COLORES INFINITUM
It
was 365 days ago, the Tuesday on December 31, 2013, the day of symbolic
transition of time, from one to the next milestone, from a year to the next, on
the timescale, designed to keep track of times our lives pass through, that I was
writing a poem, ‘A Year Goes By’, musing on the days the year had for me.
Doing
so is always existentially individual. And here is the Wednesday of December
31, 2014, with an hour left.
Like
any other event of life, it is for the perspectives that what we think on this
day, how we reflect on the days gone by. Practically, it changes nothing much,
apart from the psychological symbolism that gives us the frame to look back, to
reflect on - on what was a year in life, a capsule of time, adding to the story
of our existence, adding stories as the year proceeded, adding elements as the
days changed the calendar entry.
And
it is never a zero-sum game – positive or negative, you gain something, in
terms of experiences – vital enough to guide you if you can hear the call.
I
had not thought of any resolutions on December 31, 2014, like I always did. Yes,
I had my reflections and accordingly had certain stopovers to head to, but
there was nothing in the realm of ‘pinned’. Instead, it was living life fully,
my way, every day.
How
successful I have been? Now success is a relative term and should be left to
personal, intimate considerations. Like every life, I had my share of good and
bad and routine but I didn’t see any point, like always, to assess my life in ‘gain
or loss’ terms. I could do what I had thought to do. I could not do certain
things that were in my mind. But I could continue doing certain things that I
needed to do.
I
wrote freely, extending and building on my way of life, going deeper inside me,
on the journey to reclaim me that had its origin on a day, exactly four years
ago, December 31, 2010, a setback that first pushed me to question my identity
vehemently, setting me thus on the path to find who I was before the reason of
the setback had taken over my thinking, and later on, became the light to guide
me to go even deeper inside, in my own company. Yes, the identity crisis was
over a long ago but identity is a lifetime love.
2014
saw definitive development on my books, two of them I am working on. The flow
was good initially and I had thought I would be able to finish the drafts by
the year end. But, then the writer’s block crept in (if I can claim to have one
J).
So, while the thoughts kept on building and finding space in my notes, the
drafts didn’t progress to completion. Anyway, the block is over now and I think
I am going to take it with the same love I had.
Meanwhile,
I could finally bring up my website – www.santoshchaubey.com
– to extend my blogging experience to a formal and diversified content platform.
Some of my content is already categorized there and as I am going to take it as
extension of my notebooks, it will see constant experiments and updates.
During
the course of writing, I did something that I had not done in years. I don’t remember
the last time when I had watched a full movie in theatre. I prefer the home
video option, even if it means some wait. I am not a film buff but I admire and
revisit the good cinema and home videos give me the liberty to do so at my own
pace while at the same time help me in building my library. But 2014 had the final
episode of JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth story, as filmed by Peter Jackson,
scheduled in December. It was capping the second Middle Earth trilogy of
Jackson’s stint with Tolkien’s land of fantasy after 11 years when the best of
the lot, ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’, a landmark in
narrating a book on screen, was released in 2003 and there was an urge to see
the trilogies side-by-side, in their totalities, on how the craft of filmmaking
had performed comparatively.
Now
the home video would not come before April 2015. So, for my urge for the
comparative study, I decided to take the route long forgotten when I picked up
the movie in a theatre on Saturday, December 13.
Now,
in few hours, the 4 of 2014 would transition to 5 of 2015. So, while the three digits
would remain the same, the fourth different one would cause the next cycle on
the timescale to begin, like the eternal message of living that says - ‘tomorrow
is built on today with learning from yesterday’ – remember, life is never a
zero-sum game.
It
would be another calendar year with 365 new days to explore, to write, to read,
to travel, to create new ideas, new stories, rewriting the oldies, clicking and
capturing the known and unknown while continuing on the inward journey.
With
the freedom of ‘no resolutions’ - with the freedom of my commitment to my
conscience to live every day meaningfully liberated – with the freedom to make
every day an opportunity!