Skip to main content

Dilettante

Image courtesy here


The following quote that I came across quite by chance struck me simply because it seemed to reflect me quite as a mirror does. “I am nothing but a dilettante, a dilettante in painting, in poetry, in music, and several others of the so-called unprofitable arts. Above all else I am a dilettante in life. Up to the present I have lived as I have painted and written poetry. I never got far beyond the preparation, the plan, the first act, the first stanza. There are people like that who begin everything and never finish anything. I am such a one.”

The self-description belongs to the Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch from whose name came the word ‘masochism’. The writer was certainly not chuffed with that coinage contributed by an Austrian psychiatrist who justified it saying, “I feel justified in calling this sexual anomaly ‘Masochism’ because the author Sacher-Masoch frequently made this perversion, which up to his time was quite unknown to the scientific world as such, the substratum of his writings.” Masochism is the derivation of gratification from one’s own pain or humiliation.

I don’t enjoy pains at all though I have had to endure quite a lot of that because of my personality characteristics. It is those characteristics that make me similar to Sacher-Masoch and not what the psychologist fabricated out of his name. Dilettantism. That is what I share with the writer.

I am a floater by nature. Like the butterfly that goes from flower to flower savouring the honey. The butterfly doesn’t stop to look at the flower beyond the honey. The sorrows of the flower don’t become the pains of the butterfly. Nor are the joys taken. The dilettante takes just what he wants to take.

Dilettantism is an integral part of the butterfly’s DNA. The little creature is incapable of asking something like, “My darling rose, won’t you tell me your sorrow so that I can kiss it away?”

My cats do the same to me. They come and go as they please. When it pleases him, Bobby jumps on to my lap and lies there purring. He can go to sleep there without ever bothering to ask me whether I am free to let him do that. But, on the other hand, if I pick him up and put him in my lap in a moment of pet-ernal affection, he will protest and jump out. Bobby is an absolute dilettante. His love is frivolous.

I don’t complain, however. I know Bobby. I know the limitations of his DNA. When I accept those limitations, am I accepting my own ones?

If I keep contemplating that, I might become a Buddha and discover the fundamental sorrow that underlies all existence. That will make my life more miserable. I will found a religion of sorrows, create a goddess of perpetual grief, and make mine as well as a few others’ lives miserable. The Buddha couldn’t ever smile because he had not discovered the blessings of dilettantism. The great soul never knew the simple joys of life.

Today, in the post-truth world, dilettantism is the ideal religion. It helps me to smile when the MLA whom I voted for sells himself for a few crore rupees to another party that is diametrically opposed to all that I voted for. When the US Securities and Exchange Commission reports that the Oracle Corporation paid $400,000 in bribes to certain Indian politicians in Goa and Assam and my government which is otherwise eager to send a barrage of investigative agencies to ensure that truth always triumphs (Satyameva Jayate) chooses to turn a blind eye, the dilettante in me can smile and look for new flowers. When a hyperactive investigative agency actually arrests a person for being honest, I can look for yet another flower. This dilettantism is a good religion. Wanna join?

 

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanOctober 7, 2022 at 9:18 PM

    Hari OM
    No - I chose to linger and find the depths of a thing... ☺ YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. indu chhibberOctober 8, 2022 at 6:44 PM

    Having numerous interest can do this to one.I am not far away from it.

    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
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more

The Buddha in the Central Vista

Prime Minister Modi was taking a dip in the mineral water pond constructed on the bank of the Yamuna as part of his weekly photo op when Siddhartha Gautama aka the Buddha walked into the office of the National Committee for Correcting Civilizational Narratives (NCCCN) in Central Vista, New Delhi. An email was received by “Dr Sri Siddhartha Gautama Buddha PhD” from the PMO [Prime Minister’s Office] inviting him to attend a meeting “to authenticate and align the curriculum with indigenous perspectives as part of implementing the National Education Policy, NEP.” Siddhartha was amused on receiving the mail. “Is it possible they still wish to learn after proclaiming themselves the Vishwaguru?” He wondered with a wry smile. He was more amused to see the honorary doctorate conferred upon him by the Vishwaguru Vishwavidyala, in Spiritual Sciences. It’d be interesting to make a visit, he decided. When he entered the opulent office, whose floor was paved with Italian marble tiles, he reca...
11 comments
Read more

Being Christian in BJP’s India

A moment of triumph for India’s women’s cricket team turned unexpectedly into a controversy about religious faith and expression, thanks to some right-wing footsloggers. After her stellar performance in the semi-final of the Wormen’s World Cup (2025), Jemimah Rodrigues thanked Jesus for her achievement. “Jesus fought for me,” she said quoting the Bible: “Stand still and God will fight for you” [1 Samuel 12:16]. Some BJP leaders and their mindless followers took strong exception to that and roiled the religious fervour of the bourgeoning right wing with acerbic remarks. If Ms Rodrigues were a Hindu, she would have thanked her deity: Ram or Hanuman or whoever. Since she is a Christian, she thanked Jesus. What’s wrong in that? If she was a nonbeliever like me, God wouldn’t have topped the list of her benefactors. Religion is a talisman for a lot of people. There’s nothing wrong in imagining that some god sitting in some heaven is taking care of you. In fact, it gives a lot of psychologic...
16 comments
Read more

Sardar Patel and Unity

All pro-PM newspapers carried this ad today, 31 Oct 2025 No one recognised Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as he stood looking at the 182-m tall statue of himself. The people were waiting anxiously for the Prime Minister whose eloquence would sway them with nationalistic fervour on this 150 th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel. “Is this unity?” Patel wondered looking at the gigantic version of himself. “Or inflation?” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi chuckled standing beside Patel holding a biodegradable iPhone. “The world has changed, Sardar ji. They’ve built me in wax in London.” He looked amused. “We have become mere hashtags, I’d say.” That was Jawaharlal Nehru joining in a spirit of camaraderie. “I understand that in the world’s largest democracy now history is optional. Hashtags are mandatory.” “You know, Sardar ji,” Gandhi said with more amusement, “the PM has released a new coin and a stamp in your honour on your 150 th birth anniversary.”  “Ah, I watched the function too,” ...
15 comments
Read more