Solitude

Some of my most tranquil hours in life have come during those long rain-storms, which confined me to the house for the afternoon and the most part of the forenoon as well. Almost drifting away in the seemingly endless pelter of the rains and ending it all in a long evening where there was enough time for my thoughts to unfold. I still remember those incessant rains which Vizag used to receive. Barring those times when there was a deluge, I would half-heartedly perch myself on my first floor house balcony. Half-heartedly because, though I would have loved to waltz the rains I thoroughly enjoyed the security of my house. There is used to spend seemingly endless hours admiring the droplets of water, in my own sweet world – where I was never alone.

People would be tempted to ask me why I did that. Wasn't I alone? Being a small kid wouldn't I have preferred the company of men and other kids?

I would be inclined to answer in the negative. How exactly do you define company or proximity? What is this space which separates me from the others? Does being near bring two minds together? If we don't need a mind to be together then what bonding are we talking about? Two minds can be together even if they are afar.

Can we,instead of the long gossips with the society have our own thoughts to cheer us? I'd be considered a loner if I say that I find it wholesome to be alone for the greater part of my time. There is no better companion to us than “Solitude”. Aren't we more lonely when we go out and move out among men. I am alone when I think or do my work. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intersperse a man and his fellows. We meet at very short intervals and not acquire any new value from each other. Does the value of a man lie in his skin – that we need to touch him, feel him, see him?

Silence, they say is an feeling in which many great things fathom themselves. Solitude – I'd say is more so a state of the mind. It shows how much a man is at peace with himself and with his surroundings. And we rarely manage to achieve that except with Death.