The coffer of hidden secrets

Everyday people confide to us many secrets and tell us not to tell anyone else. Although I have never revealed anyone’s secrets once confided with me, I see and hear many people doing it blatantly and with no embarrassment and shame. Perhaps they do not realize the harm they are doing to their character and the reputation of the person who confided the secret with them. Women are especially “good at keeping secrets.” Confide with a woman and rest assured even her friends and relatives living in far off lands would know it instantly.

The SMSs and e-mails have made this task much easier. What was previously done through slow placed mail system is now possible in real time with this tiny satanic device hidden in every pocket and a purse. Now a secret is no more within the very next minute, but for men and women of character for whom a secret is to be well kept and never to be revealed at any cost.

Charlotte Bronte explains the human heart – the coffer of hidden secrets very beautifully when she says, “The human heart has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed; the thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.”

And how very right is the observation. We in our hearts have many things that haven’t been told or shared. We have hidden dreams that have never been realized, but we continue to keep these for our own pleasure and happiness. And like a magical spell, their charm will be broken if revealed to the world.

But is it really our heart – the coffer of hidden secrets or any other part of our body? I do not from where the heart stepped into the dictionaries as repository of secrets, love, hate and other passions as it is just a piece of ordinary flesh pumping blood round the clock to keep us alive. All recordings and storing of memories, feelings, passions and emotions are in fact kept in some tiny neurons of human brain. But all over the world, it is the heart, that sort of triangular thing that is associated with all things that are in fact the domain of the brain. On Valentine Days and other occasions, we display heart rather than the brain.

May be because heart can be displayed better than not so very beautiful brain that makes it symbolic of our feelings and emotions. And I think no one around the world be willing to replace the heart with brain to be symbolized of our true passions. Therefore, so long as people are happy with their hearts, let it continue to be the coffer of our secrets – but only for some, as mostly people cannot keep it to them and reveal it and feel relaxed, unknowingly or knowingly exploding an A-Bomb for those who get affected by its radiations – may be for a lifetime.

Photos Courtesy:

Bruceclay

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Even if your waves touch my feet a million times….

Every time a natural calamity or a catastrophe hits the mankind, it leaves behind sorry heartbreaking tales of human sufferings and miseries that take a long time to heal. Pakistan had had hardly recovered from the devastations caused by one of the most severe earthquakes that hit Pakistan’s northern areas in 2005, that Nature struck again two months back with one of the deadliest and powerful floods that is still ravaging the lower parts of Pakistan. These unexpected and flash floods have displaced some 20 million people from north to south, which also includes six million children.

Although, the human losses are not much, some 1800 lives washed away into the cruel water waves, there are lamentations of children who have lost their parents, of parents who have lost their children, of elders of who have lost their young ones and of youngsters who have lost their elders. The scars are deep and tales of human loss will be many.

Yesterday I came across a post by my literary friend Syed Asghar Javed Shirazi (SAJS) whose one lined post sent a cold shiver in to my spine. The post describes a phrase written on sand by a small boy who lost his parents in the flood and reads, “Dear River, I will never forgive you; I will never forgive you, even if your waves touch my feet million times.” Although fictionist, it is the true reflection of the sentiments of a child, and all those children who experienced the similar loss.

Even other than the loss of one’s parents, the flood waters washed away innocence from those six million children who have seen their homes, possessions and streets being washed away. I remember I once had a small wooden box in my childhood which had all my “belongings” in it. My comics, a small photo albums, stamps, and other small possessions of a child. And whenever we had a fight among us siblings, I was threatened by my elder siblings that they would take control of the black box, and I used to give in just to save my possessions and the black box. And now I think of many such possessions belonging to these children that must have been lost forever in the ravaging flood waters - a loss that would have taken away all the childhood memories for ever. And here I am remembered of that famous dialogue of the epic movie “Gone with the Wind,” when it was said “An entire generation gone with the wind (or words similar to these).” In this case, “Entire childhood possessions, memories and relations washed away by the floods.”

The post also reminds me of a similar incident that I shared with my readers awhile ago (Lamenting scars of soul) regarding the loss of two little dolls of our maid in the earthquake of 2005. Although, years have passed, the scars on her soul may take a a lifetime to heal.

Times would pass; the displaced people will go back, rebuild their houses and start afresh. But lost relations and possessions will never come back. And even if the waves of the nearby flowing river touch the feet of those who suffered, will never be forgiven – never ever.

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A phrase written on sand by a small boy who lost his parents in the flood

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Originally posted at Jahojalal

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