An important part of my psyche is a state of mind called Bangalore. A quiet inward gathering that stimulates both deep rest and deep thought. An alertness that mixes cool repose with the edge of anticipation. A decade ago the city now known as Bengaluru held the promise of triggering in me this much-loved state of mind. No longer. Somewhere between the breakneck growth of the city and my own personal growth the connection between the state of mind and the city is lost. Now I look for and sometimes find the state of mind in quiet conversations with certain friends and the music of CSNY, Dylan, Blind Faith, Jethro Tull and Pink Flyod. There is also the sub-conscious triggering by a particular kind of touch, smell, sight and taste - a triggering that John Fowles - according to many the best writer of contemporary English- called the objective correlative.
Apparently the world of the sub-conscious endures much longer than mere places in the world out there.
Another Republic Day, another parade. Hopefully by this time next year the promise of an incipient paradigm shift in India's politics would have taken root and with it the clouds that threaten to rain on our parade would have disappeared.
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