Ghosts of Quality

Monsoon is here. Its raining outside.

“Johnsa…This rain has a music….I want it”...Johnson looked at Padmarajan. ..Smiled.

(Rains in Kerala - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNojxXRA52I).

The ghosts are back.

Clara (Thoovanathumbikal, 1987) It is an eternal question for every mallu as to why Clara refused Jayakrishnan. Running away from humble beginnings and patriarchal trappings, how did she see through another trap (JK’s offer of marriage). What was she made of, to have grasped man-woman relationship in its rawest form - beyond typical patriarchal constructs of love, morality, protective comfort - and then to politely and firmly abstain (1). Remaining ever so Bold, Beautiful, Dignified and Free Spirited! Facts have always been stranger than fiction they say and I really thought Padmarajan was writing about someone so real. Because if you are writing a fictional character down, your logic ought to unknowingly spoil the poetical mystery and reconcile those beautiful contradictions found only in nature. However, to my utmost surprise, producer (P Stanley) revealed much later, that Clara was never real (though JK was) but only Padmarajan’s imagination - a male Idealization!

Johnson’s music, this incessant rain and Clara.

Jessie (Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya 2010) To a question on complexity of Jessie’s personality, all that GMV (director) managed to say was (2) “People who know me really well, tell me Jessie is an alter ego of me while Simbu is someone I might know”. We see him struggle to explain her actions – those strange flip-floppings defying logic while keeping herself intact – again, dignified and graceful! For, unlike Clara, Jessie had a family to lose. Yet, it keeps coming back for most of us, as to why, she refused Simbu in favor of her family, even when she knew she would never be happy.

It is also strange, to see two characters, Clara and Jessie (a generation apart!) explicitly state, that they would both rather wallow in the pain of unfulfilled love, than marry and be consumed by it.

Lila (Pirsig, 1991) Robert M Pirsig grappled with Quality all his life. He tried hard to explain it through two books – Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance (An enquiry into Values, in 1974) and Lila (An enquiry into Morals, in 1991). ZMM still sells over 100K copies every year, but because very few understood ZMM, he wrote a sequel, Lila, about ‘a whore’, as his consummate representation of (dynamic) Quality! He clarifies (See 4) that Lila was a very difficult character (an alter ego?) to tackle, and he had to wait for days in meditation, for her to speak to him. So much so that it took him almost 15 years to write Lila.

Lila was a mean girl, went around chasing social standards. Loving other women’s husbands. Violating every 'code of morality'. However, Lila said ‘men wants to have sex with women to destroy their center’. Pirsig admits he does not know why she spoke to him like that (3). Interestingly, actor Jagathy Sreekumar also said, Padmarajan never allowed anyone to change the dialogues of his characters too. Perhaps they were just as sacrosanct, spoken to him by Clara herself.

Conclusions

It was Pirsig who connected the dots. Quality. All these wonderful women seem to have it. True to themselves, they were at the forefront of quality – dynamic quality. Something, Pirsig clarifies as the pre-intellectual cutting edge of Reality - ‘something’ which strikes you before your minds can wrap around, comprehend and define it. All these women had it. Very simply put, you never know what they would do or say next!

While Lila was meaner, Clara was much gentler with male’s (JK’s) vulnerability. But still, the semblance between Clara and Lila - both, ‘whores’ symbolizing Quality- struck me as striking! One is reminded of the most famous Zen Koan of all times “Does a dog have Buddha Nature?” Well, beyond Joshu’s equally famous reply “Mu”, nobody has anything more to say on it.

Alas, I find consolation in the sole realization that perhaps, this fascination of ours - of finding Quality or Perfection defined in the opposite sex is universal. For, you find the same consummation of Male Perfection by female imagination - in male characters like John Galt and Howard Roark - fantastic creations of the genius of Ayn Rand.

So, the question is, are our ultimate definitions of Quality and Perfection, mere shadows, reflected of the opposite? Yin and Yang.