Going round the mulberry bush

Mulberry Bush!

Have you heard the song ‘There is a hole in the bucket, dear Lisa’ sung by the inimitable Harry Belafonte and Odetta? This funny song has been a great favourite of mine ever since I first heard it in 1960. The lyrics of the song are in the form of a series of questions and answers between Henry and his lady Liza that finally end with the same opening line, ‘There is a hole in the bucket’! In layman’s language, it is called a circular song but the technically inclined would say that it incorporates the ‘infinite-loop motif’. If you don’t understand what it means, rest assured nor do I! Whatever it may be, it is a delightful song that is capable of wringing out a few drops of smile even from the driest face!


What attracts me in this song, more than its fun content, is its circular structure. Circles always fascinate me except the dark ones around the eyes! Many people consider ‘Fire’ as the greatest invention of man but I belong to the group that would put the circle-based ‘Wheel’ ahead of Fire as the root of all our progress. This may sound a little illogical considering that Fire has existed for millions of years but the Wheel is less than 10000 years old. But applying the same yardstick, what the Man has achieved with millions of years of his knowledge of Fire is nothing compared to the progress he has made since inventing the Wheel a few thousand years back. Next time when you rip through the National Highways in your premium Sedan at speeds in excess of 150kmph, be grateful to the genius that discovered the Wheel! Imagine what will happen if the wheels of your limousine are squares instead of being circular!


I am sure most of you would have gone through an academic curriculum at schools not too different from what I did. The Life Cycle of a butterfly is something that we are all quite familiar with. This and many other life cycles are invariably depicted pictorially in a circular format and not as a square or rectangle. The reason for this is that we may all have a lot of angularities in the manner in which we conduct our lives but not in the physical progress of life itself through various stages. Each stage merges with the next so seamlessly that we are not even aware of its happening. Take me for example. Closer to 80, I find it hard to believe that I was once a little boy refusing to go to school and my brother dragging me all the way to my class! From infantile prattling to senile rambling, I have come a long way indeed but I just don’t seem to be aware of all the intermediate stations that I have traversed through. There can be no greater example of seamlessness than the manner in which we journey through our physical life. That’s the reason life cycles are usually depicted in circles. Our resident ‘Vedanthis’ might refer to the circle as representative of the ‘Punarapi Jananam, punarapi maranam’ concept of Adi Sankara.


Circles have played very important role at every stage of our life. As children, we learnt all our good habits singing and dancing to the nursery rhyme,
Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush
So early in the morning.

As we outgrew our childhood and blossomed into youth, we started running round all the trees with our soul mates. When we reached middle age and as our families and their needs grew, we stood still but our heads started reeling at the sight of the immense tasks that lay ahead of us. In the evening of our lives, we start going round the corridors of the temples to free our minds from the follies of our chequered past!

This song from The Lion King sums it up all!

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the circle of life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle

 

Dear Abha
When I tried to google for more info on Ringa Ringa Roses, I was amazed to see some 18 million sites! Wikepedia traces it to 18th Century and even earlier. Another site gave me a picture of Ants singing Ringa Ringa Roses!


For some strange reasons, this rhyme is more popular with girls than boys!

You have raised a very valid point about our place in the eternal cycle of life. That's the reason, people perhaps say that in this life, if you want even to stand firm in a place, you have to keep running!
Sri

 

Dear Viji
There is a difference between Life Cycle and Cycle of Life. The first one is the repeated passage between life and death from which it is so hard to free oneself. When we pass through the different stations in Life Cycle, we hardly notice the stations passing through. It is like a train journey at night when we are sleeping soundly.

But the Cycle of Life is what we go through consciously over which we may have some control. Keeping a smile on the face even in the worst circumstances is like having a sheet anchor that stabilises a ship in a turbulent sea. As you rightly say, that smile can help us sail through the stormy sea of life smoothly.
Sri

 

Dear Shanthi
I wonder if any other writer in IL would have missed your FBs as much as I did. I will not grudge it though since it was a family reunion for Veda and I know that he was looking forward to it for months!

You are right about the circles. I have a great fascination for them and can write endlessly about them. There is a delicate mysticism about them. The other day I was browsing through the net trying to learn more about circles and I suddenly found myself drawn to the deep and intense mysticism of circles. Circle plays a dominant role in every religion. Among Hindus, Sri Chakra is the quintessence of the mystery of creation. Several commentaries have been written on Sri Chakra

"Circles remind me of my first trial at putting henna paste in the palm in exact circle, rolling chappatis in exact circles (yet to master it though), the suns and moons and sunflowers and faces for stick man that my kids drew.."

What an awesome range of examples of circles!
Sri

 

Dear Jaya
That story of the circle and the straight line is a profound one. Only in my previous reply to Shanvy's FB, I had mentioned about the profundity of Sri Chakra which is an intricate design of triangles and circles. Sri Chakra is a happy union of straight lines and circle as you have mentioned in your story.

The ancient hermetics believed that God was a Circle Whose center was everywhere and Whose circumference was nowhere. Since a circle has neither a beginning nor an end, many religions have adopted it as a sacred symbol. It symbolises the Eternal.
Thanks a lot for the FB, dear Jaya.
Sri