Conversation with Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Devika: Hello Professor, what brings you out to this part of the world?

Albus: It is only in places away from home do we find ourselves. We are unmasked from all the  grief of being who we are, we turn inwards and realize what has been there forever.

Devika: But. I don't understand.

Albus: A soul as young is yours is not touched by the burdens of the cacophonous world. Tenderness and enthusiasm dominate your world and there is no scope for the ramblings of an old man like me.

Devika: Whoever said you are old? Flamel lived till  he was more than six and a half centuries old, you're 132. All you need do to is metamorphosize that white beard into a darker shade.

Albus:  How very kind of you. My friend Nicolas Flamel was a vibrant person, with the hopes and humour of an adolescent child. I would even say he died rather young.

Devika: Being young comes with it's own set of tragedies. Heartaches and failures.

Albus: A pained heart is one that has been loved. One that has once upon a time swelled with joy. You age, you lose energy and vibrancy but the one thing that stays with you is the love that grew in you and the love that grew you.

As for failures, a mistake is only a failure when it is not taken inside in through a hole not too wide to give you direction.

Devika: But you achieved so much with age. The position of Supreme Mugwump and Chief Warlock, you achieved only after you were well into your second innings. Does age not make you wiser?

Albus: I'm afraid I have to answer with a little less of modesty but I was always associated with genius. Yes, you may become wiser. You may know more and you may have greater insight. Yet, the vitality of young age always trumps. You're full of bubbles of hope and you have yet to achieve the summit of brilliance. It's the climb up to the top rather than the top itself. At the top, it's just a lot of wind outside but lack of oxygen inside.

Devika: What if one's early youth wasn't the happiest one? Is it possible to ever overcome losses that settled in early? Is it possible to rise again?

Albus: Have you met my bird, Fawkes?

Devika: A beautiful creature. Only we can't replenish ourselves with that ease.

Albus: Easy is never the antidote. One should rather fail in a difficult task than find success in one that never really challenged us.

( Albus eats a Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.)

Albus: Seaweed, great improvement over my last hair flavored one.

Devika: Professor, don't you think it's harsh to live in a world with magic?

Albus: There is no world without magic. It's the one thing that lives inside each of us, inside our very toenails and gums. It can be found in the beautiful world more than it can be found in the wood of a wand.  Magic is not in spells, it's in the comfort of the poetry of music.

A magic is what I call a blossoming flower, a baby's smile, a summer love and the laughs with friends. It's in the very essence of life.

Devika: That does give hope to the muggle world. It does. Thank you Professor.

Albus: Now if you will kindly excuse me, I'll get into my nightsuit and retire for the day. A man my age should be in bed by this time. Pip pip.