SHAHWAR KIBRIA

Here’s a piece of wisdom from an insignificant college student on how to make or not to make opinions about anyone, studied through my favorite process of the DIALECTICS!

It involves a three tiered process, the first two are simple, but the third requires a bit more of an intellectual courage and an informed mind! LAUGH OUT LOUDER THAN EVER!

What follows is a story I always wanted to share. So now is the moment of the textual revelation!

THESIS:-

We went on a trip of North India, 1998, (our last big trip, with family, now there’s not even time to go to Digha or Darjeeling,:().

We were touring Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, etc…, and this particular day we were visiting the Taj Mahal. We were waiting our turn to enter the marbled jewel, in a serpentine queue, and in this queue I happened to stand behind a group of young foreigners, (they looked old to me then, but now as I come to think of it they might have hardly been in their 20’s:))

Now the lady in front of me was standing with her boyfriend, and this naughty chap was continuously bugging her, shoving his foot into her shoes, but the moment she turned to look who’s doing it, he was all innocent, and I deriving some Tom-and-Jerry fun looking at them!

It went on, as the queue remained boringly static, but then suddenly, the lady turned round (guess she might have had enough of foot shoving) and stamped very hard on MY FOOT, and said something nasty to me! She thought I was the prankster!

I could defend myself only through my tears, and a local guide came to my patriotic rescue and tried explaining to her who had actually done it, because all the while, he had also been a co spectator to the jolly scene!

My mother tried comforting me, but only hot tears stained my face and my mind soon processed an opinion,

ALL FOREIGNERS ARE BAD

That was my THESIS of my triple tiered process of Dialectics!

ANTI-THESIS:-

Now comes part two!

On the same trip, the next day, we were visiting Akbar’s Fort, in Fatehpur Sikri! My father in his usual manic photographic spree was clicking our snaps, and during this flashy fun, he bid me pose in the centre of the quadrangle, where Tansen used to sing!

This square happened to be in the middle of a pond, joined on all sides by stone pathways, which are quite narrow and high, according to my phobic senses, because I have a fear of heights!

Now going in the square was fun, but while coming back, I was stuck in the middle of the pathway!

My father was waiting at the edge clicking frantic pictures, but I was scared out white!

I was getting all hot, and dizzy, and the warm sun seemed to shine right through my skull!

I could only hear my parents calling out to me to cross it, (their brave girl as I am), but I was frozen in inaction in the middle of the red pathway!

It was just when I thought I would topple over, my vision got blurred,then someone softly, and firmly held my hand, held me by my shoulders, and glided me to the side!

By the time I realized that I was still alive, and rubbed my tears, to look up at my savior, I saw a beautiful old woman, smiling whitely back on me, an angel she was to me, and she was a foreigner!
This was my second stage of opinion, and my countering anti-thesis was,

ALL FOREIGNERS ARE GOOD!(and till now there have been many many more such instances which have reaffirmed my faith in my anti thesis!)

Now the above were the two strings of thoughts I manufactured on that trip!

But did I stop there???

NO!

Moving on from that trip, to the greater journey 10 years hence, I have eliminated the process of stark thesis or anti thesis!

Now I have learnt to,

SYNTHESISE!

Put all theses and anti-theses together, a rational improvisation of thought, which says that,

Hey the world is a flavorsome mix of multihued personalities, and all we got to do, is choose the color which suits us best!

But I am afraid, that there are still many un-happy souls out there, who are having a tough time synthesizing pluralities, of arriving at the third stage of SYNTHESIS! They just stop at making opinions (THESIS) and counter opinions (ANTI THESIS), and don’t venture beyond to amalgamate to form a balanced color, in the process making their lives miserable out of proportion!

So, my request to all everywhere would be, to see beyond the BLACK or WHITE, see all the colors in between, to try and explore the variety, unless you find the hue to color your life for eternity…and I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!

Happy SYNTHESISING TO YOU ALL!

Tell me what you prefer and why?

Happy life!