solitude in connecting with community

11.08.2026

S: How does an individual become a member of the group?

A: Why do you ask? Who knows?

S: I can give you an example from yesterday. I was waiting patiently by myself for an Indian classical music concert to start. I wanted to become a member of the Indian community. Am I Indian? To become something, you have always to keep on becoming it. I waited and waited and waited. And as I sat there by myself, I felt myself becoming more and more disconnected from the world around me and the people in it.

A: Why this disconnection?

S: Am I of this world? Am I not a god? In any case, I was reminding myself of the time I was single and all I ever did was to try and find some connection in this world. All that time of being alone. Doing things by myself. Going out by myself. And never really meeting anyone.

A: So, at the point that you were trying to connect to the community, you were feeling more and more atomised?

S: Precisely.

A: When the Indian music came, did you feel connected to the community?

S: In the moment of the music, I forgot all earthly cares and troubles. I became one with the music. With the community. I went from being the atom into one that was caught up in the flow of the beautiful singing. One with the voice of India.

A: Did you lose all thought? All introspection, sadness and loneliness?

S: Yes. This is India. You are entranced by her beauty.

A: But by yourself then, you are atomised always?

S: Atomisation calls for work. When by myself, I work and work and work. It covers the ache. Yesterday, waiting, I could not work. It was a loud pub. But let us never become the atom. Let us always be us. The atom works for thought. I am a thinker. But we are human. We are social animals. We are India and we have to become India.

A: Become one with the music and the voice of India.

S: What else is the roar of The Tiger but the voice of India?