Alone or Unique?

The beauty of solitude is that it lets you focus all your energy inwards and not so surprisingly, you pay attention to things you never noticed, new ideas are born and you can reminisce about moments that matter, even if they are not so important, with a smile on your face or a drop of tear running down your cheeks. Of course, my solitude is often accompanied by work and that doesn't make it very interesting; but I was able to pay closer attention to a song, which I conveniently ignored in the past - Chitthirai Nila from the movie Kadal. 

What fascinates me about the song is the powerful concept expressed in very simple, rather colloquial lines. A child is born, his mother passes away and his father abandons him - the dictionary meaning of an orphan, a loner who has nowhere to go to. There are so many motivational songs that talk about being strong, comparing the person to heroes from the epics and all that; but this one is different. Here are the comparisons made by the lyricist:

Chitthirai Nila - The full moon, one of its kind that comes in a specific month of year

Sky - The vast evasive space

God - Accepted by most religions as a single limitless power

Now, this is not the first time someone brought moon, sky and God in a poem, not at all. In fact, if you analyze the lyrics of Tamizh songs or even Indian songs for that matter, apart from love, heart and probably rose, I think these will be the most frequently used words. What makes the comparison interesting in this specific song is that the lyricist calls these orphans too. They are all unique in their own ways, but you can call them loners, if you really want to. They are one of their kind and the only one of their kind. Would you call them unique and compliment them; or would you call them loners and pity them? It's really up to the perspective of the viewer, just like his outlook towards his own life and himself. I can't think of a better way to render such a powerful concept in lines simpler than these and kavippaerarasu proves yet again, why he gets so much respect and recognition.

Here's to uniqueness...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_B1eOGys_0