AUTUMN ALLEGORY – 50 Gms

“Why the facade, the multitude, the journey? Why not, only meaning, only singularity, only destination? Well, then there would be no place for experience; there would be no expression.”

That doesn’t really answer the why in a practical befitting way but it does point out how innately existence is tied to experience; how without experience – the faculty that makes us aware of meanings and destinations – mere existence wouldn’t suffice humanity.

Maybe it is experience and expression that gives rise to multitude and contrasts in the process of finding meaning. Or it might be meaning that exists as multitude and contrasts, giving rise to experience and expression. Whatever it may be, the whole idea seems to revolve around a revelation of the self, most prone to loss in the intense immersiveness of life. Allegory would be one way to express these revelations without discarding the experience of the façade, the multitude and the journey; without self-referencing ‘the meaning’ to express meaning. But more than mere expression, life, it seems, when expressed, turns into allegory – a sentiment captured by Baudelaire when he said “Everything for me becomes allegory”. And thankfully so. If not, then the business of living loses its immersiveness and becomes plain perseverance! Life and the stories it spins around us, imparts meaning in abundance- the only question is how aware are we and how long before we see it as allegory- how the transience of life expresses meaning.

Different as they may be, our cultures, religions and arts contain allegories and meanings that are probably very similar despite the different narratives, characterizations and circumstances. There is also a good chance that we miss them all together with our rituals and intellectual debates full of shiny logic, glorious truths and practices, but inevitably they run into the paradox of self- reference and lead nowhere. The allegory in Ramayana, the characters from which are worshipped as gods and goddesses in the Indian culture is completely missed in its fluid narration. How it never occurs to one that Ram – the king of Ayodhya, sent into exile with his wife Sita, who gets abducted by Ravana – is actually one’s own self, Sita is actually one’s peace and Ravana who abducts Sita is one’s ego. How when your peace has been abducted by your ego you are forced into exile! One remedy or antidote to missing out on allegory is the quote by Ram Dass – “Treat each person like its God in drag.” More than the humor, empathy and inclusiveness contained in the quote which, by itself is an antidote to life’s transience and indifference, it also reveals the deep source of meaning and allegory – life and the human experience itself.

A wave came crashing like a fist to the jaw,
Delivered him wings, “Hey, look at him now”
He floated back down ’cause he wanted to share
His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere
But first he was stripped, and then he was stabbed
By faceless men, well, He still stands….
And he still gives his love, he just gives it away
The love he receives is the love that is saved
And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky
A human being that was given to fly
      – Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)

Strange and unexpected are the places you find inter-connection and meaning. Even stranger, it is to find these revelations in an unassuming cup of tea and it has always fascinated and mystified us, the references teas invoke when we first experience their flavors. Facts and contexts that didn’t seem pertinent at the time of acquisition come flooding back in hordes as if volunteering to impart meaning and connection of everything to everything else. Plato’s Allegory of the cave in the Pearl Jam song was clear but we barely remembered ‘Time orders Old Age to destroy Beauty’ let alone recall the name of Pampeo Batoni who painted it – but the tea, vividly, did make us recall its allegory. While nothing like the stoic inevitability of the sentiment conveyed- its allegory of ‘time’ as a winged old man holding an hourglass, ‘old-age’ as an old woman, destroying ‘beauty’ as a young woman – it does provide one with a beautiful way to understand the notes of this Autumn Allegory as masculine and feminine, inspiring further allegories to be interpreted as one pleases. It begins like a Tarantella of notes – some masculine, some feminine- expressing the fiesta of autumn, immediately setting the tone with the aroma of malt and obese fruitiness. Taste of a masculine dry, powdered Cocoa and malt, as if scooped by spoon, with a feminine, dense autumn fruitiness turns into an old dark chocolate as if to destroy the young feminine rose tainted, sweet chocolate that is only matched by its long aftertaste. The tussle of old age with beauty sways back and forth with each sip – beauty fights back; the rose becomes more prominent. Which notes represent the ‘masculine’ time and the ‘feminine’ old and young woman, is open to interpretation, but the notes do play out like a long Tarantella – All the playfulness hints away its allegory.

With the exception of the teas from old China bushes, the leaves of Autumn are always fuller and large- exactly what one would expect after the plants have experienced the lush monsoon. But as it is with the inevitability of exceptions, the Autumn Allegory comprises completely of buds! Buds in Autumn by themselves have to be an allegory of keen human observation and divine seasonal providence. Allegories apart, it was pleasantly unexpected and very reminiscent of ‘the invitation’ we received with the Summer Ochre.

While the meaning would probably be very similar, the story narrating this Autumn allegory, for each of us, is going to be very different. The meaning we discover, the multitude we manifest.