Scars!

“क्षतचिह्न"

The attempt to translate it had to be from the 'meaning' rather than the word itself...!

Hindi speaking people from Hind-us-thaan (or India that is Bhaarat), may not have bothered too much about 'scars' in the ancient days! Dunno! But... again, interestingly, the ancients were not 'entirely' unconcerned about 'scars'... I did feel 'intrigued' when they called that 'turmeric-stained rice grains' used for blessing, with a symbolic gesture ... as 'A-kshatah' ... a 'non-scarred one'...!!! It 'seems', the husk was carefully peeled without letting the grain to 'even-know' that it was being stripped of its clothing! Perhaps, they 'knew' the worth of 'seeding', while we have mutilated-in-practice/application-part, the significance of what we call a few gathering/s as 'seminars', instead of 'conference'/meeting/etc. Today, the 'disposable' kind of rice (usually, rationed-rice at fair-price-shop, is the 'chosen' one to be turmeric stained, and thrown on the 'well-dyed' heads of 'beneficiaries'! Anyway, it is not 'that-fit' for consumption... throw it, litter it, spill it... in a 'religious-way'!).

'Daag' has a different connotation. While on clothes, it is not without a solution (though the stain might be insoluble in cleansing chemicals), but at subtle levels, this 'stain' connotes what our 'status' holds for others... scar is slightly different... we carry it upon-ourselves!

Women(at least some of them), are 'more worried' about a scar, than the injury itself, that had caused it!... (A lady colleague of mine, once suffered skin abrasions, when the pressure cooker chose to intimate a bit loudly that she, the working-cooker, had forgotten to 'water the plant' ... the cooker's inside-base with those two crucial cups of water, before placing the 'priority-dish' with its own cooking-water!... Out of the 'stream' of visitors to the hospital ward, the voiced-concern of her close lady-colleagues was.... 'is the scar going to be permanent?'... and I was all attention to 'see' what the face-expression is going to say, while the words would lean towards 'only an appropriate' reply ... 'our courtesy' levels demand that such 'ex-gratia' acts are received with 'strict-adherance' to 'appropriate-replies' rather than factual-based experiences. This lady chose to be uninsured, and said 'I really don't know'.. She was good-looking despite that scar already, and this, might have irritated a few others around! ).

Only after I 'grew' up beyond the physical growth even, did I notice that scars came to be 'sought-after-thing' for some youngsters... But they liked it only on their clothes... the Jeans-pant! The cow-boy-movie-heroes with torn-and-stitched pants with those patches became a 'rage'... I tried to look-out for something similar in girls, but only 'rare-ones' (In all probability, they might be 'trial' sessions, out of 'borrowed-garments-never-fit-well' wala scheme!).

Villains have a scar as a 'make-up' in movies... it is a show-of-sustenance levels (not exactly a 'tolerance' level)!

I was in for a surprise, when that spiritual pursuit tried to reveal the mind-related problems presenting a hurdle into deepening of perception beyond sensory levels! That is when this scar's scary business got itself into a 'limelight' in my view/vision! The solace, initially, ..... and the solution, later on... dawned with the 'reassurance' in the words 'Api chaydasi paapebhyaha... vrijinam sam-tarishyasee' (Gita, the song-divine)... And what better place to place it than a war-field where scar-wounds abound!

As a society, or as a nation... tainted-politicians respond to 'public-exposure' a lot-differently today. (And we take after them, often. Maybe it is thus... that... the phrase 'innocent-divorcee' got coined to signify, that the 'so-called-scar' is not really 'that-deep', while the surface scar of 'divorce' itself is no-more a 'scar-like' at all, but the in-thing, or the 'fashion-of-the-day' itself!). 'They' say , in places like Japan, a small scar as a 'taint' even, is good-enough for a politician to step-down at once, and then scurry into oblivion, while we find it adorable! My teacher at college said 'the founder of this charitable educational institution was declared insolvent some 32 times!' (and left it to us, to guess... whether to adore it or to despise it!... The subtle message was the 'reasons', the parameters, to decide either ways, had to be reconstructed afresh, ab-initio!).

Scar-edly yours,

psn(8th July, 2014)

ps: (“Scar-edly”... was, not exactly 'scaredy' ... for, that was 'found to be' thus: “a scaredy-cat (informal)

someone who is frightened when there is no reason to be

Usage notes: This phrase is used especially by children.)