Between the Zero and One: Surviving the Binary Life

Has something ever slipped out of your hands? And fallen into an abyss, far beyond your reach. A careless grip or a strong pull, gravity..or something else which made it slip away. More forces exist in this world than the ones proven by science. Forces that require imagination or is it empathy that we are talking about here. 

One makes a desperate attempt to break the fall, to snatch it before it becomes a part of the unknown. But that depends on your reflex. Re-flex. But is reflex the only appropriate response? Remember, the forces at work are not only physical. The cognitive limitations of our mind will prevent us from understanding the forces at work. 

What are they, anyway? One can never really know. 

What does one know then? The seething anger expressed by the cuss word that escapes one's lips as the forces act, slowly, closing in, snatching it away from you. And all that you sometimes end up doing is swear aloud. 

But anger is not what remains, it is remorse. Anger evaporates and leaves behind sadness. Like salt crystals in the salt pans at Bhandup. It is then that life reminds you that it comes in binaries. And the greatest struggle of humankind then remains is to straddle the zero and the one.

To thrive in the effervescent space that exists between black and white. It is here in that moment when spatio-temporal dimensions seem inadequate to explain your state of being. Imagine being pushed out from the crowded Virar local but being suspended midair, floating above the tracks and yet moving along with the train. You can't go back in nor can you fall down to the tracks. 

You cannot have it all, they will say. And the unknown forces will take it away from you. You can hold on tight or simply let them take it all away, into the dark abyss. 

All for the better.