A Date with Lucifer
Like, Share, Support…be the Voice Of Free Press
By Maanas Lal, Copy Edited by Adam Rizvi, TIO:
“There is no greater sorrow than to recall our times of joy in wretchedness.”
-Dante Alighieri, Inferno
This is a particularly unique time we are living through. Human existence, all our endeavor, and ‘achievement’, failure, and ‘success’, is hanging by several tenuous threads and this pandemic is just one of them. These threads continue to smart and break as the clock ticks for human ‘growth which continues to be driven by hatred and greed, not learning and humility. It is the purest form of stupidity to presume that our much-touted intellectual prowess, yet to discover what lies beneath our oceans or beyond our tiny galactic ‘space’, will pull us through each time dark clouds surround us.
It is only a matter of time before that all-important thread, one we do not even fully comprehend, snaps to trigger an avalanche. This temporary state of suspension which we consider ‘normal’ is bound to lose its balance and seesaw its way to a drastically different actuality, a survival which may well discount for our ‘intellectual’ race.
Also, Read : Why is there a need to revise the South Asian Narrative on Black Lives Matter?
It is indeed delightful to see keyboard warriors battling their way to virtual glory by deciding where one of us, somewhere in history, should have drawn lines on a map. This in light of the brutality we unleash on not just each other but also nature without drawing the metaphorical line. Cutting roads through forests, feeding dynamite to elephants, carelessly disposing nuclear waste and dreaming of the next big interview with Oprah, these selfless deeds are only going to prepare us for a bigger stage, a date with the devil; Lucifer, I am certain, will understand us better than Christ.
Oh, what a marvel it appeared to me,
When I beheld three faces on his head!
The one in front and that vermilion was;
Two were the others, that were joined with this…
Underneath each came forth two mighty wings,
Such as befitting were so great a bird;
Sails of the sea I never saw so large.
-Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Also, Read: India’s blunders in war…..and in peace!
If the melting of polar ice caps, the extinction of several plants and animal species, the lack of porosity in our choices, political or otherwise, are not concerns in your mind then you are living under a rock which will not shelter you for long. It is a geological eventuality that all rocks finally weather into sediment and that is going to be our ‘grounded’ fate with our heads, fortunately, for now, only metaphorically beneath the sand.
There is no crevice deep enough or mountain high enough to challenge the universal power of nature. We need to find the time and the inclination for a larger purpose; it is perhaps to mention that climate change is more likely to wipe off subsequent generations than Corona or any other virus. Fear does work wonders as can be seen in a quarantined world, so be afraid, be aware, and be human. The human mettle is going through its sternest test and we must acknowledge that there’s a tsunami coming for which we need to brace not just ourselves but for others around us.
Also, Read : Indo-China Face Off: De-escalation of Tension After Meet
Our moorings have already been lost in the tattered pages of a history we little cared for, all we have now is each other; so huddle up and get ready to face waves taller than those in nightmares for it is our responsibility to save the planet, now that we’ve made every conceivable effort to kill it.
Disclaimer: This article was meant strictly for those not simmering in the digestive juices of their own opinions.
“At grief so deep the tongue must wag in vain; the language of our sense and memory lacks the vocabulary of such pain.”
-Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Maanas Lal is a renowned young artist and author based in India.
He can be reached at aloke-maanaslalart.com
Compiled and Curated by Maham Abbasi.
