Saturday 16 August 2008

What is Perfect?

I was going through the pages of my autograph book that I had at college - a way of running away from the present to the past. It had the words of advices, wishes and friendships, words by my friends who have shared with me the last days of my student life. It was the words coming from a youthful soul, and youth is a stage between adult and child, where you lay the foundation for the adulthood with the stones you have picked up at your childhood. So i treasure my college autograph book more than anything else in the world. One of my greatest possession. Some of them where simple best of lucks, coming from the hearts, while others, just an artificial wish that is not so deep or warm. On one page I found out this words from my friend Sreekanth - You are one of the Miss Perfects in our class. Not too good. And not too bad. Sreekanth was not a great friend of mine during our college life, but after college, we often have short chats and funs. I'll always remember his autograph, even if I forget my best friend's birthday. His words - Not too good. Not too bad. I sat thinking about his words. For me, Perfect meant something very good, without any sort of flaws in it. You can say "Without wax"- stealing the words from Dan Brown's novel Digital Fortress. But according to Sreekanth's words, Perfect means something that is neither too good nor too bad. So what is perfect?
At our boarding during school days, we used to do all kinds of mischief together. Once when we were in our higher secondary school, while coming from the mosque after our Asr prayers, we saw two or three tender coconuts on the coconut palm. The water inside the tender coconut is very sweet to drink. It is sweet, sour and bitter all the time. And it gives you a small shock at the tip of your tongue, the feeling you have when you put a little of 'Blast Toffee' in your mouth. The thought of it made us to want the coconut badly. The palm was small one, so we could get the coconut if we climb up to the second floor of our building. But it was against the rules to take coconuts from the palms. The mischief souls inside our body was always good in breaking the rules, and so we decided to get a coconut at any rate. One of us borrowed an abhaya ( the black long and wide dress the Arabs wear) from our friend, and we took off for our adventure. With a knife tied around a ruler ( or scale, whatever you call it), it was easy for us to bring down the coconut from the palm. We sat in silence in our classrooms for a bit of a second, to see if anyone has noticed the coconut falling from the tree. After we made sure no one has noticed us, we went to take the coconut. We put it inside the abhaya and went to our dorm. Once inside the dorm, we had nothing to break the coconut to drink the water inside. After many hours of thought, with smoke inside our head, somebody came up with an idea - to put the coconut on the floor under the foot of our bed, and then jump on the bed. I don't remember whose idea it was, but as there was no other way to break he coconut, we decided to carry the advise. We kept the coconut under the foot of the cot, and four of us jumped on the cot. CRASH! The coconut was broken into many pieces and the water, splashed all over the floor! We had to be satisfied with the fleshy part of the tender coconut.
As I said, I'm not too good, and not too bad. I've stolen mangoes from the farms of our neighbors and hostel, I've lied to the hostel matron about special classes when actually I was enjoying a small tour with my friends and I've not been a teacher's pet during my school and college life. In Sreekanth's word, this is known as Perfect life. But is it really perfect? What about it in the life hereafter?
Suppose I was a Perfect girl in the right sense. The bell for the morning prayer goes at 5.30, and after the prayer we have a coffee, followed by half an hour for bathing and washing. Then to the study room for an hour, followed by breakfast and then school till 4 pm. Another one or two hours of leisure time, and to study time after the magrib prayers till the isha prayer. A happy dinner after that, and lights off at 10. This is the life of a Perfect girl. But in my life, the one hour study times where not really study time but time for indoor mischiefs and the evening leisure times where meant for outdoor mischiefs. That brought some smile and giggles in the otherwise bore life of ours, especially when there were sparks and fires among the 20+ of us in one single room. So wasn't it better to be not too good and not too bad instead of being too good? Or is it just an excuse that rises within me to justify my mistake? What do you think? What does Perfect mean to you?

NB: I believe the only 100% Perfect is God. "Without wax" is just an illusion, like we have for parallel line - when they are assumed to meet at infinity.

2 comments:

  1. another grate post keep writing! sorry to hear you recently had a virus i was wondering where you had got too

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  2. Very interesting alternative perspective on the meaning of perfect. :]

    I ascribe to the traditional meaning of the word though as in 'Allah is Perfect and free from any flaw'.

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