I'm writing this on Christmas day and last year this time is still vivid in my memory. I came into work and wrote the January 2003 editorial in much the same way- first thing in the morning and the last thing on the list.
I dislike writing editorials even in the normal course. And this being the last one, makes it more difficult than ever before. What does one say about bringing out a last issue that anyone who has not had to will understand. Don't misunderstand me. This isn't the last WAVE, it's simply the last issue from this editor.
In the 13 months I've worked with WAVE, there's one thing I've learnt: You can do anything. That is what they said when I started the job. I realise now how true that is. People are capable of doing all kinds of things you would not have thought was possible. Naturally, I want to share that truth with you. You too can do anything.
I can see the cynics, the sceptics, the pragmatists and people who have learnt about life in hard and hurtful ways vehemently shake their head in disagreement. That is all right, because that is another thing I learnt here at WAVE. A difference of opinion is everyone's prerogative. The point is about how you express it and how you accommodate other people's point of view. That is one of the ways of doing "anything" the right way as distinct from doing "anything" the wrong way. Since this space is mine for the last time, let me offer my thoughts on "anything" and the rights and wrongs of it.
Anything, as in a thing of any kind, is not about love songs; I'll do Anything/ for you dear Anything… remember Annie, the movie about a freckle-faced mischievous girl with curly ginger hair who finds herself transported from an orphanage to a resplendent mansion? Movies like Annie, with their romantic storylines and fantastical scenes of the neglected orphan who becomes the cherry of some old man's rich household, and that too a singing cherry with the prettiest little voice, have corrupted our understanding of Anything.
Sugarcoated movie definitions of Anything, translate to: "anything can happen to you". What it implies is 'your fantasy can come true'. Recall the scene when Annie first steps into the foyer of the mansion. With her tattered self and a cheeky attitude the little girl managed to change her life.
The truth is you can do Anything, but not in the way something good happens to you passively. What I mean is, you can take on anything. Visualize a topless unsmiling Bruce Lee getting ready to beat the hell out of a bunch of thugs. Yep, that's what I mean by, Anything. But there are other meanings of Anything too. Anything is about knowing things. It is about knowing who is who. It is about seeing through the cosmetic façade and making out the nugget from the dud. It is about sifting through the muck and finding something precious there, just as it is about peering into all that looks precious and finding the muck in there. For every line from Cohen which says, "there are heroes in the seaweed", there is a line from Maclean which says, "for I know you what you are not, for that is really all you are". When you figure out the truth of both, you can do anything you want the right way, unlike people who do anything the wrong way.
Khuda Hafiz!
