Still Walking That Line

When you are growing up, you wonder about what you want to do in life. Schools sometimes require you to write essays on what you want to “be”. If you are privileged enough, you grow up to choose some career as per your linking or you get pulled where circumstances lead you. As you follow your career, you find yourself extremely happy at times and not so happy at others, yet you keep working.

On my sixtieth birthday, Raju Deshpande presented me with “Walk the Line”, a set of interactive cards that he had created. While looking at the various cards and pondering over them, I felt like I got an overview of these processes that I had gone through in life. Every card has three elements- a circle, a square and a human figure. These three elements interact with each other differently on every card. One of my close friends was visiting me that day. I showed him the cards and we both sat down looking at them. Conversationally, I asked him about his work. He stopped me right there, and said to me, “Not now, I am in the circle.” The circle in the cards represents what you want to do, as opposed to the square, that signifies what you have to do. My friend had grasped the concept and conveyed to me that at that moment, he didn’t want to be reminded of the more practical, work related stuff in his life, but wanted to remain in the circle, and enjoy what he wanted to.

The set of cards have a number of combinations- in some the circle and square are intersecting, in some they are completely apart with the human figure either in the intersection or balancing on the various lines and shapes created in the patterns. When you see them you are suddenly reminded of various situations faced by you in life. Sometimes you have had to do certain things even when you didn’t want to go in that direction. Sometimes you have let go of inhibitions and done exactly what you wanted to do without practical repercussions. Every card presents a situation you can relate to.

Well, that’s my personal take on the cards. I later went on to see how different people reacted to them. Some were intrigued, some simply smiled at themselves in some private self-realization, but the cards always managed to make them think and reflect.

In one of the exhibitions where the set of cards were being displayed, I saw a young boy looking curiously at them. He picked up one card in which the circle was inside the square and the human figure was inside the circle.

He asked me, “What do you make of this one?”

I replied instinctively, “Well, that is Sachin Tendulkar. He had said in an interview that fortunately for him, his work was his passion!”

The boy picked another card in which the human figure was in the square and there was no circle at all.

“I will never want to be like this,” he said.

Many reactions can be recalled and related, but I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun of interpreting these cards yourselves. Have a look at them and let us know what they made you feel!