Escapism & Love for Self.

We term certain conduct of people as escapism. This trait or behaviour is in born and practised by many.The trait can also be defined as a way of redirecting ones attention on things pleasant and savouring, on the contrary to the dire realities of the everyday life. The quality can be healthy and assisting. But in extreme forms can be detrimental too to one.

Now, but how should we discuss about people who escape closing their eyes to reality, principles, ethics and duty? These people are not refocusing their attention to pleasant things but are being selfish and forcing themselves to make believe that the fact and the problem don’t exist.

The latter group are practising the art of escapism because of their selfish character. For them call of duty, ethics, morality and love for fellow beings are not at all in their priority list. It is purely self interest that life is all about. Such people identify every aspect of human behaviour with the bench mark of commercial gain and advancement. So they see nothing, hear nothing and enquire about nothing. That is the surest way to avoid confronting realities which they are naturally duty bound to tackle.

I remember a story I read somewhere. The gist is – a highly successful career woman forfeits her career to take care of her grievously ill husband. A friend of hers while on a social call on her commented,’gracious, how unselfish you are to make such a sacrifice’. The woman was rightly and naturally incensed. She fumed and told the friend,’your remark is insulting. I love my husband and this is the most selfish thing I have ever done and ever will’.

The Fountain Pen

Lewis Waterman patented the first workable fountain pen in 1884. However, writing instruments designed to carry their own supply of ink had existed for over one hundred years before Waterman's patent. John Scheffer received a British patent in 1819 for his half quill, the half-metal pen that he tried to put into mass manufacture. And John Jacob Parker patented the first self-filling fountain pen in 1831. However, early fountain pen models were plagued by ink spills and other failures that left them impractical.

Writing instrument-Styli used in the 13 th century

On June 1 st 1969, my mother presented me with my first fountain pen – a beautiful Parker! Her father gave her a beautiful piece while she was in high school. She took care of it and passed it on to me. It thrilled me going to school sporting the pen and begin writing with an ink-filled pen. I ostensibly displayed it in my shirt breast pocket. But when I reached home after school on that fateful day, the pen was gone and only the cap remained stuck in my pocket. How and what came about, I could not explain. And my mother blasted the sheer carelessness. She was distraught and furious. I then wondered why she must fume and curse me for losing a pen, though I felt remorse and guilt inside. It took growing-up and many years of life to fathom the depth and value of a seemingly trivial instrument as the fountain pen, and her pain in my losing it.

Fountain pens were akin to a signature. It told about the person. The longer a fountain pen stayed with a person, the closer it bonded. People of the past seldom offered their fountain pen to another to use or even to pen signature. It was possessed and cared like one's child. And I recall that it was impolite to ask or borrow it from its owner.

When my grandfather used to leave home, he had just a few things to carry or take with him. His glasses, his watch, his money purse, and his fountain pen beside his grandfather's umbrella.

 Laptops, calculators, Blackberry, mobile phones, designer sunglasses, wallets stacked with credit cards, and( maybe) a ballpoint pen have now replaced the spartan things people of the past had on their person.

Fountain pens have had their death knell chimed many years ago. Ball pens and digital writing gadgets disposed of after a single use has completely eliminated the stately fountain pen of yore.

The Parkers. Schefers, Swans, the Watermans, Mont Blanc, and everyone have found to their economic advantage that disposable pens are what would thrive today in place of the ink-filled fountain pens.

Commercial possibilities and commonsense have changed peoples tastes, but it is Man who has lost his signature hold on an instrument that could in time, in the past identify its owner because the fountain pen carried his soul along with the ink.

Heaven & Hell

I was disciplined and moulded in my childhood with the stories of heaven and eternal hell. I guess many of us have been indoctrinated by the same philosophy and stories. It was by some sheer chance, call it luck, and twist of what I shall also call fate, destiny, kismet etc that I managed to break those shackles and constrictions that entangled me within till my mid teens. Interesting readings from the British Council and the Public Libraries in Thiruvananthapuram were to a good extent instrumental in that. Then, if not more of the same proportion was the influence of life since those times.

The result, I have lived the past three and one half decades or so without the fear of eternal damnation and consignment to everlasting inferno of the hell in the afterlife. And also of no fantasy of the promised and probable land of milk honey, damsels and charming gods- heaven!

Life was so long lived without tethering to the good and bad that would provide a passport to  either heaven or the nether world. Deeds that can invite damnation and transgressions may have been committed. But at the same while, deeds with the sole aim of a passport to heaven have not been done for its own sake. Because I have not found a reason that can be explained to believe or think that there are worlds beyond that fit the descriptions of heaven and hell. And that the essence and spirit of those worlds are all lived through here on this fragile “Blue Planet”.

I happened to read today an article from an old magazine. The article carried some observations and comments by the late Rajaneesh.  He said “Whenever you surrendered to existence, whenever you live in trust and love, joy, celebration you are in heaven………. because at the same time the person who  lives in heaven can fall into hell any moment. They are not afar, they are very close, separated by a tattered fence. And for centuries God and Devil have been arguing over who should repair it. The Devil is not ready, why should he worry over it? Nobody wants to enter hell.And if it is God’s worry that people in hell may enter heaven he should fix the fence. But God is a miser and the quarrel and argument goes on. One day God was very irritated that he said 'the fence has been destroyed and is under repair because of your nuisance and of the people living on your side. If you don’t repair it I’ m going to court'.

The Devil said, 'ha go to court but where will you find advocates. They are all on my side of the fence'. The Devil continued, 'hell is a state of mind, when you live in plenty yet you live in poverty, when life is such a blessing you live in sadness, when the flowers bloom you don’t see, you don’t bloom, when the stars shine you don’t shine. When the clouds are in the sky floating in freedom you don’t enjoy the freedom. When the Cuckoo calls from the distant wood you are deaf, when the peacock dances you don’t dance. This is hell and you are its creator' ”.

Interesting indeed!

This reminds me of an incident and comment of the late Kerry Francis Packer the Australian media tycoon. Mr. Packer had had more than six heart attacks that he survived before eventually succumbing to renal complications. Once, after a very massive heart attack he was clinically dead for more than six minutes. He, luckily was revived, and while he was convalescing a media reporter asked him how it was up there in heaven. Mr. Packer retorted nonchalantly, “well the sad thing is that I did not see heaven but at the same time there was no hell either”.