The Perfect Circle

When you were a little kid and given a pencil, you must have started with drawing simple shapes like a square, a rectangle or maybe a circle; your parents might have held the tiny hands of yours and helped you feel the beauty of holding the pencil and the power of expressing yourself.

Drawing a circle is often what most kids start with: the flower which you first drew with the little bud in the centre, the iris of the eye or the bright yellow sun which you drew on fresh papyrus, etc. The one thing which was tricky in these was drawing the circle. Most of the time you wouldn’t end up at the starting point as you curve the circle into shape otherwise it turned out into an oval or any abstract shape. In fact it has been observed that even the finest of artists cannot draw a perfect circle without leaving little smudges somewhere.

Now, you must be wondering what’s my point anyway? Well there is a lot more about The Perfect Circle…

Anchor yourself

If you want to draw the flawless circle you would use the compass anchoring the sharp end to the centre of the paper, anchoring yourself and gripping to the focus is crucial. If I can take the liberty of analogizing, it’s more like anchoring to your faith or religion. I’m someone who believes every religion enunciates the same values just like how your Math teacher taught when you were young, it’s very important to have a firm anchor around which you move and which can guide you as you shape the arc. Once you finish the circle, the centre is not visible to the naked eye, but it's decisive to give you the necessary direction and guidance just like God whom you cannot see and yet the presence which is important as you shape up!

The strong spike

The spike or the long arm of the compass is like your conscience which is pivoted to your faith which helps you define what your values are. It encompasses what our ethics and ideals are and the inherent humane feelings which makes us a social being. Just like a good spike which is made of steel rather than plastic, our principles give us the strength and ability to link with our faith. Most of us have these ideals but sometimes we end up in situations questioning them or weighing whether to hold on to them. Maybe the compass leg is made of steel but holding on to it is more worth than its weight in gold!

The pencil

The pencil is YOU! There is no point in having the right anchor or the perfect compass unless you tighten the pencil well. Eventually the artist who etches the circle is you and how good you can do it depends on how well you hold yourself to the compass!

The centre, the compass and the pencil together creates the wonderful synergy. There has been times in my life when I thought I could draw the circle just with the pencil and I failed. Then I thought I could be the atheist: a compass with a well tightened pencil but without dropping the anchor anywhere and then I wondered, if love could happen without a reason why do I need to seek reasoning in the existence of God and I sought for the anchor. Well, it is no good if you have the focus and a nice compass and yet the pencil is loosely held - a pencil which is clinging on and yet wobbling around - that what many of us are like, I believe!

And when you have everything right, the faith in your anchor, the paragon compass and you are secured well to it like a kid holding tight to its mother, you get it - you grow from the little kid who started with a flimsy pencil to a fine person who can draw the perfect circle - the perfectly meaningful circle of life!

PS: This post might have sounded like one from a Reverend Rohan(!) but believe me, I didn’t mean to be preachy :P