Thursday, January 16, 2014

Obsession and Possession

I was in my first year PG when on a visit to my friend's house, I was stunned to see his collection of audio cassettes. Through my return journey, I dreamt of owning one such collection and hearing any song I wished at any time.

Some years later, it was the CDs, DVDs and pen drives filled with MP3 songs and the collection ended up with thousands of songs , at the last count.

On a stroll during a overnight stay in Madurai I was excited to find a shop selling collection of old songs kindling years of memory which ended up with my baggage swelling up.

When I saw the soft copy version of my favorite author I was so excited and wished to possess all that he had written. A focused search in the web filled the available storage space to capacity not only of my favorite author but some others in other languages too.

Despite the huge collection I have, I was touched by a song sung on the television, which drove me to revisit my archive and unearth the same song there.

It was then that I realized that how little I use the collection, on which I spent so much time and effort in building !

A news item few days back ' Are Indians in the habit of accumulating more than they need.." kept this topic alive in me.

In our desire to have the best of everything, at times we indulge in getting everything on the subject be it books, electronic gadgets, dresses to name some. But many a times, we never use them fully as desired and dreamt. The very fact of their possession itself seem to have satiated the desire to have such a collection and there we seemed to have quenched that thirst.

Even on small matters such as travel, at the last minute I have the habit of stuffing in more - all for just in case of necessity.

I am very sure many of us will have a corner of the wardrobe containing a pack of clothes that are yet to be opened including pairs of Sox and Ties!

I now realize the wisdom of those who could use a meagre sum for self and contribute the rest of the salary for the national cause during pre-independence era. Their wisdom and foresight are the ones that make them a cut above the rest, as they could think beyond.

On the humorous side, I have heard of people who will read only that much, which is just enough to help them clear the exam. I really envy them !

On the subject and context, I am also reminded of these lines which never fail to appeal to me:

வீட்டைச் சுற்றி தோட்டம் போட்டேன்
தோட்டத்தைச் சுற்றி வேலி போட்டேன்
வேலியைச் சுற்றி காவல் போட்டேன்
காவலைப் பற்றிக் கவலைப் பட்டேன்

I only wish this is a timely reminder for me when I am planning to visit the Chennai Book Fair !

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