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On a mission one is supposed to know as SOCIAL-EXCHANGE

by Ashok Sharda



This is an eyewitness account of what one knows as SOCIAL-EXCHANGE. In the absence of an OPERATOR (intending self, aware and present from moment to moment), the associations assumes charge of your attention, creating an illusion that its you. This so-called poem is an account of how the associations lead you to believe that you are present. The associations never die (even when one is asleep, associations registers its presence in the shape of dreams), where as we are almost never PRESENT. We are just a MACHINE in the absence of an INTENDING SELF.



On a mission one is supposed to know as SOCIAL-EXCHANGE.


They were five, friends –
From social point of view
In the big room
On a mission
One is supposed to know
As Social-Exchange.

They were there, together
Apparently acknowledging
Commonly believed to be an objective
But relative and subjective truth
That they were Social Creatures
Wanting to share.

This urge can't be overlooked
In the wake of yet another apparent truth
Commonly believed to be an objective
But relative and subjective
That they were thinking animals.
The fourth dimension of their being
Constantly chased them to register impressions
Through various sense-organs
On various levels
And verbalize them within
As well as without.

Thus,
All the five compulsively thinking social creatures
Were exchanging their impressions
By verbalizing them without
On whatever happened to crop up
In the course of this exchange
In the big room
They were occupying.

What was cropping up
Was of no significance.
The significance signified in their sharing
The impressions
Which were also of no significance
In the wake of this unbelievably not so subjective truth
That none of their impressions
Ever crossed the boundaries of the known
Which, as we know
Is always known
Which, as we also know
Nobody knows for sure
If its really known.

The significance signified in the truth
Relative and subjective
That they were four-dimensional thinking social creatures
And that they ought to share
Justifying their beings
As four dimensional beings
In the big room
They were occupying.

The impressions being shared
In the big room
Were cropping up
In a sequence of associations
Not unlike the sequence of cause and effect.
The associations causing the associated ness
And the associated ness effecting associations.
The associated ness was inside
Though the objects of these associations were outside.

The associations were persons,
Things, places, colors,
Sounds, shapes and events
The objects of the associations were persons,
Things, places, colors,
Sounds, shapes and events
The associations helped crop up the associated ness.
The associated ness helped crop up the associations.

It had rained that day.

The unusual rain,
Which came into being that day
Had associations with the unusual rains
That had unusually rained in the past.

The unusual rain
Which came into being that day
Took place without
The associated ness helped crop up the impressions
Associated with the unusual rains
Which had unusually rained in the past within
The abnormity of the rain
Was a normal phenomenon
And not without cause
Though, at the same time
Purposeless for the five
Occupying the big room.

This unusual rain had
Negative bearing on crops
A positive bearing on the otherwise dusty roads
A negative bearing
On the general health condition of the citizens
Which otherwise was not good
As such.

The unusual rains
Which had unusually rained in the past
Had negative associations
With the crop
A positive association
With the otherwise dusty roads
And a negative association
With the general health conditions of the citizens
Which otherwise was not good
As such.

The exchange did not stop
On the associations associated with the rain alone
Because the associations did not stop
The associations continued from within to within
And from within to without
And from without to within and
From without to within to without
And so on.

The exchange continued
From impact of change in weather on general health
To critical health condition of a near one
Of one of the five occupying the big room.
The health always has associations
With the health
Good or bad
Both.

All the five occupying the big room
Had relatives
Who had bodies
All the five occupying the big room
Had bodies.

All these bodies
Was either in good shape
Or in bad
At any given point of time.

The exchange continued
Following the associations
From one body present
To the other
From good shape of one body
To the bad shape of another
Returning back to the good shape
Of yet another
Going back to the bad shape
Of yet another.

From ailment to treatment
From treatment to doctor
From doctor to death
From one death to another death
The associations went on

The death had bearing
On the medical services
Which, everybody agreed
Was either badly commercialized
Or badly marginalized.

The flow of associations were
Too rapid
To allow sharing in full the impressions
Associated with the associations
Bubbling inside the small rooms
Occupying the big room.
Any impression
Before it could properly emerge
And be shared in full
Was pushed aside
By another impression
Which bubbled out
From one of the tiny green rooms
Of the five small rooms
Occupying the big room
And so on.

Good or bad
Medical services had its association
With the medical science
So conveniently being manipulated
By the multi-nationals
Multi-nationals had big money
The big money had bearing on politics
Politics is the dominant profession
And sports are not free from politics
Celebrities are sports persons
And celebrities are persons from the celluloid world.
Impressions kept on popping up
Depending on the associations
Which kept on cropping up
Depending on the associated ness
With the impressions being shared.


This went on
Lasting two hours
In the small rooms
Occupying the big room
The small rooms occupying the big room
Kept on emptying
Empty impressions
Locked in the umpteen tiny green rooms
Occupying the small rooms.

After two hours of sharing
Their mission seemed to be complete
And complete seemed to be the sharing
Of impressions
Stored in the umpteen tiny rooms
Occupying the small rooms
Occupying the big room
Occupying the small rooms
Occupying the tiny green rooms.

After two hours of sharing
One is supposed to know as
Social exchange
They were exhausted
Contented and
Relieved.

Re-lived
Those moments of impressions
Lived and re-lived
On every mission
They had been on
One is supposed to know as social exchange
To fulfill their existential obligation
As a thinking social creature.

Shared were those impressions
Shared on every mission
That was commissioned by the five
Occupying the big room.

Undisputedly
Some of the five occupying the big room
Got more opportunity's to share (read-verbalize)
Those, who got more opportunities
Got so simply
Because they did not allow others
More opportunities.

Undisputedly
Some of the five
Occupying the big room
Got fewer opportunities to share (read-verbalize).
Because they were a bit weak in their vocal powers
A bit slow in their reactions.
(Opportunities were equal
In the big room and
Weak and slow are comparative terms here.)

The most interesting part of this exchange
Was that
That neither those
Who had more vocal powers
Nor those
Who had less vocal powers
Were interested in knowing
If those
Who in their turn were listening
Were really listening.

They were all talking in a language
Known to all
But was understood by none.

They all knew
Without knowing
That it did not matter
They know this at the receiving end.
They did not bother to remember this
At the giving end.

So, they kept on sharing in the big room
Conscious
Neither of their talking
Nor of their listening
The associations and the associated impressions were
Too imposing
Momentously all absorbing
To allow any of the five occupying the big room
To BE.

As a result
It so happened
That they were not in the big room
Despite being in the tiny green rooms
Occupying the small rooms
Occupying the big room.

As a result
Much of one said
Was not even registered by the others.
But they all knew
Without knowing
That this was of no significance.

Insignificant were the impressions
Which were exchanged
Without being exchanged.
Insignificant were the associations
From without or
Within
Compelling the five occupying the big room
To go back to
Their small rooms
And produce their impressions
Associated to the associations
Stored in the tiny rooms.
But they did not know this.

They also did not know that
Insignificant were all five
Gathered together
Occupying the big room.
Insignificant was the big room
Occupied by the insignificant small rooms.

Insignificants were Insignificants
Because they were replaceable.
Replaceable was the big room
Replaceable were the small rooms
Replaceable were the impressions
Replaceable were the association's
Along with their associative impressions.

What was irreplaceable
Was the time
The synonym of life
As we all know
Without knowing
And in terms of time
The amount of life
Shared by all the five
In the big room
Was sum equal
To the time
Shared by all five.

The pace of the process
Of the unwinding of the life spring coil
Seemed a bit faster
But the organ
Which registered the impressions
Failed to register the faster pace
Of the process of unwinding
Of the time spring coil.


Post Script:

There occupied one more
The big room
Who was irreplaceable
In the wake of this impression
That his presence
Was a must in order to register
What has been produced here above
He was the sixth
I have intentionally forgotten to mention
Despite his presence in the big room.
He was the only one
Who kept his occupancy
Of the big room
All along those two hours
Of exchange
Without bothering
To enter his small room.
He was the only witness of the five
Occupying the big room
Without occupying it
Exchanging without sharing.

From the viewpoint of the five
He was absent in his presence
Though he was present
Witnessing the absence
Of the five
From his point of view.

He was NO BODY
From the point of view of the five
And NO BODY were the five
Occupying the big room
From his point of view.

After the five left,
The big room was empty
As empty as it was before
The five gathered there
Together
On a mission
One is supposed to know
As Social-Exchange.



After the five left
The sixth too left the big room
He went inside the tiny rooms
Occupying the small room
Which still occupied the big room
Compelled by the associations
Provided by the associations
Associated to the five
Who had left the big room.

These impressions are the outcome of the impressions
Registered by the sixth
While occupying the big room
Along with the five present
In their absence.



01/27/2002

Posted on 01/27/2002
Copyright © 2024 Ashok Sharda

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Jeanne Marie Hoffman on 12/02/03 at 04:13 PM

I find calling it a "social-exchange" to be ironic. It seems not so much to be an exchange as much as people wanting to speak for the sake of speaking. This stanza especially had me thinking: "The most interesting part of this exchange / Was that / That neither those / Who had more vocal powers / Nor those / Who had less vocal powers / Were interested in knowing / If those / Who in their turn were listening / Were really listening."

Posted by Michele Schottelkorb on 02/28/04 at 09:02 PM

"the sharing Of impressions ".. for that is what we are, impressions... this is a very important, lengthy piece, ashok... i will be printing this out for further reading, as i feel what you have written about touches on a fundamental reality of humans... excellent insight... blessings...

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