I am extremely grateful to certain adjectives and adverbs in the English language. They help me to describe myself and others who are made of truly indescribable fluff. Last week while I was waiting for Godot at the Coimbatore airport I looked around and saw that my fellow passengers were taking a 5 hour delay without much of a sense of disquiet . I found myself fidgeting despite a deep dip into an engrossing novel named ‘ Fools Die’ authored by the father of ‘ The Godfather’ , Maria Puzo himself. The occasional nature of my air travel explained my lack of composure. It was equally a lack of exposure, gawar that I am,long years of urbanization notwithstanding, upcountry as sophisticated folks might call me. . The moment this thought and the word ‘occasional’ flashed across my mind’s screen( mind’s eye , inward eye etc. are discarded as they don’t reflect the current times when everything is on the screen and the screen is everything ) I was at peace…and l could settle down to devouring more of the Puzo !
Parts of speech can be played around with, these days, thanks to liberalization of rules everywhere. Hence my coinage‘Occasionals’.Occasionals are a recognized category. In most fields there are occasionals floating around , unbound by rigours , deadlines and expectations. Even well- established writers seek the safety of the ‘occasional’ tag. The particular well-established writer who is on my mind is Kiran Nagarkar who writes brilliantly both in Marathi and English. I haven’t read his Marathi, I must confess. Read his English ‘ Cuckold’ and you will see my point. ‘Occasional’ stalls questions from interviewing pests and their “ when is your next novel coming / are you at work on something ”sort of querries. It is a sort of anticipatory bail. It allows you to operate at your own pace. I wonder whether Arundhati Roy would accept the ‘occasional ’title. More a semi - retired novelist but a regular activist and spokeswoman, daring the arch devil himself. In CVs you find the sobriquet ‘ Occasional contributor to journals and magazines’ which is a euphemism for a defunct scribbler, a plain ex- , one who had written, used to write and so on.
Occasionalism ( of this mundane kind, not the philosophical one) is rampant in the arts and entertainment arena, occasional painters, singers, composers, lyricists,actors, one-film wonders. Could be doing something else to make a living. There in is the rub. The freedom is fine. But where will the food come from ? The old aristocrats who didn’t have to work for a living could afford the luxury of the dabbler enjoying brief flirtations with the fashionable arts. Remember the character in the movie, Nakhakshathangal , so brilliantly essayed by Jayettan ( Occasional actor !) in his heyday as a singer ?
Occasional smokers and drinkers are a different story. If only they remained occasional S’s and D’s ! Nearly always there is progress / regress in their status. It doesn’t take much time for them to be regulars. Chain smoking and alcoholism are just a few steps away. Progress in negative habits comes effortlessly. You don’t have to work at them. Getting established in positive activity is a steep climb.
The personal sphere , so far, has shied away from accommodating occasionalism at least in our part of the world. But if more and more marriages become telegamous ( long distance) and parents and children live apart, families distributed all over the world and so on you cant be too sure. Definitions could change. With a slight expansion or elaboration in meaning, you could be an occasional husband , wife, daughter, son, dad, mom, dad-in-law, mom-in-law…….
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