The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, that dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre-Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Sir Cliff Richard from 1958 to 1968 and have joined him for several reunion tours.
They no longer exist as a band – they have put their shadows behind them.
Bengalureans though were more fortunate. They made their shadows disappear amid an Election. That is quite an achievement. Else voters, no matter where they are, are shadowed constantly, mostly by shadowy people wanting to put their fingers in THEIR pie! for which their real shadows are prepared to handhold them to the election bootha! Oh, my NI (natural intelligence as opposed to Artificial Intelligence) tells me that I have made a spelling mistake! Booth. That’s the correct spelling; hopefully.
But Bengalureans had a chance – not to escape the heat, which was unrelenting, but their shadows – not the Central Agency ones – those are as unrelenting as the heat – but their own shadows. This, provided they were standing erect and not bending and swaying with the wind at 12.17 pm on April 25; politicians may have missed their chance, especially since it was election time! And this opportunity came for just a brief moment. After all, as the saying goes – you can’t escape your shadow! It’s called Zero Shadow Day. But in reality, was a Zero Shadow Moment. A moment perhaps that is to be cherished because it occurs just twice a year in locations between the Tropic of Cancer (and no it’s not cancerous) and the Tropic of Capricorn (Which your shadow can be: capricious that is!)- but then it’s your shadow! How can it ever be different? For people living in these areas, the Sun’s declination will equal their latitude during Uttarayan and Dakshinayan.
I used to love those Hollywood films that showed PIs (not police inspectors, but private investigators) shadowing their targets! Today it’s Delhi Crime Season 1 and Season 2, the Netflix series which have you hooked by the crime it depicts and tries to solve – not through shadowing or shadowy methods, but the brilliance of the investigators! Oh, how we love to live in someone else’s shadows – not our own!
Yes, we bask in the reflection, and that’s what a shadow is, isn’t it? We may hate our own shadows, for whatever reason, but love the shadows of our heroes, whichever field they may have excelled in, or in which the media excelled them in, because deep down we believe that we may never be them or like them. And the next best thing is to connect with their shadows! Even that would be great, wouldn’t it? Yes, absolutely – try rubbing borrowed gold on your skin and returning it! Then see if traces remain! If they don’t, you may not want to return the compliment!
Many of us are afraid of our own shadows! Wherever they are, behind us, beside us, or n front of us. Generally, they sway from side to side as if they were under the influence. It generally is…under your influence!
But why? It’s all us, no? We block out the light in our lives, and it forms behind us or around us, shadowing us in a way only it knows – the shadowy way: is that why we are afraid? Or is it because it knows us better than we do? The odd shapes it forms are perhaps just a representation of who we are really portraying the dark, often hidden, or mysterious aspect of our personality, character, or experience. And then it does some body shaming too! Makes you feel inferior, and on the other hand, it stays subordinate to you and obscure even as it makes you feel guilty of all that you are! It’s a complex being, but then, it’s just our reflection!
But it knows our secrets. And while it’s no competitor, we are still afraid of it. For it imitates us, mocks us even, and we don’t enjoy its sense of humour, just as you may not, mine. There is an old phantom saying – remember the Ghost who walked (Sadly he no longer does)? – the truth when consumed burns the throat! Yes, it’s no competitor – It can’t be. It’s just you. But it can make you compete against yourself! As the saying goes – don’t be a shadow yourself! Get real. But don’t look in the mirror too often, that too reflects who you are to the world. Look inside and find out who you are. It’s when you don’t cast your shadow on another, it sets you free of itself!
But shadows by their very nature, even though cast by a bright light, come out black, the very epitome of all we despise in ourselves, reminding us time and again that there is much to improve upon.
“All shadows of clouds the sun cannot hide like the moon cannot stop oceanic tide;
but a hidden star can still be smiling at night’s black spell on darkness, beguiling.”
― Munia Khan
The conclusion is that where there is light, there is a shadow, telling you that the light is not positioned appropriately, or you have not positioned yourself appropriately in this world. But can you ever do that, given that the world itself revolves on its own axis?
Conversely, there is no shadow without light. And if you prefer darkness to the shadows so, be it. Many between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn were of that view and enjoyed the moment. But it didn’t last! What will last, is our amorphous shadow. We must live with it, and certainly, we will die with it. And when our coffins or our pyres cast their shadow, those on whom it falls must find that it invigorates them, else our lives would have been lived too much in the shadow to be of any good to the world!
“What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?” ― Mikhail Bulgakov
Photo by Martino Pietropoli on Unsplash
Disclaimer
This Article is written in a lighter vein. It hopes to bring a smile to your face, and you must not ascribe motives to its contents. There is no connection to events and characters in real life and if perchance you find, or make a connection with any such real-life event or character, rest assured it’s purely coincidental.
