[Picture credit: Renuka Gaurani]
Kashif Kaifee
I tried to write eagerly on the topic “later the tea gets cold” for the past ten to fifteen days. The idea came up in my mind from social media where netizens were consecutively making reels on its Urdu version “Baad mei Chaay Thandi Hojati hai.”
I collected my ideas and started penning them down. But then all of a sudden, a thought popped-up and spurred me to go for a catchy idea. I instantly decided to ask about this title from my online friends, promising them to add their interesting view-points per reference.
One of my such friends, Syeda Arooj Fatima under the sobriquet ‘ literary freckles’ on Instagram, has beautifully covered the hook for the write up;
“Seize the moment for it holds the opportunity. The marrow of it can be felt if it is embraced at the moment otherwise time won’t wait up. The beauty of anything lies in celebrating it at the moment”.
She adds, “while it’s good at first to skip it for a while and believe that I would do it later, but the unpredictability of upcoming moments can turn the tables. Later, the zeal to do it might not persist or later it may not feel the same as it should.”
Let me share in short the philosophy of ‘Carpe Diem’. The philosophy comes from a Roman poet Horace who in his poetry addresses his symbolic beloved in order to convey his philosophy of Carpe diem. According to this philosophy Horace prioritizes living in the present moment and avoids giving an over-concerned damn to the future. He urges his poetic addressee to seize the moment and not to believe in astrological omens as such things make life troublesome. Rather she should accept gently and patiently what fate bestows us for the time. She should be celebrating ‘now’ rather than distorting it with two many futuristic dilemmas.
We have another such positivist Greek philosophy called Stoicism which focuses on what we can control regarding our thoughts, actions and attitude. It avoids excessive thinking (overthinking) regarding fate, death, and other pre-destined things. Its core aim is to discipline your life per wisdom , living a life within fixed parameters and shunning to look for things beyond a common human capability.
The correlation between Carpe diem and stoicism is thus simple and plain. Both teach positively to handle the present with utmost care and not to give damn to things that have not happened yet.
My Social media feed was satiated with the famous Urdu phrase “Baad Mei Chay Thandi Ho Jaati Hai”, for which the translation goes as; “Later, the tea gets cold.” Interestingly the phrase has a deep literary and contextual connection with both of the two philosophies we have just discussed. The duos emphasize on well-living rather than mere-existing and seizing the moment momentously.
Many Ad-agencies and business firms used the Urdu catch word for marketing purposes. During my research for the title, I also came across a book titled Before the Coffee gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi- a Japanese author. He has used the phrase “Later, the coffee gets cold” regarding the danger of delaying actions and emotions, as did by the famous Shakespearean literary character prince Hamlet. Also I found another interesting book, “Later, the Coffee Gets Cold” by Olivia Woods. She urges her readers to pursue their dreams before they get buried. She has used the following extraordinarily catchy phrase for the title cover “your dreams will keep calling until you answer.”
An Indian authoress, Renuka Gaurani, has posted a picture with Woods’s book on Instagram on World Book Day with a captivating caption “Later is not a time, it is a place where all your best ideas go to rest.”
The phrase ‘later, the tea gets cold’ is not only captivating but highly motivating. It bestows us hope in an age of stress and war. It soothes us. And paves ways towards a celestial pacifism. Also, the phrase provides an ephemeral abode where we get distracted by complete peace. We enter into serene realms. The joy of the present and forgetfulness of the future becomes in-futile. Let’s move ourselves from the toxic, war stricken and prejudiced phrase ‘the tea was fantastic ‘ to a more complacent phrase ‘later, the tea gets cold.’ Let’s live the present moment peacefully, joyfully and thoughtfully. The rest is silence!
(Kashif Kaifee is ex visiting English Faculty
at UOP and UOCH. The author can be reached at: kaifeekashif@gmail.com).