Skip to main content

Being Alive

 

A scene from Ezhattumukham in Kerala

One of the most alive characters I can mention without having to think twice is Zorba, a creation of Nikos Kazantzakis. Even in his sixties, he possessed all the passion of a young man. He sang and danced, made love, drank wine, and did not care much for the silly politics of ordinary mortals and the gods of the same mortals. What would Zorba answer if you ask him, “What does being alive mean to you?”

“To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right…” Zorba would begin. Life is freedom. Free to sing your own song and dance your own steps. It doesn’t matter whether the song jars or the dance looks clumsy. Just liberate yourself from all man-made snares like isms and religions. And live. Live your life.

To have no ambition and yet work like a horse as if you had the all the ambition of a conqueror. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To be able to stand with the land behind you and the sea in front, feeling the wind in your face, and to enjoy the urge to fling all that you have achieved so far to the wind… and move slowly to the realms of fairy tales.

I have admired Zorba from the time I came to know him. I was in my twenties when I read Zorba the Greek the first time. I read the novel many times later. Now I am as old as Zorba is in the novel. I have committed a lot of blunders which Zorba might think of as natural. At any rate, I have learnt certain valuable lessons from most of those blunders. That’s what being alive is: learning lessons from your blunders. Zorba would agree with me though I never possessed his wisdom or even the potential for such wisdom.

PS. A certain dullness of spirit is overwhelming me these days. But fellow blogger Parwati Singari’s prompt - What according to you is being alive? #beingalive – became a gentle breeze wafting from the sea…

PPS. This blog is participating in The Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa campaign. 

Comments

  1. Harshita NandaOctober 6, 2021 at 3:59 PM

    While running behind the goals and ambitions we forget to live no?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 6, 2021 at 4:43 PM

      Precisely. Obsession with conquests is the most serious threat to being alive!

      Delete
  2. Neerja BhatnagarOctober 6, 2021 at 5:10 PM

    Very true. Such a liberating post. We just forget about living while running after what we think is life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 6, 2021 at 5:20 PM

      If people let go a few pursuits life would be great for them as well as some others.

      Delete
  3. Weekend GetawaysOctober 6, 2021 at 5:25 PM

    Its very difficult, but that would be ultimate nirvana

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 6, 2021 at 7:27 PM

      Perhaps not too difficult. But I can say with certainty that it took me long years to at least realise that I was blundering pretty much.

      Delete
  4. Yamini MacLeanOctober 6, 2021 at 5:32 PM

    Hari OM
    Ah Zorba - a favourite of my younger years too and you remind that it me that it may be time to reacquaint... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 6, 2021 at 7:26 PM

      I'm sure he will lead you to yet another new light.

      Delete
  5. Debidutta MohantyOctober 6, 2021 at 8:42 PM

    It's a refreshing and liberating post. Most of the time we chase mundane and trivial things but we think that's life.

    ReplyDelete
  6. jyoti @momcaptureslifeOctober 6, 2021 at 11:58 PM

    Absolutely we need to learn lessons from our blunders

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anuradha sowmyanarayananOctober 7, 2021 at 10:14 AM

    thought provoking

    ReplyDelete
  8. The SiriusgramOctober 7, 2021 at 9:39 PM

    Seriously, thought provoking . Great read

    ReplyDelete
  9. deepti menonOctober 7, 2021 at 11:16 PM

    Being alive and young at heart can be highly liberating. Thank you for reminding us of Zorba the Greek!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Debdatta Dasgupta October 8, 2021 at 9:40 AM

    I now have Dean Jones singing Being Alive in my mind!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gurjeet chhabraOctober 8, 2021 at 11:17 AM

    So beautiful, true it seems like we don't live. we run on a rat race.

    ReplyDelete
  12. sivaranjiniOctober 8, 2021 at 12:38 PM

    A beautiful take on being alive and allowing ourselves to grow through life with all the flaws it had given us.

    ReplyDelete
  13. RituOctober 8, 2021 at 10:15 PM

    Being on this constant hamster wheel, most forget what it is to live. To be alive. A thought provoking post.

    ReplyDelete
  14. GBOctober 9, 2021 at 2:57 PM

    Finding the meaning if being alive is one of the biggest paradox of life.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Manali DesaiOctober 10, 2021 at 6:46 AM

    'That’s what being alive is: learning lessons from your blunders.'
    This motivated me a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Abha SinghOctober 10, 2021 at 4:39 PM

    Learning from our mistakes yet enjoying life that’s what being alive means. No one is living perfect life. It is going to full with happy and sad moments and that’s what gives us strength.

    ReplyDelete
  17. SrikanthOctober 10, 2021 at 5:30 PM

    A very thought provoking post

    ReplyDelete
  18. UnknownOctober 12, 2021 at 6:06 AM

    What a thought-provoking, refreshing post. True that, in chasing the aimless rat race somewhere we have forgotten to live the life in real sense.

    Archana Srivastava
    archusblog

    ReplyDelete
  19. sadvika annamOctober 12, 2021 at 11:15 PM

    A post to think off! Learnign from mistakes is the best we could do

    ReplyDelete
  20. jayshree bhagatOctober 14, 2021 at 2:25 AM

    I am learning with my age and mistakes

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

My third retirement as teacher

  I’m retiring from teaching for the third time now. 28 Feb 2025 will be my last day at the present school from where I retired twice earlier. The first time was just a formality because when I completed the official age for retirement the school gave me a formal farewell and then shifted my name to another ledger in the account books. Nothing changed really other than the remuneration method. My second retirement was at the end of the last academic session in March 2024 when I decided that I was growing too grotesque for the contemporary teenagers. My young students called it ‘generation gap.’ They assumed that I belonged to the library shelf of the musty volumes of Britannica Encyclopaedia while they belonged to YouTube . They didn’t know that I had a YouTube video in which my cat was an emergent hero. And that there were a few more serious videos too which didn’t get much traction because the youngsters for whom it was meant thought that I belonged to the generation which ...
14 comments
Read more

Mani, the Maverick

Book Review Title: A Maverick in Politics Author: Mani Shankar Aiyar Publisher: Juggernaut, New Delhi, 2024 Pages: 410 A politician’s memoirs will be intertwined with the history of his country. Mani Shankar Aiyar’s book is no exception. This is the second part of the author’s memoirs and it deals with the years from 1991 to 2024. The very opening sentence reassures you that this is a continuation from the last book: “I returned to Delhi elated and triumphant to find two sets of invitations to dinner from the two rival contestants for the leadership of the Congress party.” The first few chapters describe what Aiyar did as an MP both in his constituency and in the parliament as well as wherever he was given responsibilities. His proximity to Rajiv Gandhi had given him an edge over many other Congressmen, and Sonia Gandhi gave him many important duties especially attending meetings and other programmes abroad. After all, Aiyar was in the Indian Foreign Service before quitti...
8 comments
Read more

The irresistible mating of languages

The International Mother Language Day falls in Feb. My blogger-friends, Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed , have chosen a theme related to IMLD for their Feb’s blog hop. I thought it’s a good opportunity to write about my mother language, Malayalam, which has quite a fascinating and potentially controversial history. The history of Malayalam is linked with that of Tamil, of the Brahmin migration from North India to the South, and the subsequent influence of Sanskrit.   The origins Malayalam originated from ancient Tamil, which was the primary language spoken in southern parts of India, particularly in the region that encompasses modern-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Over time, Malayalam evolved as a distinct language due to geographical, cultural, and political factors. Malayalam belongs to the Dravidian language family along with Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Tulu. It emerged as a separate language around the 9 th -13 th centuries CE, though its linguistic roots can be traced ba...
8 comments
Read more

If God is with you

Courtesy Here If God is with you, you needn’t fear anything. I was taught that in my childhood. That was a paraphrase of what Saint Paul wrote to Romans (8:31): “If God is for us, who can be against us?” I was reminded of that when I read about Madho Sing II, King of Jaipur, this afternoon. Madho Singh received an invitation to the coronation ceremony of King Edward VII (1902). But good Hindus don’t travel across the ocean. Crossing the ocean meant mingling with all sorts of people and thus losing your racial and caste supremacy or purity or whatever. But Madho Singh wanted to attend the coronation if only to please King Edward. Also to see London along with his entire family. Find a solution, he ordered the royal priests. After all, when the problem is related to your religion, the priests are the right people to find the solution. And find they did. Tell the people of the country that their favourite god Sri Gopalji wishes to visit England. Gods have no canonical barriers. Th...
6 comments
Read more