Wednesday, September 16, 2009

It's only words- Are they?



What happens inside our mind is incomprehensible. I was fascinated to psychology years ago for the same reason. My mother feared too much love for the subject ,would turn me a psycho which I do not deny I am ,still it fascinated me . A part of mine interprets my thought processes as I act it out, just as you make sense of each word you read now. Is that not fun?

You read with such ease that you never realise it is a miracle. Reading these words and making sense of it simultaneously amazes me. If your eyes get locked at something you did not understand your Microsoft word (your brain) searches for synonyms or something similar you heard to assist you/


Imagine being illiterate , you roam around seeing colourful shapes that mean nothing to you. And imagine the joy you had while reading your name – the bond you felt with those colourful shapes which meant you- which meant your identity- no wonder each time we learn a language we learn to write our name first and cherish it.

And this mind of ours is cluttered with lots of words big and small- compliments, taunts, appreciation, pain, love notes, sweet nothings, and nothing- something.

We index them neatly, some of us have them cluttered too, some lucky one lose them. We bring them out in fights, crisis and cud chewing moments and delight, pride and weep over them.

Sometimes in the middle of the whole process mind goes blank and if you know what I mean it’s a beautiful experience. There were moments when I kept repeating A-L-W-A-Y-S back and forth and still could not believe it is a word and forgot what it meant. Only people who love words would no what I mean and not passerby. I often pause at scrabble board and amaze myself at the discovery of new meanings. The problem Is we throw words in a sentence as if we made them.

I have a friend who loves Derrida deconstruction) and keeps deconstructing a word till you cant any further. He asks what’s a chair? And I said, “something you sit on”. “But that could be a log too”, he says and then I say, “well chair is a thing which has a back support can be of metal or wood or plastic and of a particular shape”. But disproving me, he gives alternatives for all the above. Google the word chair and you would see pictures which will re define your definition of a chair.


And if conveying the meaning of something non living as a chair is so difficult, what about a living mind? Doesn’t a word fail to express the most joyous and saddest moments of life? Just as cameras cannot capture the essence of the moment. Doesn’t the transfer of thoughts from mind to paper lose a lot of essence? Nothing living can be preserved so we call them memories. What remains is just an evidence which says “ I was here- I experienced it”. And still all these literature, pieces of information flung at you in papers mystify you that they convey a lot. Do they?

That’s what makes me crazy about human mind and words.


8 comments:

DEEPU said...

Intelligent thoughts from 'physcho'..well done.

bhasha said...

it reminds me of a poem called "Quality of ruins"... mostly the idea is language helps us express but makes us helpless as well n at times it's usage is just a lip-serivice....who cares really while talking...

Unknown said...

its reminds me of one thing,there were moments when i needed words to tell someone how much i cared for that person but never could tell due to lack of words,not due to lack of feelings in my mind,and there were some moments when all d words i spoke were nothing more than just nonsense. So I think it's only WORDS and nothing more...!

jasmine said...

aaaam.... :)

Anonymous said...

oh yes, sometimes I wonder wht my name means. I keep reading my name to and fro and it induces a weird feeling inside and I just give it up as I would end up with smoky ears. Yay, Im not alone in the boat :)

Who said...

it reminds of a Boyzone song: "It'S OnLY WorDS... aNd WoRds ArE aLL I hAVe....tO........

The quirk said...

Thanks deepu, and bhasha I knew u wud reply after all language is ur weakness... sonu nice to see u spending time on blog reading.
Anoymous ... hmmm do I knw u :P ?
and jazzzz aaaaaaam :)


Who atleast u understood I had the song in my mind "words are what I have":)

Sajit M Mathews said...

Hei,it is brilliant.Your thoughts come easily on to the paper...
You deconstruct well too..
I always believe greatness lies in responding to little things like a fallen leaf or a broken twig.
Great...