Black & White

I guess up to a certain point in my life (not that I've lived too much of it) I thought I had people, in general, all figured out - they were either good or bad. I thought a person's behaviour and manner could easily be explained by his being either of these two things. It wasn't until much later that I realised that people, most of them anyway, have a complex, convoluted psyche - its each layer added by a real, human experience. Not every murderer has a stone-cold heart and not every seemingly happy person is bubbling with happiness underneath. We are what we are made of. It is difficult to put a label on someone simply because they had done something at a point of time. And it is also possible to love and hate someone at the same time. Then again, someone may say that people don't change - they are what they always have been. But what is it that they have been? Can a person's entire life be defined by a word?

But people actually aren't that simple. Take yourself for example. If you hadn't met a certain person, would you still be the same one today? Or if you had made different choices?  Or if a particular instance in your life hadn't (or had) occurred? You cannot just paint someone black or white without imagining yourself standing in their shoes and asking yourself what you would have done. I'm just trying to say that everyone has a story. And  a complicated one at that. Even today, when I find myself being too judgmental about somebody, I try to stop myself and be more.. understanding. I guess its because I read a lot of fiction that makes it an even more challenging task than it should be. In most books the characters have pre-defined attributes - they act a certain way and in a typical act of poetic justice, they get an ending they "deserve". But life is different. Its not just black and white. Neither do we have pre-defined attributes nor is the end predictable. And thats actually a good thing - one just has to realise that even if we ruined it and can't start over again, there's room for second and many more chances.