Shouldn\\\'t we hear the spring sonata?
Shihab Sarkar | Sunday, 22 March 2015
Nature appears to have played a mockery with Bangladesh this year. Although the air in the whole country smacks of uncertainties and premonitions, spring has burst on us with a vivaciousness not seen in the recent past. In the last two weeks, the post-winter Dhaka has suddenly started getting filled with lush colours. Only the other day, large and small trees in the city offered a desolate look with their usual foliage gone. The parks, road isles and orchards were filled with virtual skeletons of trees. The view triggered melancholy in the sensitive people. The usual aridity immediately after winter did not last long this year. Wearing a mischievous smile, nature in its full ethereal grandeur came crashing upon us.
Many have been caught unawares and are feeling nonplussed. People have long been hit by a non-stop blockade and the concomitant violence in the cities, and even the remote urban pockets. The irony is the fragrance of freshly blossomed flowers overwhelms the stench of both burnt human flesh and inanimate objects. And listen, how the sounds of petrol bomb blasts and guns are drowned by the warble of birds! All this boils down to the undying truth: life never stops inviting us to its moments of celebration. To view from another angle, nature behaves similarly. Despite our turning away from it, or being oblivious of it on occasions, nature never deserts us. As part of its eternal cycle, it will make its auspicious presence felt even if we are stuck in the worst of times. The spring of 2015 has generously invited the nation to enjoy the music of life. Nature has been performing this ritual year after year - whether or not we have noticed it. But by emerging in an embellishment more gorgeous than before, it seems to be passing a message to us. Enough is enough. You have had your fill. Now stop for a while and ponder which way you are headed for. How should we prepare a reasonable answer to this veiled admonishment? Whether we should take a deep look at our conscience or not is the most pertinent question at the moment.
The concept of nature has a lot of undertones. At times it bears in it the interpretations of human wisdom and the follies. No matter whether we call it nature or life, a supreme entity beyond our temporal comprehensions pulls our strings. To repeat the age-old adage, we are mere puppets in hands of an invincible puppeteer. All this is part of a grand design. How can we pretend not to have understood the signals of this unfathomable being? But we defiantly keep overlooking them. We fail to realise that we do it at our peril.
That the spring this year is more exuberant than in the past is, in fact, related to the way how we view things around us. As we ourselves can no longer go through the ordeals caused by the ongoing political deadlock, we have started looking to the positive face of life. This longing stems from our subconscious. Thus our otherwise drab and dreary mind becomes awash with colours. The inner cry for peace and normalcy has added charm to our eyes and ears. Out in the open we long to hear the sounds of spring sonata. Moreover, we cannot but go by the rules of nature. Shelley has written in his Ode to the West Wind, "… if winter comes, can spring be far behind?" No matter how entrenched the dreariness of a winter is the warm whiffs of spring will blow it away.
shihabskr@ymail.com