The Favourite

Mystical Series : VI

 

 

 

 

There's a cafe I frequent in these parts. I normally take my coffee alone and reflect on the usual goings on around me. Sometimes I get someone coming over and sharing the table because the cafe is fully occupied.

 

When that happens, the nature of the conversation suddenly pops up to reveal an unusual and unexpected perspective on issues. It makes for the most sudden realization of matters.

 

I was there yesterday. Coffee and cigarettes as usual. Suddenly two Indians, somewhat my age, joined me at the table. They are from South India. The conversation started innocently enough about politics....Manmohan Singh, the Congress Party, Jayalalitha and the stories of the Indian will today in the world.

 

Much of it was a little off the seat of the pants. An excuse people engage to keep the old augur going. There was talk of the Indian nuclear capability. I took the opportunity to knock down some found illusions. I pointed to the new foreign car makers in India, satellite TV, cell phones, internet ..... all entirely foreign experiences that has done a great deal today for Indian pride.

 

Curiously, in the accoustics of a good communicative environment, everybody was smiling as they spoke, even when they disagreed. I liked that. It was as if I had missed that experience from my youth.... to simply say what was on your mind and your friends understood that and bore no grudge.

 

As I left for home, I couldn't shake off a persistent sensation in my feelings. And then it suddenly occured to me. In the happiness I experienced in the conversation, I had revealed to them the person I was within. It was innocently done but I had gone completely unguarded. In that, I thought, I had encountered the real person they were within as well.

 

Do we reveal ourselves so easily? It reminded me of my family relations when we think they know who we are inside. In some cases it led to a great relation, in others it caused a disruptive affair but either way it corresponded exactly with what someone had seen about our happy self. It what we relate to with others as our favourite identity.

 

The Tamil term ' Ishtam ' means wish. ' Ishtar ' is an ancient god of Sumeria. Folks in the west today will try to convince you that life is a matter of living the dream. I guess it may be true.