Men!!!

DISCLAIMER : This is not a random generalization. It is based on certain discussions and observations.

Nature has framed the character of man thus. He goes into the world and performs his various activities. He selects a standard of living that meets his approval, and then pursues it with all his heart. His senses are alert, and he is careful not to neglect a single detail that will serve his purpose.

So tell me this. The various aspects make life distinct, and this is the case with every single person. So, how does one view the components of an individual life as separate?

It seems to me, that men tend to compartmentalize more than their female counterparts. Should plucking apart the web of life into single threads be called ability? Or is it merely an inclination?
Women search to interconnect their experiences and view them as holistic. Growth in one doesn’t necessarily equal success in the other, but still..You tend to transfer part of the attitude and heightened levels of self-belief from one activity to another - Something I call the ‘Sagacity to achieve Totality’.

Meanwhile, some men have multiple lives & wives (metaphorically, of course). They leave both success and failure with the wife they call ‘work’, and come home and are willing to live an entirely new set of ups and downs with the wife they call ‘wife’. The two wives don’t really meet. So a man that’s obsessively organized at his workplace refuses to pick up his socks at home.
I think women just have higher mood thresholds, and don’t mind mixing it all up. They revel in stepping into this big puddle of different depths. Ask a woman about any one existence-shaping incident, and she’ll talk for hours. Ask a man, and he’ll give you a non-committal ‘huh’.

Women need people on different paths of their lives to meet. Men are blissfully happy if they never do. Really, do friends need to be organized like jewelry (sorry, that is an obsession of mine).

And I thought delving into the psyche of women was proving to be mystic.

But perhaps I must bid farewell to this contempt. Maybe the partitioning of life’s aspects is what allows for a quiet maturation. Or perhaps in the words of the most prolific bard, this is all ‘much ado about nothing’!

Damned if you do, damned If you don’t

So, I am what most people call a purist. At least as far as dance is concerned; specifically my chosen style, Bharatanatyam. (Did it choose me or did I choose it? – will never really know)

But walk on the trodden path of a singular dance form I cannot. Dance is dance, after all.

This discussion began in my head (it gets pretty busy in there!) when I stumbled into a Bollywood Dance Class. The first reaction from friends – ‘Et tu, Janaki?’ Bollywood? But you are a classical dancer! You’d think I had betrayed my country or something!

As I turned the reflections inward, I asked myself what I had slipped into. And then ,being me, I turned to –no, not God or even my mom- the dictionary! I actually looked up the word ‘purist’. And there, I found my answer.

The dictionary didn’t tell me that venturing into new paths was offensive, but that adulterating or diluting my chosen path was. I think I actually breathed a sigh of relief.

So, in my bollywood class, I shall stick to the hip swaying and eel-like slippery movements. And I shall continue pushing myself into knee-breaking araimandis in bharatanatyam.

So, this wasn’t really an epiphany, rather a re-epiphany. Sort of like being born again!

As for people around me, they are utterly confused. I spent a long time spurning anything that wasn’t classical dance. Especially with all the offensive lyrics that people actually enjoy! And every time I turned down a chance to participate in their crowd-whistling performances, I was labeled Inflexible. Now it’s just gasps and ‘You hypocrite’.

Purists get to the point of being rigid. If living life is about change, let’s allow butchering of art. The result may possibly be met with ‘wow! Contemporary!’ and all that.

Ok don’t butcher art. Take small changes in the direction of choreography – it actually will end up in a simple yet striking presentation. Maybe it’s time to do that.

My point - when will we stop stereotyping everyone?

You have to seemingly sit (whether you are comfortable in your seat or wriggling in it doesn’t matter) on either one of two chairs – there’s Black and there’s White.

Me, I like the Grey chair! I want my silence and my noise, and I shall have them both!
And hey, you never know. Tomorrow, I may decide to go meditate in a cave – maybe the Tiger’s Nest Monastery – hear it’s breathtaking atop the 3,000 feet high cliff!

And then I become the enlightened one…. You see, this line of thinking could start another long tale of epiphanies….. let’s not go there just as yet.

For now, I maintain I am a purist.