#purplepremises

Vineeth Suresh, Short Weird Poet

The innocence transient Perhaps the greatest pain In this world of today The little angels slain.

Once they were all children What have they become? ! Grown into monsters Into the evils they succumb

Dakshin Padmanabhan

I recently read a novel of the title “The Idiot” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Although it was written in 1868, the book succeeds in exposing the harsh realities and perils which one must face in life, still applicable to this day. The author does this by employing the use of an almost God-like protagonist, Prince Myshkin, who is deemed “an idiot” by others in the story. This is precisely because he cannot see through the deception and sarcasm of the other characters, who eventually take advantage of him and ruin his life. While reading this book, I came across some thought-provoking quotes which were mentioned by the characters. I would like to share them with you, dear readers.  

The very first quote from the book comes in the context when the protagonist, Prince Myshkin is in conversation with Gavrila Ardalionovich, in whose house the prince is residing on rent.

Gavrila Ardalionovich is in love with a woman, Aglaya Ivanovna. However, he is coaxed by another man, Totsky, to marry another woman named Nastasya Filippovna, who was Totsky’s mistress, for a sum of 75,000 roubles as dowry. The prince questions Gavrila about the morality of the situation. Gavrila gives his reply, in which the following quote appears-

“The most vile and hateful thing about money is that it even imparts talent. And it will go on doing so until the end of the world.”

These words sum up his argument. He would even sacrifice true love so that he could reach a reasonable status in society. He means to say that if he had money, people would consider him a person with talent and ability- as opposed to his current condition where he lacks money. It is more than fair to say that such a mentality among human beings exists today as well.

Morality becomes secondary to money. Money has become a means to obtain the illusion of originality and talent - and claim it as our own in order to be accepted by others. This goes against the meaning of talent, which are the innate skills given by Nature. The flipside- that is, talent bringing money, is altogether a different topic of discussion, which is moral and the way things should be.

Measuring the worth of a person based on their money and not on their actual prowess has been an age-old practice created completely by Man’s insecurities. In fact, astonishingly enough, when I google the definition of talent, one definition is given as “a former weight and currency, used especially by the ancient Romans and Greeks”.  This word was used interchangeably! Case in point.

Sridhar Suresh Babu

Anirudh Janardhan, the midnight poet

You said you were fine That everything was going to be okay I should have known You were lying Trying to protect me and my sister But not knowing doesn't make it any less painful

When I knew about what happened I didn't believe it Cause I didn't want to It seemed like I was in a movie And not one with a happy ending But knowing the end doesn't make it any less painful

Dad was most broken of all He had to be strong in front of everyone though Must take a lot of courage To see the woman you love, die in front of you Dad has cried in front of me though Cause hiding it doesn't make it any less painful

I don't know how much time you have left And I'm stuck two and a half million metres away I guess I took it for granted mom The time when you were just a few metres away Now I can only see you through a screen But seeing you change doesn't make it any less painful

Sridhar Suresh Babu, the lost playwright

Your thoughts make your decisions. Your decisions make your actions. Your actions make you.

So by transitive property, your thoughts make you.

I was a normal kid, until that day... That fateful day...

It rained ash from the sky, we rejoiced, we played with it. We didn't know the dangers it possessed or it's origins.

We were kids after all.

The very next day, many of my friends fell sick. They vomited and had fever. The men of the village attributed it to the food we ate. They were adults, they probably knew the best. They gave us some medicines, we ate them.

I woke up the next day to the sound of sirens and loud announcements. I could sense a palpable confusion with dad and mom. Men, not from our village, in hazmat suits, entered the village. They asked us to evacuate the village as there had been any accident in the power plant nearby. We evacuated later that evening.

We are now a family without home.

For the next month we were at a camp setup by the government. At the end of the month mom and dad died. They didn't even let me see them one last time. They called it radiation poisoning. Apparently it would be harmful for me if I see them. I didn't know what it was back then.

I was a kid after all.

Now, I have cancer in my lung, liver and pancreas. The doctors tell me it is the late effect of my radiation exposure at childhood. My demon is still haunting me.

Your thoughts make you, something my father used to say.

No dad, you are wrong.

It isn't my fault that our family is shredded like this. It isn't my fault that the nuclear plant exploded. It isn't my fault that the government didn't anticipate such an incident and wasn't prepared to handle it adequately.

My thoughts didn't make me.

We are all caught in a complex web of causality. They way our lives go isn't decided just by us. Multiple factors interact to decide what happens. The pursuit of power, money and strength ruins the life of many, the expendable simpletons like us.

My life is not in my hands.

It isn't an universal dictum that good people get good things. Wake up! Life is much more complex and complicated that that!! Lots of forces interplay and screw you around....

All I wanted was a normal life with my family. My dad, my mom and me. A simple life. All of it gone to dust, over a simple negligence.

Dakshin Padmanabhan

The penultimate quote on display brings out probably the most sensitive but powerful feelings that one can possess- love. The context in which the quote appears in the novel is quite peculiar. The two love interests of Prince Myshkin, Aglaya Ivanovna and Nastasya Filippovna,  are actually having a verbal duel to stake their individual claims for his love in his presence. This is a very important scene in the novel because it portrays two real types of love that can exist-

1. Love for one’s  true personality and character- as exhibited by Aglaya in the subsequent quote 2. Love out of compassion or even to some extent pity- Myshkin’s love for Nastasya Filippovna

Aglaya speaks the following words to prove her love for Prince Myshkin and discredit her rival-

“I must also say to you that I have never in my life met a man resembling him in noble simplicity and unlimited trustfulness. I guessed after his words that anyone who wanted to could deceive him, and that whoever deceived him he would later forgive, and that is why I fell in love with him....”

Aglaya loved Prince Myshkin for who he was as a person. She admired his humble nature and the fact that he was brutally honest. She also found that though he could be easily tricked by others, he did not take it out on them and above all else even forgave them. She did not use Myshkin’s kindness for her own personal advantage, even though she knew full well that she could do so easily and even be forgiven for the same.

However, on the other hand, Nastasya Filippovna is taking advantage of Prince Myshkin’s sympathy for her. Myshkin begins to love Nastasya Filippovna because, though she is viewed as an immoral and deceitful lady by the general public, he is able to discern that deep down there is some innocence in her. This is what attracts him to her, apart from his physical attraction to her beauty. Nastasya uses this attention to ensnare Prince Myshkin and keep him bound to her forever, even though she does not have anything to do with him for a major chunk of the novel. In fact, she is in a relationship with another man, Rogozhin, even at the time at which this conversation takes place.

Now, coming to the business end. Who won this duel? You might be thinking Aglaya, but think again! Myshkin, thoroughly flabbergasted by this spectacle, made the mistake of telling Aglaya that what she said about Nastasya was unpleasant and made her unhappy. This enrages Aglaya and she leaves. The scene ends with the Prince gently stroking Nastasya’s head. Despite the fact that there is someone who truly loves him for who he is, he still prefers to allow his pity to take the better of him and love the woman whose primary aim is to toy with his emotions to feed her unstable ego.

Among all other arguments which I discussed pertaining to the protagonist, his handling of love, by far, is the only pretext where calling him a complete idiot is warranted. The fact that he is humble, can forgive easily and is truthful are qualities which are viewed as foolish by other people simply because they are jealous and want to pull him down.