Deshi Basara

"The Dark Knight Rises" is one of my all time favorite movies. Batman, after being beaten to a pulp by his nemesis Bane, is left to rot within a prison underground - "The Pit". The lone way to get out of The Pit is to climb out of it. A rope dangles tantalisingly offering succour and supposed security to the ones that make the climb. Batman, now Bruce Wayne, makes many an attempt to get out of the Pit but many an attempt prove unsuccessful. On one final go, he decides to do the climb without the rope, and he eventually makes it. This particular scene with its undeniable symbolism is one that has remained etched in my memory.

This scene accurately represents what life has been like for me, for many of us over the past few years. All of us have been battling the odds. Health, wealth, career, relationships - all of them are Pits that we've either mastered or have been struggling to crawl out of. One such Pit for me has been writing. Evidently, I long receded into its innermost forgotten caverns. Just as Grima Wormtongue, in cahoots with Saruman, held Theoden King down in a never-ending unseemly and ungainly rut, so have time and a multitude of excuses held me down. With a self-cast Petrificus Totalus I receded into a paralysed state where words run wild in thoughts in my mind but never see the light of the day. Buttressed by a moat of deference, diffidence and doubt, I hid behind the oh-so-convenient garb of perfectionism and the need to sound profound.

With this post I say - No More.

With this post I rise out of the Pit. Deshi Basara !! Deshi Basara !!

With this post I put paid to my inner doubting Thomas.

With this post I choose to break the dam and let the words flow.

With this post I pay homage to the ones, a few long-enduring and a few more new and already-enduring, that chose, choose and will choose to believe in me even when I don't believe in myself. I love you all, fervently and selfishly. I owe you a lot and I choose to do this for all of you.