Tag: foolishness

  • An Incomplete Love Story – Author’s note

    An Incomplete Love Story – Author’s note

    A note from the author for my novel, An Incomplete Love Story

    This story was inspired by true events.

    Some, my own but many based on incidents that I witnessed in the colourful domains of my life.

    It is a story of an often-overlooked community.

    Caught at the intersection of cultural pride while fighting for relevance in a rapidly evolving world, the South African Muslim Indian community is replete with prejudices from religious, political, and cultural influences.

    Good intentions rarely paved the pathway to heaven. But, understanding those intentions in the face of the carnage that the resulting actions impose on the innocents is what breathes life into a decaying soul.

    It is this that motivated me to write this novel.

    That is, my hope to draw attention towards the contamination of the good by the misguided prejudices of a sincere but deeply flawed community.

    ~ Zaid.


  • The personification of madness

    The personification of madness

    Perspective, when shared, provides a sense of sanity and inclusion.

    It convinces us that what we see is not a figment of our imagination, and therefore must be real.

    Perception is what convinces us of our place in this world. It suggests that we belong in spaces where others see what we see.

    Madness, is therefore the absence of such a shared perception.

    Madness is what we feel when we search for familiarity in what appears obvious to us, or at least, what we wish others would see because of the beauty or the pain that it offers.

    Not finding such familiarity isolates us in our own reality, leaving us questioning our grasp on what we once believed to be true.

    Thus, the sane begin to appear insane, and the source of our sanity begins to feel like the source of our insanity.

    Reality doesn’t exist. Only perception does.

    The more we find others who hold a similar grasp of what we’re experiencing, what beauty we see in others, or what horror we see in the vile, the more comforted we feel about the experiences of our lives.

    In the absence of such familiarity, insanity draws nearer as we question what we once were convinced to be an absolute truth, the sanctity of which we cannot even dare to think of abandoning.

    It is at that moment that it feels like the world has gone mad, and that there just isn’t enough of us left to resurrect its sanity.

    Perception, therefore, is what makes or breaks a life. Those who are skilled at holding on to their perception despite the reality around them conflicting with their perception, are the ones who ultimately appear insane.

    It’s all relative. Until we try to understand that relativity, kindness will forever be elusive.

    Photo info : A shipwreck in Cape Town that has often resonated with my perception of life. Firmly grounded in the earth, the relentless waves of madness around it, staring defiantly at the incessant storms that approach. Madness personified.