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Tuesday, December 14, 2004
In the darkness, we come together
Chandrahas Choudhury writes in to say he once felt the same sentiment as I’d expressed in one of this morning’s posts (“Building patriotism”), and that he was also irritated the first time he heard the national anthem at a theatre. Over time, though, he says he changed his mind. He writes:
Beautifully put – though I don’t agree, because I don’t think most people are given to noble musings of this sort, and the enforced standing to the anthem is actually counter-productive. But I am struck by a line of Chandrahas's, which contains such a profound truth: “When the lights are on I am a being separate from the men or women around me and conscious of my differences from them.” Is this not true with all of us? Why is this so? Why does it take the darkness of a cinema hall to unite us?
[T]hese days I positively look forward to it when I go to a movie. If you agree that the anthem has some meaning and relevance, then, in my opinion, the darkened theatre is actually one of the best possible places to play it, because within its upper stalls, lower stalls and balcony it contains people from all walks of life and all kinds of backgrounds, sitting shoulder to shoulder as they watch a movie. For a moment the theatre is the nation in microcosm. When the lights are on I am a being separate from the men or women around me and conscious of my differences from them, but in the darkness we become a kind of community, meditating upon the pluralistic philosophy, the mosaic of different sects and creeds that is our nation, and which the anthem celebrates and affirms.
Beautifully put – though I don’t agree, because I don’t think most people are given to noble musings of this sort, and the enforced standing to the anthem is actually counter-productive. But I am struck by a line of Chandrahas's, which contains such a profound truth: “When the lights are on I am a being separate from the men or women around me and conscious of my differences from them.” Is this not true with all of us? Why is this so? Why does it take the darkness of a cinema hall to unite us?
