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From Camus's Absurdity to Zorba's Santuri


 Life is a mystery to be experienced, not a puzzle to be solved. However, experiences can be terrible and terrifying more often than not. Life is not a fair game. It's a rugby of bullies. It turns a deadly battleground occasionally. Nevertheless, it has its music, its moments of awe, its sweet orgasms. 

I'm participating in this year's A2Z Challenge thrown by Blogchatter just for the fun of writing something non-political and possibly more exciting if not inspiring than politics. Life is the theme. But life is too vast a topic for a blogger to handle. Life is an infinite and eternal ocean with relentless waves and winds, as well as corals and pearls. A blogger can at best look at a tiny fraction of that infinity, that eternity. And I'm gonna do just that. 

The series is tentatively titled From Camus's Absurdity to Zorba's Santuri. It is going to take a deep look (as deep as a blogger can go, of course) into life's ocean starting with its absurdities. We'll move through such phenomena as the bandwagon effect, fictional finalism, Kafka's prison, serendipity, utopian chimeras, to the secret of Zorba's happiness. 

I said it was going to be "non-political". Well, can you really discuss life without touching upon politics? Isn't politics an integral part of the game called life? Isn't it politics that makes life the misery that it often is? Isn't our entire history from the most ancient civilisations onward about our kings and their henchmen? Do the workers who actually built the monuments and mausoleums find a mention anywhere in your history books? 

April won't be political anyway - not too obviously, at least. I shall try my best to keep politics away with a barge pole. I hope April will engage you meaningfully here in this space and thanks to Blogchatter team for their support. 

PS. I participated in this programme last year too and the result is still available as a free e-book titled Great Books for Great Thoughts. 


Comments

  1. Amit MisraMarch 17, 2021 at 12:36 PM

    In politics, I feel that 'the more things change, the more they remain the same'. It does not work on rules, ethics or anything deeper, I suppose. Personally, I could not learn anything worthwhile from political discussion, in spite of being a native of the state (U.P.) where politics and political discussion is the primary occupation of nearly everyone.

    Nevertheless, I read your each and every composition, whether political or non-political. All your commentaries carry a fresh and new perspective to the concept. And personally I am an admirer of your non-political compositions -- there is so much to learn and discover there. They are my all time favourites.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 17, 2021 at 8:45 PM

      I'm excited by this comment coming from an eminent scholar. Glad you expressed it so openly.

      I don't enjoy writing politics. I don't usually discuss it with people either. There's something detestable about it. Yet the way our country is turning citizens against one another, making one the enemy of one's neighbour in the name of religions and gods - this is extremely wicked in my opinion. Much worse than what the Congress or the British or the Mughals did.

      Delete
  2. SuchitaMarch 17, 2021 at 2:58 PM

    Loved your theme on life. And as I recently learnt in a session with a writer, even a fictional setting is politics since it comes with a set of rules and baggage. Looking forward to your posts. All the best!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 17, 2021 at 8:47 PM

      Thank you.

      Can a writer actually do away with politics? You're so right: even fictional settings are political one way or another. I have to set my story somewhere, some time, and that place as well as time has its politics. How can any writer worth his salt escape that politics?

      Delete

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