“Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
The outstretched arms of the guardian angels. The fleeting moments that linger in the memories. The crash courses in intimate conversations. The songs that we loved and lived by. The casualties of priorities and decisions. The games of rhyme and reason that played us.
What would you take with you if you had to walk away from all that was familiar?
All that was yours? All that you have ever known?
It is hard to say, I guess. Sometimes, it’s just you and the quiet little voices inside your head. The voices that inspire and conspire in equal measure. The confusion that ensue, amalgamated with the fear associated with the lullabies of the lonesome road to be taken ahead. A yellowish page from the age old Wallace Stevens book reads “I do not know which to prefer, the beauty of inflections, or the beauty of innuendos.The blackbird whistling or just after.” You agree. Not particularly because you want to, but because you don’t know any better.
As for me, I would prefer the silence. The silence that follows the reverberation of cacophony, the sillage of a faded place in faraway times, the demise of a dear one. The journey must go on, with the tired sunsets and tired people just passing you by. A stanza of lyrics from the ever-wise Gautam Chattopadhayay peeps in.
But the heart has reasons that reasons cant know. Mr. Blaise Pascal was bang on. The hiraeth, hence, goes on. A homesickness for a home that exist only in your memories, the yearning to belong to the lost places of your past. Although futile, it brings out the innate romance that we all seek and few of us ever find.
P.S. The ‘You’ and ‘I’ mentioned above are just other versions of ‘Me’ and ‘You’ respectively.
A person whom, I messaged at Facebook, only to ask him to call at my home (mom) and ask her to open the door, because I am late from office, and was waiting outside my apartment’s main gate. Primarily because I was too lazy to recharge my phone call balance by net banking. It was near 1:00 am. By now, you know he is a close friend. 🙂
