Utopia

'Stop teasing. What are you? You give money to the socialists and communists, you help the
Congressmen, you encourage the Leaguers...'
'I help all honest men.'
'But what are you?'
'Must I be labelled?'
'But you must be something. What would you call yourself?'
'A citizen of the world.'
'Who believes in?'
'Who believes in the building of a new world.' She sighed and he smiled and went on. 'Where all people shall have the right of self-determination, where all countries shall be free, where peace shall abide and the toilers will enjoy the fruits of their toil...there will be an end to the exploitation of man by man.'
'Ah, Utopia!'
'You asked me what I believed in.'
'But one must be a realist'.
'I am. I did not say we'd get my world in a day... but the ideal is a Utopia until we achieve it.'
'And then?'
'And then it becomes reality and our minds move on and we find it imperfect. Then we work for some new Utopia.'
'And so it goes on.'*

These were words exchanged by a young couple in search of a new space, a Utopia. What they got were two 'free' nations and a communal bloodbath.

I wonder if there isn't a search for Utopia inside each of us. A desire to be happy, to feel free... happiness being momentary and freedom an illusion?


* excerpt from the heart divided by mumtaz shah nawaz (delhi: penguin, 2004)