The Whole in a Drop – Sweet, Sour and Beyond - Introduction

Sampurnananda smiled to himself.

It was most insulting. But it amused him too.  To be insulted by a dog,  a stray at that. The metaphor of lowliness. A stray that stayed.

He had gone to his, not so old, place (The hostel he was looking after, till a few days back) when he found a reason or rather an excuse, to go there. There were some welcoming motions by the boys, some waves here, some words there, but not as boisterous or as passionate as would have made him happier. And the dog which used to lay at his door-step like a faithful Hindu wife (which he literally suspected it to have been in some previous life), now very reluctantly, very lazily got up from it’s sleep, after being continuously prodded into doing so, and promptly went back to doze!  It must have understood who the new boss is. Dogs are said to really consider their master as the top dog. Ronaldo, the shrewd dog, clearly understood that it needs not to care for the deposed top dog .

Sampurnananda walked back sans the bicycle, which went away with his post, alongside Sunil who was on the top of it, having inherited it.

Sunil went a few paces with Sampu and then sped away. He would not be caught walking with Sampu.

Sampu felt like a perfect pariah. He smiled as he remembered what had come out of his mouth a few days back, when he had retorted (or rather,as he would like to say, replied), to his boss :

‘You may treat me like a pariah, but I won’t behave like one’.

That was really a gem. He had not thought it out. And it later laid on him the heavy burden of having to live up to it.

His mind continued to roam in the past. It darted between its various points. The points of time consisted of people. People, people, … A living past that has evolved into the present.

It was the story of a love affair. A love affair with God and people. It was ‘love God’ first. Then it became ‘love people’. Then for some years it became ‘love people the God’. Now it seems to have come back to ‘love God’. But he is not sure. Is it love of self ? Neither people nor God seem to his passion now.

It had lasted years and years, so it seemed. To stick to precise, cold facts, it had lasted, upto now, forty-four years. That is just a drop in the ocean of eternity. But that drop contained the whole universe within it. It had all the range of passions in it. It had sweet moments, sour moments, indifferent moments. The whole gamut of emotions was contained within it.

But whatever be the questionable effect of all these days on others, especially the boys and girls he came into contact with, these days sure had an effect on him.

This Whole within a Drop, had surely borne him away on its crest to a place beyond sweet and sour, an equilibrium of all passions, a real tranquil, still sea, or so it seems.

This is the story of a voyage, both turbulent and tranquil, passionate and peaceful, of prudence and reckless brinksmanship.

Has he entered a harbour now ? Or has the ship just sunk its anchor mid-sea ?

Can he hope some days of peace, licking his wounds, mending and enhancing his assets ?

He is surely at a peaceful sojourn. The small green hillock to the left and the green waves of coconut tops that completely cover the city to the right, are surely soothing to the eyes as well as to the mind. And the prospects of a few months savouring of Chandi (Devi Mahatmyam) and Brahman of the Upanishads with occasional singing/composing/ learning new songs is simply delicious.

Will he be granted it ? Or something else is in store for him ?

Well, stubbornly or even stupidly proud of himself, he will, sure, make stepping stones out of his obstacles and raise and walk higher and farther.

You can count on that.

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