When you sat down in the café outside Durbar Square in Kathmandu, in the early morning, you were the only one there. It was still dark when you had sat, the city was still tucked up in bed in dreams and blankets, but outside the wind was lashing away, the night still weighed heavily and the few lights were groggy and squinting. The sky was a darkblue-purple patch that filled the gap between the buildings, and the stars winked at you though this gap; yes, they were positively winking at you: on-off, on-off; throbbing to some celestial rhythm - like airplane lights. As you sit there, so far from what you can call home, so far from what you recognise as your own, your hands clasped around your coffee cup – it’s warmth peeling away the layers of your morning torpor and the stars winking away as they have been for millions and millions since the days of the Dinosaurs; your heart can not help but jump in joy. Oh yes in joy! A joy that whispers to you: ‘Hey Wasim, you understand so much! you know so much! but in the frenzy of life you forget what it means to know these things’ - What things?
Let's take one thing. Like the Dinosaurs for example; the fact that you 'know' that they once roared 120 million years ago underneath these same winking stars and now it is your turn. Your turn to roar. So you roar: ‘Rrrrrrrrrwwwwww!’ and what a roar it is! The cook in the kitchen sticks his head up, his eyes frantically searching for the lion that has no doubt escaped from Kathmandu zoo, or for the madman that roars in sleepy café’s, on early mornings. You are a blip in the orchestra of the stars, the game of life, the trials of love, the medley of life.
The early morning air and chemicals in this coffee are making you feel lightheaded; but it is all-good. So you roar some more: Rrrrrrrrwwww! And you laugh. And the cook sticks his head up again like a Giraffe looking out for the lion that will eat it.
Your roar roars with the stars in a synchrony. Each trying to out-do the other. Outshine the other. You feel you are one with all; the night has wrapped itself around you in a velvety cloak, the coffee molecules are dancing on the tip of your tongue, the stars are buzzing away above you like electric lights, and the memory of the dinosaurs lingers on in the collective memory of all of life. Inside your cells - it is all there. In the DNA. You ask yourself whether any of this is real. You feel the table. It seems solid enough. You pinch your skin: Ouch! But you still feel (have always felt?), as if you were an actor on a stage with all of humanity as extras. And the physical world; mountains, jungles, desert, cities are all props. Props in a blockbuster. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide? There’s no escape from reality. Open your eyes. Look up to the eyes and see…
And the immortal refrain of Bohemian Rhapsody parts the darkness; its choir like orchestras are everywhere. You can hear them. If you listen it’s everywhere…Come on Freddy Mercury let's show em':
'Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the sky and see…'
And you look up to the sky. And you see. As slabs of sunbeams, that have plied millions of miles through inky Space, plough into the shadows and fill them up till they are shadows no more; but scabs of lightworld! The saturation levels rise and the colours come alive like flowers blooming in spring, you can hear life all around you unfurl itself. Awake from its nocturnal reverie. The colours of the sky move steadily down the electromagnetic spectrum: Purple-Blue-Green-Yellow-Red. It’s a new day. You put on your shades and head off. It’s going to be a good day today. It's going to be a sunny day today.
