I.R.O.N.Y

I used to think and still do that the most clichéd way to commence writing on a particular subject is by defining it.. Through my papers in college or while maintaining my journal I tried to never introduce by way of definition..

However, today when I sit and think of how ironical life has been, I struggle to understand what irony truly means and how do we define it.. Isn’t it sort of ironical in its own way that someone who doesn’t like introducing by defining is thinking that the right place to start writing about irony is to actually understand and write out its’ definition… phew!

Irony by very many is defined as a simple twist of fate and even though I don’t think it is just that, irony is more often than not a consequence of what one’s destiny commands.. the incongruity that occurs from juxtaposing actuality and intention or a pre disposition of how a situation may occur and what really ends up happening…

I personally like to think that irony occurs when fate intervenes to make you realize that, that one thing that you wanted really bad is after all not so essential in life.. that you can certainly do without if you just exert a little bit of will power.. and if we manage to detatch ourselves enough and build strength of character by acceptance, who knows what we really wanted will come to us in a way we least expect.. I have also realized that options and opportunities that may not have even been on the periphery of one’s imagination surface because of that little twist of fate.. I can say this with confidence at least about my life, observing what has happened time and again in my educational and career path over the last seven or eight years..

It is these little twists of fate that leave me wondering sometimes about the what if’s of life and then I just smile to myself thinking that, it is after all because of these little ironies of life, that I have learnt what I have in the last few years and mostly am the person that I call myself today..

I sign off this little thought with a little bow to Socratic Irony where a great philosopher like Socrates himself in defense of self, says in Plato’s Apology, that he possess a wisdom that each of the other wise men in Athens lack, simply because he is openly aware of his own ignorance..