16 September,2009 07:39 AM IST | | L Romal M Singh
Patrick Swayze passed away yesterday and while fans from all over the world mourn the actor's death, I mourn the passing off another much-loved symbol.
This however is not about him, it's not about any human, not about civilization or even the planet it is about symbols. Symbols and symbolic representation defines humanity in its very essence yet we ignore it's importance in our every day lives.
As a much younger child growing intou00a0faith in Christianity, I considered myself extremely ahead of my time, when I refused to get baptised.
I told my mother that I wouldn't get baptised till the symbol of baptism meant something tactile enough for me. I needed to understand it, grasp it in all its fullness and then assimilate it into my system.
Today, several years later, I realise what I fool I am. A symbol as powerful as baptism needn't have ever been intellectualised so much. It was powerful enough to find its way into my life on its own accord.
Symbols are precisely that. They are all-powerful representations that human beings create basically to express or classify. Look at everything around us today. Everything at its base has a symbol that defines and at times even explains its existence.
Languages evolved as symbols of expression. Writing is a symbolic orgy. Each letter often evolves, as a symbol of a sound, but in no time becomes the sound in itself. No wonder the Chinese and Jews consider their letters to be divine in nature.
Among us Indians however the love for symbols seems much stronger. Be it the fanatical love for the Tamil script among Tamils or the more defining symbols of caste and creed that are prevalent quite exclusively to the India.
Saivites and Vaisnavites differentiate from each other using different forehead markings. Sarees are symbols, their styles are symbols, dhotis are symbols, their designs are symbols, hairstyles are symbols and piercings too, often are symbols.
My generation however uses symbols in its own way. Hand gestures often symbolise words that are taboo, clothes define aspired class preferences and choice of materials too can symbolise political statement.
Shruti Hassan recently showed off her tattoo at the back of her shoulder. She proudly exclaimed it was in Tamil and read 'Sruthi'. Naveed Ozman, Rekha's nephew, recently got a Tamil tattoo too, saying 'Radha' which is his mother's name.
It looks lovely and just emphasizes again how symbols will always almost come through to mean the most. I understand their excitement. The Tamil script does quite a bit to me too. The tattoo itself has passed through several era's as a trusted method of self-expression.
All said and done, symbols will always mean something. They are generalised yet personal and can often take on any meaning you would want them to represent.
I wonder if refusing my last boyfriend the honour of tattooing an R on his arm was such a good idea. Maybe it wasn't. It might have after all just been the symbol that saved our ill-fated relationship.
