Hello
Myshkin
How
could one keep silent when an extraordinary event takes place in front of
him? Or an eminent person appears in an
unexpected moment? He has to report it to at least five or ten of his
associates. The thrill will be kept in its vigor for three days. After that the
excitement will be extinguished like a dying flame. Only the thin beam of
ascending smoke will be the living reminiscence. The story will be narrated
like ‘once upon a time I met an eminent person on the seashore of ‘Nellankarai’.
There
is a dilemma in meeting the eminent person in the unexpected moment. Morning
walk on the seashore especially on Neelankarai beach may rarely give
excitement. City life keeps each and every day with an exciting events. In
villages festival days are the special occasions and the remaining days are
invested in idleness. When peer groups
gather together the main object of their talk or gossip would be on the affairs
of their neighbors. When the subject is boring the gossiping tongues will
change the recipe to cinema.
“Have you seen
that actor in person in Madras?”
“I saw him at
close proximity” is the proud answer.
In my whole life I haven’t seen any
celebrity at close proximity in person. I have a doubt that the people on the
screen really are living beings on the earth. For me they are the phantoms who
appears only on the screen. This was the same case with writers also. We
develop an image about the authors in our reading of their stories. When the
chance comes to meet them in person the charm will not be there as we have
imagined them in our reading. Reality cheats our imaginations. At the same time
the great moments in reality are super exceeding to the dream world. They are
the epic moments in reality. They are almost like the times of sunrise and
sunset. They vanish from our sight within a fraction of moment. Or else time
and tide may wait for twenty minutes.
Most of the time even when the epic
moment takes place in our mundane life the indifference in our feeling will not
allow us to see it as an epic moment. If our feeling is indifferent even the
greatest personality's presence would not thrill us. Today, my morning walk on
Neelankarai beach was like this indifferent moment to me. Dullness and its
heavy weight of the night sleep still linger in my unrefreshed sense. A walk
for one kilometer does not avail to activate the F5 of the computer key board.
I have to plunge my foot into the foaming waves. The chillness got its effect
up to my head.
The
endless ocean is rimmed with the blue sky. My constant gaze is not satisfied with its endless horizon. I have to look at the spaciously rimmed blue ocean until
the voice “But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep” would
come out to alert me to proceed to my home. My attention turned from the ocean
into the familiar face which crosses me. I looked at him closely to make sure
the person is the eminent one of the cine field.
“All of his movies begin with his
welcome note, “எனதினிய தமிழ்
மக்களே”.
I was caught into the dilemma whether
to say “hello” or to avoid him as stranger. For the people like me who are not
craze on cinema, the great directors like him are insignificant. If Myskin
walks on this beach surely I would have wished him. It is not for his being a
director rather for the name ‘Myshkin’. I would say ’hello’ to Myshkin.
Dostoevsky earns this respect for Myshkin and not the director of certain
movies. The Idiots are welcomed
everywhere.
