Dr. Sunil pens a literary fiction inspired by Alice. He retells it in the contemporary context. Here’s the lead of a three-week long theme on stories. A Special Feature exclusively for Different Truths.
‘But I don't want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’ ‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice. ‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’ ~ Lewis Carroll
“I never knew that cats talked till I got into that Alice book,” said the grandpa on a wintry night.
“Is it?” asked Neha. “Our schoolteacher says tales are fantasies. Science is real.”
“Tell her that Alice creator taught math in the iconic Christ Church, Oxford.”
“Is it?” Neha was speechless. “A mathematician?”
“Yeah. An inventor and photographer and…”
“And?”
“A top logical mind with abundant imagination.”
Neha was impressed. “Curious to know about him…”
“That is the key.”
“Key?”
“Yes. Curious, Alice-like. It will unlock new doors for you…and others.”
“Alice was curious?”
“Yes. Very curious.”
“How?”
“She wanted to discover new meanings and possibilities out of the old realities.”
“Find a new world…”
“Yes. A world buried out there beneath the old one…like the snowed parts of Toronto.”
“You are fantastical, grandpa!”
“We all are, kiddo! Part real, part unreal!”
“Is it?”
Smugness Challenged
“Yes. Reality is a construct to be replaced by another construct. Covid-19 challenged the smugness of the global reality and forced humans to look at things from another perspective. The pandemic made us see other realms, other species by questioning human arrogance, power and logic. Made us realize our combined frailty…and also resilience”
“You are correct, Pa.”
“Now everybody knows about the real power of an invisible virus. Is it not, dear Neha? That there are other species out there, now visible and powerful.”
“Yes, correct. We are more aware of nature and natural world.”
“Yes. We are not the overlords of the universe. A virus proved that. Ha!”
“True! And grandpa…”
“Yes.”
“Tell me about that cat, please.”
A Famous Cat in Toronto
“OK. Once I met that famous cat in an alley of the downtown Toronto, near the Distillery District…”
“Is it so? Unbelievable!”
“As I pointed out, Corona was unbelievable in the year 2019. It happened. Imprisoned us in homes for more than a year now. Compelled us to have an interspecies dialogue.”
“Yeah! Our science teacher, Miss Smith, also said that the virus has reshaped ways of seeing and interacting. Suddenly, we are no longer the Master race.”
“True.”
“So, you met the cat? The Cheshire Cat?”
“Oh, yeah!”
“Tell me grandpa. I am curious…”
“OK. Listen, my own Alice. Here it goes…”
Sad and Forlorn
…I had come out of an interview, feeling sad and forlorn, being new in the city. Feeling low and without any immediate goal, I sat down on the steps of a closed bakery shop, watching the weekday traffic listlessly, unable to decide where to go and what to do next. Money was running out – so were the limited options of a freshly-arrived traveler of faith…
“What is that, Pa?”
“Oh! A traveler of faith is the one who leaves everything at home and undertakes a long journey to a new land. It is journey fuelled by faith. Faith in a better place.”
“Oh! History teacher calls them as the first pilgrims or pioneers.”
“Yeah. The whites are named that way. Not us, of other colours. We are called as immigrants. Anyway, listen…”
…I was sharing an attic with two friends. It was abysmal! I thought I would land up a good job in Canada, but it was difficult to demolish initial barriers. So, I sat and pondered over my fate—unable to decide what to do, feeling trapped in a new environment; diffident. Then I saw a young mother with a kid walking down and began weeping. I remembered my own Ma back in my village, a distant memory!
“Why are you crying?”
A Non-human Voice
I heard the voice that sounded non-human and looked around and saw the cat lying lazily one step above, just few inches away!
“You talking cat? Am I dreaming?”
“I am Cheshire Cat.”
“Which cat?”
“The one you read in your childhood in your English class.” And he wagged its bushy tail.
“Oh! Alice book.”
“Yes.”
“But that was another country and age.”
“I belong to the one that discovers me.”
“How?”
“The reader. I become reborn, the moment they read about me or Alice or others.”
“Is it so?”
“Yes. I rise above my time-space barrier and get transported to their timeline and place.”
“Hmm! Great!”
“Right now, I am with you.”
A Friendly Cat
I said nothing. It was a friendly cat. And I needed a friend, even a feline that can talk.
“Why feeling low?” he asked in the British accent.
“Not sure of my future here, dear cat,” I replied.
“Why you here?” he asked.
“You sound like an immigrant officer…”
“No. I am not.”
I said nothing.
“Tell me.”
“What?”
“The reason of your journey to a foreign land?” he insisted in a hoarse voice, eyes twinkling, a broad grin on his whiskered face.
“To work for a better future. What else?”
“Meow!” He purred. “Look, my new human friend. Life is all about making journeys…”
“Hmm! I know that old stuff. Sounds as a cliché!”
“No friend, it is not.”
“Then what it is?”
“it all depends on your choice – Alice, for example.”
“Yes.”
A Strange World
“She, that little girl, decided to leave the certainties of a settled and prim existence and enter a strange world where…”
“Where?”
“Patience!” he admonished, appearing suddenly on the horizon, enlarged, shutting out the other geographies in an instant. “She was curious to discover the other side of reality, reality other than her own and found a world of animals and odd creatures and royals, an invisible world for majority.”
“Hmm! Sounds convincing!”
“She was ready to receive new insights, learn/relearn and establish a bond with the non-humans.”
“yes, she did. An uncanny faculty.”
“The kids have that. As adults, humans forget that ability to see new worlds and talk to new denizens.”
“You mean kids can see such dimensions…”
“Yes, they can. Alice was of course precocious.”
“So how does it help me now?”
“For a journey of such epic proportions, every voyager has to have some madness in-built..”
“Ha-ha-ha! Right. That famous line from Alice?”
“Yes. Certain madness! To see and create new worlds by undertaking crazy journeys, my friend.”
“OK, Cheshire Cat. What else?”
“Meow! Humans carry our own wonderlands inside our heads—some guys do realize those wonderful places.”
“So?”
New Realities
“Keep on dreaming up new realities – initially they look odd but then become blasé.”
“Sorry!”
“Be an Alice-like state. Find truths in unlikely places and take away lessons from Alice-like landscapes that are hybrid, romantic – and deep down, real.”
…
“So, grandpa? What happened next?”
“Oh! A dog’s bark woke me up and I began my commute home.”
“Did the Cheshire Cat re-appear?”
“No. Never. But…”
“But?”
“His words still continue to guide me in life.”
Author’s Note: The story re-imagines strange truths of certain literary texts – and their uncanny ability to connect and resonate with new audiences globally – in newer, altered contexts.
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