Reality bites..

“The sweet taste of the apple of the Eden,
Oh the vision of the eternal bliss broken
Should I have tasted the fruit that ended the ignorance !?
For reality is in stark contrast to the garden where I was born”

Escapism is a critical subject that invites mockery and insult. “You are an escapist” is not really a compliment or a no meaning laden sentence like “You are wearing red today”. We invite the momentary escape, into the world of music, movies, drugs and booze but if it is incessant and a way of life you are in for some serious damnation.

These days it’s just become far easier to seek comfort in the arms of the technologically engineered Garden of Eden. You put on a TV and vent your frustration watching other person’s misery on a reality show, you switch on the computer and chat, mail, connect and interact on social network with people and imagine a perfect Hindi cinema story, you have an iPod, FM, an mp3 etc and you imagine the clouds, the color ringlets, the stars, the all. You got DVD’s, CD’s and movie theaters are now mostly a place to make out or be among the crass crowd and cross out “5 eccentric things I did” from your “things I will do” list. We are so wired in, that the infinitesimally small bytes of reality..ummm well bites!

There are a significant number of people who don’t like the standard things they are given, the one thing that tops the list is a job. Most of us know what we don’t want to do. To the people who tell me that it’s a great feat knowing what you don’t want to do because it is half the battle won, well I call this half the Eden and the other half reality. They don’t balance each other at all. I call this state the Eden because it takes me an ample amount of effort to act, after knowing what I don’t want and I am content with hey I am half way there. Leaving the one thing that I don’t want and pursuing what I want takes a lot of effort. The logics call it weighing the things, the extremist call it cowardice, and I call it being the pendulum.

When you hit a certain age where it is expected out of you to grow out of the fairy tale of a knight in shining armor or the stud in the Porsche 911, reality dawns on you, the reality of being alone. Even God put Adam with Eve (yes the people who screwed it up for us mortals and resort to cheap thrills such as big boss and Monika Bedi’s unfortunate life) because he knew that no matter how much ignorance you are born with, or the indifference that you can beautifully execute, this probably will be something that you wont get over with. The feeling of wanting to have sex..I am kidding..companionship. So you go through the matrimonial dot coms, the “wanted fair tall thin educated” sections of adverts, in the hope of finding the prince charming. Fair and lovely picks up sales this time because they are your key to the dream.

Freezing certain moments in the camera, write what you feel, preserving the birthday cards, the video recordings of moments that felt great etc is something you go back to when you feel like. The time when you took a break from reality for a moment or for a while, and cribbed when it was time to go back. I like Karan Johars idea to make us feel better..kabhi khushi kabhi gum. Makes you appreciate the “Gum” because you believe that it makes you appreciate the “Khushi” more, escapism, illusion..call it all you want.

Holding on to the things that make you happy becomes a desperate attempt to stay wired in. As one grows older this feeling dawns on you even more strongly. You wish that Adam and Eve wouldn’t have screwed it up for you by eating that forbidden fruit (why the hell was it there anyway !?) and you type in the words hoping that this idea will turn out to be a brilliant write. Life is structured this way; you have to live your own. Where does the question of escapism arise anyway then !? You are after all living..you are just doing it your way.

P.S : ghar sajaane ka tasarvur toh bahut baad ka hai, pehle yeh tay ho ke iss ghar ko bachaaye kaise, koi apni hi nazar se toh hamey dekhega, ek katre ko samundar nazar aaye kaise..