The making of a cynic

CYNIC: Lies behind those five letters a tragedy of untold magnitude. The shattering of beliefs, trust, dreams, hopes, aspirations …and there stands the all encompassing word with its yellow fangs out, only to be frowned upon.

Kudos to the one who urges: “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be,” But how many of us could resist replacing ‘best’ with ‘worst’ as we ‘grow old along’.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

In school, when the poem was taught, the pitch was always upwards, to a higher point. Sometimes, when the whole class was made to recite the poem, it even acquired the form of sloganeering. It oozed with confidence, optimism and a positive outlook towards the world. How a bunch of unsuspected school children knew what was in store for them?

But things took a U-turn over the years. In college the poem was recited with a slow, sinking tone making the last couplet barely audible. Yet another instance when life made us understood literature rather than the other way around, properly.


PS: Though it’s a bone of contention there are scholars who attribute the origin of the word ‘cynic’ to the Greek philosopher, Antisthenes, a student of Socrates. He started the school of Cynics and believed that virtue was the only good and the only way to remain virtuous was through self-discipline and independence. Just like cynics, the word as well began on a positive note but turned out to be negative gradually.

She had told him. He had known it. But then he withdrew, for the other man. Now it’s too late and it has become too intense. Then there was only one man for whom he stepped back. Now there are too many. His wife, parents, relatives, her husband, mother, relatives…


To A Friend

“We learn things the hard way”;
I philosophise.
I listen, day in day out.
But I don’t know how to help you out.
It’s a quagmire you’re in.
I hope you won’t bog down.
What you’re through I know,
But knowing is not experiencing.
I hope you’ll get through
And resurface as the one you had been.