[This post was published by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Time: 8:10 AM
Place: Chartered Bus, on my way to work
Started from: First line of Chapter 1 of Part 1 - "Well, Prince, Genoa and Lucca are now no more than private estates of..." (Encountered a been-there-done-that sensation!)
Finished: Chapter 1 of Part 1
The Scene Ending: Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and confidante to the Russian Empress Marya Fedorovna, is planning to start her apprentice as an old maid; and resolving to learn what old maids like her do best - matchmaking!
Phrase that hit - When asked by Prince Vasily Kuragin in her soiree as to how she was doing, Anna Pavlovna replied, "How can one feel when one is...suffering in a moral sense? Can any sensitive person find peace of mind nowadays?”
Anna's state of mind seemed familiar. I had this same feeling when thousands of my fellow Indians were being killed in the western Indian state of Gujarat in the spring of 2002. Their crime was that they happened to be Muslims!
Although I did go on with my daily life during those terrible days but my insides were completely jolted out from their normal positions. I was like a wretched, helpless being; simply incapable of appreciating any pleasant emotion. I was haunted by the ferociousness of evil forces that had so hijacked the mindscape of my country. It was depressing.
Yes, I quite understand what Anna must have been struggling through when that ‘Antichrist’ Napoleon was marauding through Italy, when there surely lurked a palpitating fear somewhere in her heart that he would not even spare Russia.
But could it be Anna was just faking her feelings as people in page-3 circuit are prone to do? Who knows…
But really, how can one feel when one is...suffering in a moral sense? Can any sensitive person find peace of mind nowadays....Oh, can he?
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