Note 1 - Litost

As mentioned in the banner for the Introduction, the title is a word from the Czech language and denotes the anguish one feels at the sudden sight of one's misery. In the blog, 'fictionofnature.blogspot.in', it is mentioned that Milan Kundera in his book, "The Book of Laughter and Everything", gives a slightly twisted meaning to this word.

"Litost is an untranslatable Czech word. Its first syllable, which is long and stressed, sounds like the wail of an abandoned dog. As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it."

He also goes on to say, "Litost is, essentially, a guilt trip through actions; by aggravating someone via verbal actions, physical actions, and sometimes silence. There are layers to Litost."

The ultimate form of Litost, Kundera explains is, "circuitous revenge...the indirect blow." For he writes, "Litost is a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery."

I want to agree with what one reader commented (appeals to the poetic me),

"As a Czech native speaker, I think that my personal feeling of the word "lítost" is quite different than Kundera's.

"Lítost" is a moment when you find that something which (sic) should not happen, unchangeably happened. It does not have anything to do with humiliation of speaker - I can feel lítost about things that have absolutely nothing to do with me, like Holocaust. Tragedy of this word is much deeper than just damage of somebody's ego. It is a feeling we have about an immense, negative and unchangeable breach of the order we expect the world to have.

However, verb "litovat" means "regret, repent" and usually refers to one's own misdeed.

Interestingly , its adjective "lity", is poetic word for 'angry'."

My readers are free to decide which interpretation they would like.

Note 2

The lyrics are from the song 'Let her go' from the album – All the Little Lights by the artist Passenger. It was released in 2012 and won the Independent Music Award for Best Song – Folk /Singer – Songwriter.

I have modified the lyrics in my banners / edits, to suit the character (s). The original song would only have 'her' which I have replaced with him /them where required.

Note 3

Technically speaking, Sanskaar and Laksh are only cousins and cannot ever be called as siblings, but it sounded nice, 'siblings married to siblings' so I used it. I hope I am forgiven for the literary licence I have taken.

Note 4

Nature's first green is gold... is a very short poem Robert Frost:

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Eight lines but which are very profound and in the words of Alfred R Ferguson 'Perhaps no single poem more fully embodies the ambiguous balance between paradisiac good and the paradoxically more fruitful human good than "Nothing Gold Can Stay," a poem in which the metaphors of Eden and the Fall cohere with the idea of felix culpa'. (Latin and literally means – Happy Fault. In literary terms, it denotes a series of miserable events that would eventually lead to a happier outcome. The religious connotation is a reference to the biblical story of the fall of Adam and Eve and the loss of the Garden of Eden, known theologically as the original sin – denoting that this loss of innocence was a fortunate fall because of the good that came out of it, that is the Christian redemption and the eventual hope of Heaven.

I have used it because I love the imagery it evokes.