The Past in Perspective
As the year draws to a close, it’s typically a time when most of us spring clean our closets and houses— throwing away accumulated clutter to make room for the New. I undertook this sacred ritual on several days this month. Yet as I did so, I wondered how many of us take the time to spring clean our souls? We need to do it on a daily basis to take stock of all the accumulated resentments, hurts, and grievances that block our vision and keep us stunted… All our lives we are conditioned to remain bonsai plants little realising that we have the potential to soar skywards… beyond the stars…
It seems to me that only humans have this rather annoying trait of dwelling in the past; of clinging on to the past like barnacles on a rock. In doing so we forget that all life is essentially in the here and now. In fact the concept of linear time is a human invention. In the ultimate sense there is only timelessness…. Everything just IS.
Yet I fi nd it paradoxical that given our obsession with the past, when it comes to preserving and honouring our heritage, we seem to be almost disconnected with the past. We see it in the numerous acts of vandalism and graffi ti being scrawled across ancient monuments across the country. Where is our veneration of the past?
This is why our cover story on Kadambavanam, on preserving and revitalising the past, is especially signifi cant. Chitra Ganapathy and M. Ganapathy, spearhead a movement to showcase and celebrate Tamil culture and heritage, are catalysts in initiatives to preserve the glory of heritage in a contemporary context. As they told Marie Laure Bonifasi, “The idea was to take the visitor to a small typical village where they would not have gone otherwise,” says Chitra. “People should know what Tamil Nadu is…or should be.”
We thank readers for their supportive and critical feedback on the fi rst issue of TOM. In a sense for the team at TOM, every issue is about learning from the past and yet being free from its stranglehold… to have a sense of the past in perspective. Our cover story seemed perfectly timed for such thematic musings.
TOM wishes readers a wonderful 2010!
We welcome readers’ reactions to the magazine. Please send your comments to editor@timesofmadurai.org
