Life for the contemporary man has become like the writings of e e cummings, bereft of any capitals or punctuation marks. It is one ceaseless flow of words and deeds, forever treading familiar territories without any impetus to just stop, stand by and observe. Participating in the action is deemed as the only correct thing to do. This deluge prevents extra attention to any one given aspect. Hence no need for capitals to mark beginnings, no italics to mark departures, no semi-colons, and even no full stops to mark halting. Just flow like a river, is a simile often used to justify this way of living: a mighty simile from which incurable optimists draw inspiration. Civilization grew along riverbanks and hence the application of the river principle is considered appropriate.
The life of a human being is unfortunately not a river. It is a conglomeration of disorder. A whole lifetime is spent to bring about order and give shape to this amorphous mass. For that the rules of grammar were invented. Not merely for textbook knowledge but in the larger scheme of things, grammar was meant as a metaphor for servicing life.
Each distinct sentence of life needs its proper punctuation. Or else meanings can change. Then hark, what discord follows! The exclamation of the previous sentence if altered to a full stop, changes the tenor of the thought concealed in it. The drama of life thus needs exact punctuation marks. Let us ponder for a while on a life without question marks. The whole purpose of existence is defeated. Knowledge is approached with a whole series of questions. Without a question mark it seems to be a conclusion rather than an enquiry. It simply does not progress.
The significance of a full stop cannot be overlooked. What if life progressed without it? There would be no distinct meaning left to any thought or expression. It would be a wild medley of words without meaning. Even for that matter a mere comma: that too is essential to give structure to a proposed thought. The point of emphasis is created through the use of commas in life. One often mistakes any punctuation as a barrier and wishes to do away with it. It is not a barrier but a catalyst for more effective expression. Through the correct use of such marks one might conduct life better. The geometry of life attains symmetry and harmony with it.
The quest for perfection in life can be attained through the exact usage of punctuations that bear resemblance to those encrypted in grammar books. Just as mathematics defines life so does its kindred discipline, grammar. Mathematics operates through definitive laws through the application of which standard conclusions can be derived. Of this branch of study, geometry provides the nearest similitude with grammar. Geometric laws are determined through precise measurements, the slightest aberration of which can cause the law applied, to fail. So is the case with grammar. A tense gone awry can cause the dead to live and an adverb can make an adjective frown.
Many might argue that such childish far-fetched similarities between grammar and real life are not warranted in an age when the angst of existence has also been lost. This is not a fetish one wishes to pursue. It is merely an endeavour to discover a pattern to behaviour and thereby seek solutions through some logical laws rather than the hocus pocus of god men steering society to live life through hogwash.
To emulate the example of a perfect grammatical construction, life need follow only the punctuations in their spirit and not through exactitude. There are no exacts in life. A few micro-millimetres here or there can alter the course of human history in the individual sense of the term. But the discernable beauty of a well-constructed sentence can also be attempted in life.
It is all about learning to where to draw the line and where to extend it.
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