Perceptions of a Performer

The roads have become smoother, but the journey has become more complicated compared to the past. One does not feel like a traveller anymore, but more of a compulsive being who moves ahead; these days, the roads disappear more frequently, new ones appear rather hastily, and one has to adjust the rhythm of the steps like a professional novice trying to be an expert.

Somehow, if you may have noticed, the roads grip the journey quite aggressively to trigger a constant conflict. As if the traveller wants to adjust convincingly to the extraneous demands of a life embellished with inessential urgency. The moment you wake up, you feel the remorse surging within; you have missed the date and time of a crucially worthless day of worries, misunderstandings, and accusations.

The most repetitive word that follows, with a painful rhythm, is ‘perform’. You have to perform this and that, perform the tasks, perform the acts in front of an unknown audience, perform in accordance with someone’s performance. Even your comparisons have to perform well to update you on the latest trends. Every day a new script, with numerous edits and edicts; if you can memorise and narrate it (without deviating from the script) you will have performed really well.

More than the natural changes in life, it is the fidgety changes and arrangements that affect the relationship with the journey. Conveniences like these are unseen spikes on the vast stretch of road; you will be ill-equipped with the right responses to deal with such surprising ordeals.

When everything is desired to be controlled by a switch, the fingers twitch to play with it until they become greasy and stubborn. Then they will develop a will of their own to discriminate between the performers. Some lights flicker, some are glaringly intrusive, some extremely dim, and finally they behave like fireworks. Beware! The lights of fury and the switch scorned can leave you with prolonged darkness.

So, as a traveller, you are supposed to adjust, memorise the hastily edited scripts, and deliver the best possible performance in front of a sarcastic audience. The applause may mean, your dialogues are smashed between the palms! The spotlight can put you in the middle of a quagmire, with a host of other paraphernalia to make you an arrogant ideal. You have been handed over the prototype of a forged design, so plan accordingly.

~Amitav