MONDAY MUSE (30 March 2009)
UNDERSTANDING
Last Thursday, poetry films were screened at the International Centre, Goa. In
the discussion that followed a couple of youngsters candidly expressed their
inability to understand all the films. So often, so many of us believe that we
do not possess the ability to “understand” works of creativity like poetry,
paintings, films, plays, etc. And hence we find a ‘disconnect’ with creative
arts, music, dance, politics, technology… the list can go on and on!
But do we ‘understand’ everything we indulge in? Let’s take the case of our
major national craze – cricket! Most of us would not ‘understand’ the
difference between a googly and a chinaman or between swing and reverse swing.
The spectators of cricket or so many other sports enjoy the game for various
other reasons like the excitement of competitiveness, the face-off between
brute strength and skilful grace, etc.
Before we ‘understand’, we have to ‘experience’. Edisononce stated that the
thought of understanding comes from the two simple words under and stand. Hence
it is necessary to undergo new experiences with an open mind and ‘stand’ within
that experience for a sufficient period so as understanding to occur. The more
we ‘stand under’ a happening, we will be better at comprehending the facets of
that experience.
We were all born to ‘understand’ but we are conditioned to believe that
‘understanding’ is a talent that is belongs to a select few. As babies we could
appreciate colour, shapes, sound and movements because we would approach
everything with an open mind and an inquisitive approach. After all, for each
of the things we understand over the years… the lesson is simple: we learnt to
crawl, before we could walk and run.
‘Understanding’ is not a consequence of inborn aptitude…
We need to BE BETTER at keeping an open attitude!
- Pravin
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