Part 4

continued from part 3

More times than not, wishful thinking doubles for optimism; without a shred of struggle, without a mite of effort, things would somehow turn for the better, is not what constitutes optimism. In fact optimism isn't merely an outlook (drukpadham), it is constant strife for perfection, a continual ritual for betterment. Optimism without the effort is day dreaming, at best. The term 'failure' has a different meaning in the optimist's lexicon. It remains the inability to learn from a mistake, a hurdle, an obstacle. Non fruition is an outcome, just as how the realization of the goal is. What failure is, is the non-acceptance of an unpalatable result. Failure is never about the end result. It is an attitude. And when one realizes that non-fruition is an equal opportunity possibility of an effort, and that non-materializing offers more, in terms of balance, acceptance and betterment, a realist becomes an optimist. Optimism never talks about success (or failure, for that matter). It talks about possibilities. If offers the individual the wisdom and the discretion to welcome any outcome. If there is no such thing as failure and all that remains at the completion mark, are the lessons learned, the optimist marches on in his pursuit for perfection - tireless, careless and fearless. The opposite of optimism, in the conventional sense, may be pessimism. A pessimist, though skeptical of the process and unsure of the end result, never roots for failure. A pessimist is more a realist. So the at other end of optimist lies not a pessimist, but a sloth, a lazy person, who only WISHES for good things but never works towards realizing them. Optimism, thus, is all in the action, that it is just in the thought.

Many poets extolled the virtues of this attitude numerous times before, that the undying spirit should never be let go even in the face of extreme situations (agaadhamou jalanidhilOna aaNimutyamunnaTulae Sokaala maruguna daagi sukhamunnadilae, Sodhinchi saadhinchaali, adiyae dheeraguNam - SriSri), but few came close to Sirivennela in terms of internalizing the concept, the belief and the philosophy of optimism in every walk of life. Optimism, according to Sirivennela, isn't just a stepping stone to success, but a survival trait unto itself, which makes progress, knowledge and their brethren possible. Failure is but a strict teacher that teaches sterner lessons in life. Every path that lies ahead is beset with dangers, disappointments, and at times, even death. In the brimming confidence, born out of optimism, Sirivennela declares that death does not denote a victory of time on life, but rather a resignation of it unable to come to terms with (overcome) life (aayuvanTu unna varaku chaavu kooDaa neggalaeka Savamu paine gelupu chaaTuraa), and as long as life lives on, every waking moment of it is a celebration of its win, and a realization of its responsibility to constantly take the next step and move forward. The ideology is no ingrained in the human mind (and hence the idea of optimism as a survival trait) that death does not deter a man from living, as it is just another outcome of life. And the poet exhorts the same thought process be applied to other facets of life, when it comes to understanding the real meaning of the word 'failure'.(nirantaram prayatnamunnadaa, niraaSakae niraaSa puTTadaa!). If failure should be treated as just another fall out, then what is it that differentiates between success and the lack of it, that determines that pessimism is much better than escapism, even if the end result isn't a desirable one (niraaSa vs nishkriya)? And the answer, effort. Effort is eternal; results may lay to waste, but efforts never do. Effort becomes the true teacher and a trusted friend. Optimism and effort go hand in hand, without any regard to the result, harking back to the famous quote of the ancient text that translates to, man should only be concerned about the effort, and never about the result; man should never claim ownership of the result, but never should abstain from the effort. That, in short, is optimism.

But in a world fraught with fears and frustrations, where does optimism stem from? Surely, it is not a providential gift handed down by God or a congenital trait that is just passed down. In the midst of trying circumstances, how can the torch of the indomitable spirit continue to light the path of progress? And the answer lies in the anarchy, the unruliness and the vexing situations themselves. Optimism takes root in the despairs and disappointments, fears and failures. Where escapism sees a dead end in the doldrums, optimism senses opportunity. Take, for example, the current political social situation in the country. An optimist does not fail to recognize the inequities and the injustices that prevail all around him, for which frustration is the natural offshoot. He doesn't just stop at decrying and bemoaning about the status quo. He understands the plight, he shares the grief, but then he moves past them and tries out ways of treating those maladies. The song 'nigga deesi aDugu ee siggu laeni janaanni, aggitOTi kaDugu ee samaaja jeevacchavaanni' comes across as a defeatist's statement at first glance, one who has lost all hope in/on humanity, crying aloud at things he cannot change. Though this interpretation might serve the situation in the movie, about a journalist who denounces the apathetic society, a closer look at it would reveal a different facet of the frustration. While a defeatist resigns to the fact that he cannot affect change, the optimist raises a hue and cry first, before embarking on the road to change. His criticism isn't directed at the so called 'system'. He points the finger at the collective intellectual paralysis that plagues the individuals (and thus the institution) and rallies his frustration for a collective call to arms. The effect of an optimist's frustration would be quite telling on the minds of willing and the indecisive, like with the explosive lyric 'ardha Sataabdapu agnaanaani swatantryamandaamaa, swarnOtsavaalu chedaamaa'. Like the saying, 'a rich man's joke is always funny', so goes, 'an optimist frustration is always infectious'.

Continued in the next part - optimism at a more personal level.

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