Inner Metamorphosis

Can the flame of faith sustain the storm of helplessly witnessing one’s God’s idol smashed to pieces? Will an ideologue who witnesses the entire edifice of her perspective crumble under the weight of truth revert or revolt? AAVARANA as Bhyrappa explains in the preface is an act of concealing truth. And our intensely ideological, middle-aged protagonist experiences a catharsis of sorts when confronted with truth, a truth that shines through the pervasive deception if only one looks for it. Plot Razia, an ex-Hindu who converted to marry her Muslim college-mate, has an ‘enlightened’ view of history, thanks to the ‘progressive’ arts course at the film-institute she and her husband Amir have been through. She finds her father’s fierce opposition to her marriage with Amir dogmatic. Aren’t all religions equally regressive and fit to be thrown into the dustbin of history? Surprisingly, despite the Marxist bent of both Amir and Lakshmi’s mind, Amir insists on her conversion to I

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.” – Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix (film). Concurrent to the underlying theme in the said scene, there comes a point in life when we experience something so disturbing that we are forced to re-look at our most cherished beliefs that we were conditioned to believe from birth. Beneath the reality we live in, another and altogether different reality lies concealed to our indoctrinated mind. The programming started right from the moment we began our earthy career to tame the mind from wandering beyond the pre-set boundaries. The molten thinking is carefully put into a society-imposed mould with the aim of making the young minds ‘civilized’, a euphemism for calcul

[ One of my earlier posts referred to 'the will to meaning'   here . I intended to expand upon it later, but other more intense interests sprouted to which I dedicated much of my writing energies. Later I somehow lost interest. However when I recently saw   The Shawshank Redemption , I was vaguely aware of having seen another work with similar theme. Some travel in my mind-palace brought me to that rusted corner where memories of   'Man's Search for Meaning'   lay. As I was wishing to break the ice here since long, can one ask for a better topic to rekindle this blog?   ] What if you were deprived of your possessions and freedom? What if you found yourself in a concentration camp stripped of every semblance of human dignity, working like a beast of burden? Viktor Frankl's ' Man's Search For Meaning ' is not a brainchild of mental speculation, but based on personal experiences in the school of sorrow where the earthy lessons of life are t