Only in India?
Our sense of beauty and appreciation for aesthetics comes from the culture we have grown into, and when it comes to personify non-living objects, I think Indians have an edge over the rest of the world. But first - Why personification and aesthetics are so related? We want to perceive things in the most beautiful way (perhaps the way we, the human beings are) and try to locate faces, eyes and even emotions in those non-living things. Biologically many things may be non-living, but still there is a certain amount of life in those things which forces us to identify those things with us.
In my perception, a river is as dynamic and hence as alive as any other living creature. I'll say a river has more life than us - our lives stay for, say 80 years, but a rivers flows and is the witness of several human generations for centuries and millenniums.
This comparision of humans with a river came to my mind for two reasons: First - when someone here asked me the meaning of a Hindi song I was listening to ("Kaisee hai ye rut" from DCH, read its second stanza) and another was the news of passing away of Nirmal Verma, a well-known name in Hindi Literature.
I told someone here that in "Kaisee hai ye rut" the river is being compared to a lady who goes to meet her beloved, The Ocean - and the person replied - "Crazy!". I realised that he was not able to understand (forget apreciation) the beauty which lies in the words of the song. I do not blame him for it bacause the kind of culture he was grown into didn't see any beauty in comparing a river with a lady.
The second reason for writing this blog, as I have mentioned, is the death of Nirmal Verma last month. I'll mention the details in a future blog.
In my perception, a river is as dynamic and hence as alive as any other living creature. I'll say a river has more life than us - our lives stay for, say 80 years, but a rivers flows and is the witness of several human generations for centuries and millenniums.
This comparision of humans with a river came to my mind for two reasons: First - when someone here asked me the meaning of a Hindi song I was listening to ("Kaisee hai ye rut" from DCH, read its second stanza) and another was the news of passing away of Nirmal Verma, a well-known name in Hindi Literature.
I told someone here that in "Kaisee hai ye rut" the river is being compared to a lady who goes to meet her beloved, The Ocean - and the person replied - "Crazy!". I realised that he was not able to understand (forget apreciation) the beauty which lies in the words of the song. I do not blame him for it bacause the kind of culture he was grown into didn't see any beauty in comparing a river with a lady.
The second reason for writing this blog, as I have mentioned, is the death of Nirmal Verma last month. I'll mention the details in a future blog.
- PS: The "future blog" promised above is available here.
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