Monday, May 7, 2018

Contrary

Some years back, at the International Film Festival of India, 'Adwait Sangeet', a documentary on renowned vocalists Pandit Rajan and Pandit Sajan Mishra of the Banaras 'gharana' was screened. In the many stories they shared about their eventful life, one interesting account was about an interaction with Osho (Rajneesh).

Osho asked the brothers, ‘what is the opposite of ‘sur’ (melody, accordant)?’ The answer seemed obvious: “besur’ (discordant, inharmonius). Osho had a different answer, ‘even the non-melodious is a type of a melody… the opposite of melody is silence, the pause between the music!’


Indeed, it is a valuable lesson! The opposite of things may not always be the ‘other’ extreme. It may be the absence of that thing. For instance the converse of love is not hatred (which is negative love). Hatred is the other end of love. But the opposite of love is indifference – the absence of response.

So often, so many of us confuse the other end of the stick as the converse of it. The contrast need not be the antithesis. The contrary may be the absence of the hypothesis. If we think on this lines, we will be more concerned about the absence rather than the albeit adverse presence.

The discordant is still a type of concordant
The contrary is absenteeism created dent!


~ Pravin Sabnis


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