Aesthetic Arrest

It is one of the most memorable days in my life till now….. I got selected in the campus interview conducted by Wipro Technologies. It‘s my first job at the early age of 20. I was waiting for the offer letter and one fine day I got it as well. The day was extra special because it was my birthday. It was a very detailed offer letter with all the finer details. I was asked to report in Sarjapur office, Bangalore. I was born and brought up in a small town in central Tamil Nadu and I was not exposed to the outside world so much. New life, new city, new people, new environment, new language, new culture, new, new, new… I had to face everything new.

We (Me, my dad, and my uncle) reached Bangalore on my reporting day. Wipro had arranged a special bus for the freshers’ who had to report that day. We were asked to assemble in a common bus stop and the bus would drop us to Sarjapur office. We were on time and the bus had already come before us. We got into the bus. The bus waited for some time for all the other people to come and at last the bus started. It was moving slowly en routed towards Sarjapur office. Haah!!…. Aesthetic arrest exactly!!!

To all those who wonder what “aesthetic arrest” is all about, here is a wonderful excerpt, a small story said by Joseph Campbell, a mythologist. It is about a space walk. An astronaut puts on his space suit and goes outside the main shuttlecraft. Suddenly he is awe-struck by his circumstances. He is traveling through space at several thousand miles per hour in total silence. He looks in one direction and sees the earth. He looks in another direction and sees the moon. He looks in other directions and feels the beauty of all the other celestial bodies. As he is in his breathtaking adventure, he thinks, “What have I ever done to deserve this experience?” Campbell describes this as “aesthetic arrest.”

For me, it did not take a journey in the space shuttle to experience “aesthetic arrest” but in the Wipro shuttle for the first time. We were seated in a three seater, me, my dad next to me, and my uncle next to my dad. I was looking at my right side outside the window admiring the beauty of Bangalore. Aaa… What a city..!! When I turned left, I could see the euphoric feeling of my dad, the feeling of ecstasy, the sense of satisfaction he had for me. He felt as if he had achieved something BIG. To him, I was the best daughter in the world that day. After all, I had fulfilled his dreams for the first time in life. And there was my uncle who felt genuinely happy for me, wishing me the very best. Then I looked all around the shuttle. I was hyper excited looking at all the new faces from all around the country whom I'm gonna work with. YES..!! Aesthetic arrest, for the best emphasis!!!

Have you experienced “aesthetic arrest” in your life? It could be anything. Have you ever thought “What have I ever done to deserve this experience?”??