Words. What are words ? Aren't they just some symbols - lines and curves - strung together. Aren’t they nothing ? After all, they look like nothing to one who doesn’t know what they are. Isn’t it us - humans - who have given it meaning for our own purposes. In fact, when I look at the first “word” of this article and see it with a sense of detachment - I can’t feel its meaning - it may be VOD, WAUD, WAD anything.
Words. Aren’t they beautiful ? The way you can play around with them, the way they can love and pierce you at the same time, the way you can seek their assistance to tell someone what you feel. Isn’t it amazing that a book or a poem is never the same once you have read it - like an ice cream you have eaten and you can’t let go of the taste which lingers.
I have been thinking about language - what it means, why it is so important for people and what purpose it serves. One may try to be scientific and claim that language is but a product of human evolution - it is a necessity which Man developed to communicate. To warn his family about a ferocious predator - let’s say. But does that explain the poignancy of poetry and literature, or even a conversation with a dear one? Can that explain how language can make you cry and laugh?
If we were to just communicate, we could develop a machine. In fact, it would be more efficient and faster than language! We would not fumble while speaking, nor hesitate. What we felt could be communicated to those around us with ease and without effort. Perhaps, this scene will play itself out in the future. But,
Will the strongest AI tool ever be able to replace the joy of language - even an ‘inefficient’ language ?
I realize that I have digressed a little. The reason I began writing this was because I wanted to put to paper these thoughts I have been having. Well, there you have it. I have just answered my own question.
The very beauty of language lies in its power to put out to the world and more importantly, to yourself - your thoughts. To get it out of your system - as gen Z would say. This, according to me, is the source of language’s immortality. It allows you to express yourself in symbols that your brain understands and then find solace in them. When you don’t want people around you and your mind breaks down under pressure, words become your companions.
In Class 10, I, along with my school-mate, had qualified for the National Quiz Competition. It was the first time in the history of our school. It was also my first trip alone - without my family. As fate would have it, we lost in our first round - and badly. Now, tears did try to vent out that dejection but fell short. I wrote a poem which I titled - ‘Failure’. Last year, I felt something which cannot be described by the word ‘lonely’, I wrote - ‘I Long’. Another time, I experienced confusion and disillusionment - with life and its devices, it crystallized into ‘Puzzle Itself?’ (I will share them with you in due time)
Language is therefore, an inseparable facet of human life, once you are fortunate enough to know it. I have friends who write way more beautifully than me. When I read their poems, a smile invades my face - because that is what language does. When I finish a great book and turn over its last page, I feel a void. An emptiness which can only be experienced when you have been immersed into a world of words and suddenly are thrust out of it with the last full-stop of the author’s pen.
If language was merely a tool to communicate; Shakespeare, Elliot, Keats, Shahid Ali and others of their kind would not have their names inscribed in gold today. If words were mere words, I would not hear the sighs and see the tears of a friend in her verses. If letters had just been symbols, I and many like me would, perhaps, have never been true to our own selves.
Thank you for your time.
so amazing ♥️