can explain for us.


I sometimes wonder whether by refusing to accept the extraordinary we are drawing a curtain between ourselves and a world of possibilities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

یہ بوند بوند بارش , یہ کرن کرن اجالا

یہ بوند بوند بارش یہ کرن کرن اجالا میری زات کی تشنگی پر میری روح کی سلوٹوں پر یوں پڑیں کہ جیسے کسی مہرباں نے آ کے رکھا ہاتھ مشفقانہ یہ بوند بوند بارش یہ کرن کرن اجالا جو پڑا تو ایسے چمکا میری زیست کا ستارا یہ چھنچھناتی کرنیں یہ سرر سرر ہواییں یہ بگل ہیں روشنی کے نئی صبح کے ہیں اشارے میں جو مدتوں سے بیٹھا ڈھونڈھتا تھا شرارا یہ پڑیں تو پھر سے چمکا میری زیست کا ستارا Yeh boond boond barish Yeh kiran kiran ujaala Meri zaat kei tishnagi per Meri rooh kei salwatoon per Yun padin kei jaisey Kissi meherban nei aa kei Rakha haath mushafiqana Yeh boond boond barish Yeh kiran kiran ujaala Jou pada tou aisey chamka Meri zeest ka sitara Yeh chunchanaati kirnein Yeh sarur sarur hawaeein Yeh bagul hain roshani kei Nai subh kei hain isharey Mein jou mudatoon sei baitha Dhoondhta tha sharara Yeh padein tou phir sei chamka Meri zeest ka sitara
Post a Comment
Read more

2022 as a Watershed Moment in Climate Change Discourse

 When history is written, 2022 will be seen as a watershed year when all predictions by climate scientists will be seen to have come true and in public eye!   The year began with a scorching heatwave in March across India, Pakistan with temperatures crossing well over 40C. Temperature of 49.7C was recorded in Nawabshah in Pakistan. These temperatures were the highest ever recorded in March in this region since records began in 1901.   In Bangladesh, from April to July, the country was hit by the worst floods in its history, killing more than a 100 people and displacing millions. According to news reports, most people died from drowning, snake bites and lightening. When the floods hit in April the rice crop was standing in the fields and only half ripe. For a country of 160 million that relies on rice to feed its people further disaster awaits in the guise of crop failure and famine.   https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-asia/flood-in-bangladesh-death-toll-...
Post a Comment
Read more