Ani & Bonnie: On Endings and New Beginnings

Ani: Hello, Bonnie, many of my readers and good friends have been asking me why I haven't been posting one of our chat sessions yet again....

Bonnie: Ani, it's always a pleasure to chat about things closer to our heart, but hearty conversations that would be of general interest have become infrequent, I'm sure your avid readers would understand.

Ani: Well, today, I'd love to broach the subject of endings and closures, they've been weighing heavily on my mind, you know.

Bonnie: Things better come to their logical conclusions, and there's nothing often more logical than an ending. And, I would also add that endings mean new beginnings too, as endings aren't absolute or static in this dynamic world of ours.

Ani: Yes. Things end, and new things come up in their place......

Bonnie: Not only that, newer sides or dimensions to old things or old perceptions also come about. Closures are thus more welcome especially in comparison to things becoming passé.

Ani: I hope my readers aren't baffled by our speaking in circles.....

Bonnie: We aren't..... okay, let me cite all the stuff that randomly come to my mind, the recent Black Wednesday terror attacks in Mumbai, for instance.

Ani: It breaks my heart to talk about it. I had been following the developments closely each night on telly, and been having nightmarish visions as I toss and turn in bed thereafter.....

Bonnie: The dastardly attacks were really so disturbing, they absolutely unsettle any sane person.... but what I was going to say was that after these repeated attacks in Mumbai in the recent past, the Mumbaikars find it hard to control their anger, and frustration....

Ani: Do you think it's going to change their spirit?

Bonnie: Well, it's an end to being appreciative of the phrase 'the resilient spirit of Mumbai', I fear that in it lurks the beginning of their seething rage..... treating the whole exercise of saluting the spirit of Mumbai, by the politicians - and the media - as if it's an attempt to abuse them.

Ani: That may be too harsh to say, but I can sense their grudges against the administration. There is a possibility of generating a democratic ouster of the present government eventually. Maybe, like we did, here, in West Bengal.

That makes me ask for your take on the change of guard in Bengal..... what do you think of the end to the 34 year-old Communist rule?

Bonnie: frankly, it's the end of CPI(M)'s misrule, that was long due, rather overdue, but Mamata Banerjee's innings have begun with a revival of the Communist ethos in a rechristened, hybridized format. How successful, or how productive it would eventually be, is a question that should be kept for the future. I am not sure how the quasi-dictatorial rule of Miss Banerjee, who has the first and the last say in calling the cards as the Trinamool Supremo will resonate in the years to come, at the grassroots, but right now, she has been consolidating the concept of a new beginning, the dream of a new tomorrow, successfully.

Ani: Can't agree more. I would assert that it's a new beginning to her crusade, this time not as the leader of opposition, but as a potential game-changer. Her strategies might paid off well in dethroning the Left government, but her real challenges have just begun. She has to live up to her image as the messiah of the marginalized and the oppressed, and has also to refurbish our state's image as a cherished model of prosperity.

Bonnie: I am reminded of one more topical change; the changes in the city's weather, of late. Have you noticed how the monsoons coming on schedule has become a thing of the past?

Ani: Hahaha...... the weather phenomena have been changing globally, buddy.....

Bonnie: Ya, but Kolkata has been witnessing new heights of erratic weather these days, too little rains, and then too much of it, some new beginning in randomness, unpredictability, whatever!

Ani: You see, mapping the endings or the beginnings at a macro level is one thing, but mapping them at a micro level is so very complex. Isn't it so?

Bonnie: Recently, when Kolkata's BharatLakshmi Studio was being devoured by the flames, or the city's historic New Market was threatened to be engulfed by fire, those too were the signallings of some end, or some beginning that conspiratorially waited at the fringes, but what such things mean to individuals who are associated is something that's hardly pondered over.

Ani: True. Personal or public, big or small, endings and beginnings affect us emotionally, more than anything else.

Bonnie: Some scars are left behind, some heal in good time.

Ani: We heave a sigh of relief when an awaited end comes, we lament only when the end is perceived as untimely.

Bonnie: I am baffled how we choose to turn a blind eye to the ungainly endings that are on their way....

Ani: And the same can be said for the beginnings that we are never geared up for.

Bonnie: That's a lesser evil. You, for example, have a difficulty in dealing with closures.

Ani: Touché! I invite closures too.

Bonnie: You are also frequently visited by the ghosts of your past closures, I know.

Ani: How do you know?

Bonnie: It's obvious. Hahaha.....

Enjoy their visits, at best. Else, ignore them.

All I can say is, do not let them haunt you.

You must reason that all good things do come to an end......

Ani: Hmmm..... What about the end to Harry Potter films? Good or bad?

Bonnie: Thank goodness the film series was more-or-less successfully wrapped up, the cast continuity becomes a mammoth problem.

Ani: And, as far as the creator of the Harry Potter phenomenon, J. K. Rowling is concerned, the fans have been promised 'Pottermore': the promise of more wizarding adventures, the revealing of secrets and much more interactive stuff.

Bonnie: So, there's hope in the world of business and marketing that creates newer elixirs, whereby ends aren't ends for all practical purposes. What say?

Ani: I take it as a positive note, and hereby conclude our conversation for the day. Thanks, for the special chat session.

Bonnie: Mutually pleasurable, Ani.