Misplaced perceptions
By: Rajbir Deswal
Obviously obsessed with the pretension of studying and knowing literature, a student tells me about the marigold being a “vulgar flower”. Taken aback as I am, it is not that easy for me to gulp the bitter portion down the throat, for I am a flower-lover.
I ask her to dent an explanation in me for I am not at all willing to accept anything in dishonour of a lovely, full-bloomed, smiling marigold, with each petal proclaiming the tenderness of touch and yellowness of mood.
To make matters worse, this student goes to the extent of calling the marigold “stupid and lecherous”. Piqued at this second salvo, I caution her, “Stay on, stay on, young lady. After all, how can the poor thing be lecherous, admitting that in your estimation it may be stupid for one meaning of this adjectival attribute is foolish as well. And this ‘phholish’ does not make a marigold more flower-like.
These days, I can understand the poets’ constraints, in this fact changing world, of not being able to afford and fantasise for daffodils, while lying on the couch in a pensive mood because people nowadays do not venture out to have an aesthetic feast for the soul but for the eyes, in “arranged chrysanthemums (show)”. The “exhibitionism” in the flowers does have the better of the onlookers, the so-called flower-lovers. Now I understand how the flowers could be blamed for a “vulgar” show but…?
Do I not now contradict myself like Walt White man? And am I not being driven nearer an agreement with the young dame sans mercy for the poor marigold! She, and I too, may be right for even Whitman admits, “I am large; I contain multitudes”.
Perceptions play pranks and prejudice popular beliefs. Hence everything looks pale to a jaundiced eye. Two and two makes four ‘rotis’ (bread) for a hungry person, and a Dr. Faustus perceives the face of sweet Helen, capable of launching a thousand ships and burning the topless towers of Illium!
For one, Taj Mahal may be an object created to poke fun at the steadiness and consistency of lovers of humble origin. But for another person, it may be the ever-burning candle in the mausoleum of love. (Remember the film numbers (?) “Ik shehanshah ne banwa ke ek hasin Taj Mahal, hum garibon ki mohabbat ka udaya hai mazaq”, and “Taj wo shama hai ulfat ke sanam-khane ki”.
For a Jehangir, Kashmir may be heaven on earth, and for the present day inhabitants, it may be a place to drive oneself away from. Likewise, a marigold may be a stupid or vulgar or even lecherous flower for the young lady, but for me…!
Let me give it another serious thought. I am introspecting, and what I see before my “inner eye” is a pair of shoes of a woman removed by the bedside. One shoe is off its so(i)le and is lying parallel to the ground and the other is slightly tilted on the former’s side. The scene may be quite suggestive for some, including me.
Well, if I can see lust in a pair of shoes, why can’t the young lady perceive the flower, a marigold, to be stupid, vulgar, lecherous and so on. I am still a student of, and she has mastered literature.