Shadows

Shadows

As a kid, if there was a power outage in my house, the whole household used to gather around one lit candle, and I remember playing with the candle flame and making different kinds of shapes with hands to see how the shadows are cast on a wall. I am sure every one of us might have done this in our childhood. 

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This was all fun until you had to study these phenomena in physics in high school. A shadow as defined scientifically is " a dark area or shape produced by a body coming in between rays of light and a surface". It is a simple everyday phenomenon that we observe. 

A few days back, I was watching some comedy programme in which a guys shadow comes alive and gets him into trouble. It was a stupid comedy. But that got me thinking about shadows in a different way. It has been quite a while that I wrote something from my thoughts and this started feeling like something I could relate to things that happen to us in life. 

The same object can cast a different shadow based on the light incident on it. If the source of light is too close to the object then it will cast a big shadow and vice versa. It is basically the perspective of light falling on the object that changes how the shadow appears to be. 

What if we can relate this to our lives? 

Say an object is a person here, the light being cast is the perspective of other people and the shadow cast is what the other people observe about you (the person). 

We do not cast any shadow during the mid-day when the sun is directly on top of us. This can be seen as a stage in life when what others think, feel or see in you does not affect your life. But we always try to find some shade to stay in and cannot stand under that direct sun for too long. 

The other instance when there is no shadow is in the dark. These are the times when we feel low, alone and depressed or in dire need of some attention from friends, family etc. Let me explain this better with a form of art. Shadow art is a form of art where the artist uses opaque objects while the real art is the shadow that is cast because of these objects. The art can only be seen when the light is positioned accurately to reveal the shadow intended by the artist. 

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The objects used in these arts might not mean anything in the dark. They are worthless unless the light is incident in a right way to reveal the beauty that they cast on the wall. In life, when we are at our low, many a times, a right light incident on us can reveal the true beauty or worth that we possess. The right perspective of other people might help us to get out of a situation when we feel worthless.

There might be people around with a different perspective about you who see the wrong shadow of you and might just walk away. Sometimes even we ourselves cannot see what beautiful shadow we can cast. We cannot see our own shadow in the dark unless someone shines some light on us. 

This might be a little haphazard to understand, but what I am trying to convey is that, during some parts of our life, the right people with the right perspective about you can make you feel what you really are capable of. These people could come into your life as family, friends or complete strangers.

Thank you all once again for taking your time out to read my blogs. I wanted this to be short and simple. Will keep blogging more and more. Have you guys checked out my review and a short history of one of the most iconic cars in history, if not, then please do check the video below! 

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 -Sushant Thotakura