Death of a Phoenix

The guy named Midas must still be a lucky person; at least
he got some gold that he wanted. It was his mistake to touch everything without
being cautious. He could have easily prevented the problems by either wearing
gloves or at the most not touching anything and have men to do what he wanted.
But think if instead of gold, it was fire? Or it would have been his look or
his presence that radiated poison! Life would have been very very lonely place
for him.

 

Lots of people keep talking about Phoenix, and I too keep
associating me with it. And then I started thinking about it. Poor fella- it
seems that he cant even die. At least all available documents suggest that.
Isn’t immortality a curse too? What if he get bored about life? What if he
feels there is not much in this world for him? And to think about it more, it
seems that there is only one of his kind in the world. Lonely must be a mild
word. All he can do is heal others with his tears, punish evil with his scream,
and then when the time comes he has to burn to death, only to be reborn –
again. What about his wish? Even our mythology talks about a few people who are
immortal. Parshuram and Pavanputra Hanuman. And then there is Aswathama. The
difference between them is that Ashwathama has the power of “Ichhyamrityu” – a
power by which he can wish to die. Even if the poor phoenix had this wish, he
can not die, as he is destined to burn and born again. The rest seems to be
gods, so they too can move out of living land as and when they wish, but it’s
the one and only creature in this whole wide world who can not die. Can he
wish? Did he ever wish to die? What can be the reason for its keep coming back
even after such a painful death by fire? Does it make him stronger every-time?
Or does it burn all his sorrows and emotions to make him live life afresh?

 

All the seats in the train are full; those who still want to
buy tickets are wait listed. The flights in today’s low fare market are
sky-high, yet one needs to travel. Is he fleeing? Or is he just trying to take
a breather? Or does it mean that he has some secret hope beyond what meets the
eyes? Hasn’t he been told not to even dare to dream? And he is expecting? Who
gave him the right to? Must be the dumbest moron in the world.

 

Lost in thoughts, shielded from the glare of the society,
yet in front of their very gaze, the madman keeps playing the chess with
destiny. He has the moves planned, he knows precisely where he needs those
pawns, and knights and bishops to move. He knows on the 46^th move he
is going to put the first check. However he is also aware that there are at
least 1000 variation from here till the 46^th move, yet he keeps
playing those pieces, every now and then. The movements are so deft and far between,
it almost looks like no action. Yet behind the visual cognition the game goes
on. Just praying for one help, that destiny doesn’t play like a bad looser and
topples the board altogether when he sees that he is about to loose. Yes, there
is a definite possibility that destiny looses this game, even with all the luck
stacked behind him, destiny might loose.

 

The phoenix is supposed to feed on fire. Can fire be
replaced with sorrow and angst?