Chapter One: The Living Wave

“What is the living line?” I asked Svaha, “—or is it the wave?” I was a little bit apprehensive that he might think I was stupid. I was. But only I knew it. So why tell the world?

He looked at me in an amused manner. Not rewarding at all. He looked away and I kept looking at him, waiting for an answer. Did he smile condescendingly at me?

He spoke, looking back at me, “It’s a wave… but you can also picturize it as a line from afar”

“So, it is an imaginary line--?” I asked him seriously.

“In reality, it is abstract, in the abstract it is real.” He replied laughing out loud.

Confounding. I found it preposterous. I looked at him askingly.

“Yes, he said, “It is an imaginary line or a wave.  But it is as real as our feelings. Or emotions. It is real and we strive all our lives to live above it. Picture this: if everything above the line is a good feeling… Happiness, etc., then below the line would be sadness and all things negative. We are constantly trying to stay above the line. Most people live on the line and there are many who are doomed to live below the line. Something like accounts. In black or in red. In our case we can use red for below and blue for the above….and the line itself can be grey or black…”

I was skeptical. “But people already know it—”

“Yes, many know it but refuse to acknowledge it. The line is a living line. Or a wave. It is something that ties down to living as we know it. It is powerful as other elements of life.”

“--All the elements are real and have a form!” I exclaimed out of exasperation.

“—This is as real as magnetism, black holes, black matter… not as real as the elements of earth – fire, air….”

I was beginning to comprehend him ever so lightly. “Ah! —” was my response.

He continued, “Though it is imaginary, we have to assume it is real. Like a Laxman Rekha. (This in reference to a line drawn by Laxman, Lord Ram’s brother, forbidding Sita, not to step over the line. In general, it refers to any commandment that draws a line between what you can and can’t do. Rekha can be a line or a boundary.) But in this case, it does not forbid you to cross it. It, in fact, encourages you to rise about it. In fact, I have termed the line as Ram Rekha.”

This is an image that I fell for, though I came across it serendipitously. It's absolutely striking and helps you meander into nostalgia. I can remember such exuberance of laughter and lightness when I was younger. Wait, it happens now also when  I meet my friends and we laugh over the stupidest things. No different from school boys! But coming back to this pic - I will always come back and look at it and I will feel the same. I will smile and laugh.