Interesting Times?

Recently when I was talking to one of my favorite teachers at college he told me about the first paragraph of “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. It starts with “It was the best of the times, it was the worst of the times, it was the age of wisdom, it was………..,” basically it is a self-contradictory paragraph with loads of excellence thrown in. He told me that the lines are timeless like the classic they are from.

However, when I read them myself only then I realized the beauty. And in the modern day world and India they are most true.

Yes, these are best of the times because we have a booming economy (or not due to the plunge in Sensex?) and our country emerging as a potential world power (really? With a minion like Pakistan sucking us like leech?). And these are worst of the times with medical students getting treatment like petty criminals and innocent Muslims generating insane xenophobia in the world’s (so called) most advanced nation.

I think Chinese were very prudent in wishing “May you live in interesting times!” when they really meant, “May you live in tough times!”

The full paragraph from Mr. Dickens is –

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”