A conflict too painful for words

Shiv Sethi

When intellectuals contemplate theories of genesis, many of them discuss the issue whether it is man who appeared first on Earth or I. Though there are divergent opinions about the creation of both of us in this world, one truth cannot be negated that man and I are intertwined. Such is the intensity of our relation that we dwell in each other. As a true lover cannot live without his beloved, or a real devotee cannot even imagine his existence without God, similarly, we, segregated from each other, will simply wither away. And if history does not find any evidence of my presence before man, I am certainly as old as mankind itself. I am born with a child in the form of his cries and grow up in strength and size in the advancing years of his life. 

History is witness that men of intelligence have ruled the world with my support, but several of them have suffered loss on account of being indiscreet with me. If the ‘service to society’ award is to be kept reserved for the single greatest and the biggest servant of humanity with absolute exclusiveness, I will be the genuine, and the only claimant. What greater satisfaction can be there than the fact that men eulogise me by equating me with their mother. Whereas mystic saints of various communities have spread the message of truth, beauty and goodness through me; poets have sung of the bewitching beauty of their lover’s eyes by taking recourse to me. In their expression of love, I am bejewelled like a bride. Much to my pleasure, I have also been the medium of uniting the world into one unified whole, but my real beauty lies in my diversity. 

I have multiple manifestations. My sounds and structural patterns are diverse and distinctly different as I change my garments according to the change of place, and assume an altogether different facelift. I am conversant with the proverb ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans’, but the essence within me does not alter. As a trustworthy emotional prop of man, I have laughed with him in his joys and sighed in his sorrows. I am not only the carrier of the truths of sages, but also have conveyed a person’s happiness or anguish to the other. 

After God, I can be rightly called the prime mover of society. My devotees make sincere endeavours to understand my roots and branches. Many of them resort to hard penance to master my multiple manifestations and assimilate them. I had heard that all disputes in the world have three predominant causes — wealth, land and woman, but unfortunately, today, that list has expanded. Much to my pain, I am also included in that trio. People are fighting over my superiority, whereas I have never suffered from any superiority complex. I turn quiet with a heavy heart though quietness has never been my attribute. I am language — languishing amid crisis and conflict.