Hello Myshkin

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.