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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Variations of Disconnect - The Philosopher Speaks

I am doing a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of the interior of the Church of Notre Dame. I am almost through with just the roof to be finished.

Life's a jigsaw too. All the different people and events are the different pieces.

The other day, I was looking for one piece that would fit in with one of the pillars just beside the pews. I was searching for a piece with a particular pattern that was present in the pillars.

The people we know and events past are the completed parts of the puzzle. We always look to solve new problems by precedents and pattern matching. If a new person walks into our life, we always compare him/her with our existing group of friends and wonder if he/she is of the same "type" and will "fit" in...

It was driving me crazy that none of the pieces I could find would fit in! I went to other parts of the puzzle but kept returning to this one piece.

We keep searching for the one friend who will always be in sync with us, our thoughts, our activities....

After a couple of days, I was just contemplating my puzzle over coffee and fiddling around with pieces randomly fitting them in different places. And voila! A piece magically fit into the pillar that I was struggling to complete!

Someone, once in a while, stops by and without any provocation or reason, brightens our life at just the right time: an acquaintance you thought you were not close to, a mentor, an advisor, a neighbour, a friend... I would like to call it serendipity...a random kind act of the universe!

The funny thing is that I had come across this piece when I was looking for the piece but ignored it because I thought it didn't fit into the pattern.

I wonder how many opportunities/interesting people I ended up missing because of this weird quality by which we always look for extensions of existing (sometimes stale, unhealthy!) patterns in each and every new experience/person.

It fit beautifully into the puzzle and I wondered how I could've been so blind! One particular pattern was so strongly embedded in my mind that I ignored what was, even if a bit different, staring me in the face!

Yet, if I just alter my vantage point a wee bit and look at people/events with a fresh outlook, I will see that they fit into the jigsaw of our life in a beautiful way in ways I didn't even expect and complete my life perfectly!

I know it seems like too much to draw generalizations about life from a jigsaw but then this is the Philosopher from my Senate who is shouting at the top of his voice compelling me to hear him...:)

Here are pics of what my jigsaw looks like now. Isn't it pretty? :)



And here's what the finished version should look like:

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Subha....Wonderful piece of writing and so is the church..
keep up your good work

Shiva said...

.. fantastic .. it is all about putting pieces together !!

Arvind Srinivasan said...

Till the last line, the suspense of finding another romantic twist loomed ;)

Ultimately, suspense gave way to a nice philosophy.

Great. Keep them coming :-)

Anonymous said...

wow, it was great,mind boggling,such a nice phiolosophy intermingled along with solving a puzzle,quixotic thinking...well, in my perspective, it was towards the end of the blog, the real philosophy is, that is, it is through every individual's view and others are portrayed. Did u notice that still, at the end, you wanted your life to be completed, this is always the case, humans wanted their life to be completed, instead of dwelling and enjoying the chaos of incompletness!!!

RS said...

I wonder how many opportunities/interesting people I ended up missing because of this weird quality by which we always look for extensions of existing (sometimes stale, unhealthy!) patterns in each and every new experience/person.

Very interesting thought...sometimes, I find I am the lone piece that could not fit, that was discarded...

Prabhu said...

"Yet, if I just alter my vantage point a wee bit and look at people/events with a fresh outlook"
- Something which is very true and that we tend to rarely do!

Good writing & narration by the Philosopher in ur Senate :)

kamal said...

Another jigsaw anology, and I thought jigsaw puzzles was my forte ! :)

Maayaa said...

hmmn ennamaa ore philosophicalaa pesara...

namma veetla jigsaw puzzle assembling seekaram mudiyara madhiri theriyudhu....lifela thedaradhum kedakara maadhiri vera theriyodho????

Anonymous said...

Congrats on solving the Puzzle!
Your analogy was way good.

-Vasu

The Doodler said...

Shiva, Arvind and anonymous: Thanks!:)

The Doodler said...

RS,
don't we all feel like that sometimes? The trick is in getting out of it soon enough..

The Doodler said...

Prabhu, it is hard but I think I should learn to do it sometimes..:)

Virumandi, philosophy ellam freeya vidu..jigsaw super-a? :)

Kamal, we just stole your forte..

Kay said...

Beautifully written !!!

(Puzzle -- Life) Analogy was too good.

Ur church looks good too.

Anonymous said...

Adadaa Subha ! Oru jigsaw puzzle-a ivlO matter sollitaiyE... !
But many of those are quite true.

I wonder how many opportunities/interesting people I ended up missing because of this weird quality by which we always look for extensions of existing (sometimes stale, unhealthy!) patterns in each and every new experience/person....

- cudn't help but ruminate on these lines... - slap on one's face :-(

dinesh said...

Subha,

I liked how you approached the topic, handled it and gave it a nice clean closure. Kind of like a completed jigsaw puzzle by itself ! One of my favorites from all your write ups thus far !

Yes, I agree with your view that we always look for existing patterns or extensions of the patterns. Sometimes, just letting the people be, and giving them the indepedence to take an equilibrium position in our life, helps find a role comfortable for both. Will we be able to take one step back and analyze and take the right step when the situation presents itself ?

P B said...

Like every piece in a jig-saw puzzle is important..everything in this world is important..the have their own role to play..if they are not there world is not complete..

Vivhyd said...

Life is a puzzle for all of us to solve.. One missing piece and Life is meaningless...

The Doodler said...

"namma veetla jigsaw puzzle assembling seekaram mudiyara madhiri theriyudhu....lifela thedaradhum kedakara maadhiri vera theriyodho???? "

Priya, namma veetla unakku theriyama edhavadhu nadakkuma? :)

The Doodler said...

Satheesh,
"slap on one's face"-a?! ezhuthalaaye aranja dubious perumai enakku thevaiyaaa...:)

Subramoni,
Wow. I wish I could see the original church someday. If it is half as good as the jigsaw promises, I'd be very happy!

The Doodler said...

Dinesh,
I don't know if I'll be able to do that or not..:) But I try to.

PB,
very true.

Anonymous said...

Why should life be complete to be meaningful?

I feel many events in life are meningful yet incomplete and that adds a beauty of its own.
-vv

Balakumar said...

That lady, is amazing patience and perseverance!

ESIH said...

Very thoughtful n beautiful comparison...first time to your blog..nice one..