"SADHU nahi hote to CHOR kahan chhipte...."

Recently on a train trip to Delhi, I met a hindu saint who got me thinking about the educated people's prejudices against saints...

He boarded the train ( without ticket..) at a station before Mathura and came to our already packed compartment to request for a seat till Mathura. As already agreed upon by the pessengers, we refused him a seat. He kept standing there. Finally we told him to sit down.

As soon as he took seat, a fellow pessenger, Saleem started to pull his leg.. "Baba kuch chamatkar dikhao", he said..Baba calmly said "Mujhe koi chamatkar nahi aata beta.". Saleem now started narrating an incident when a dhongi baba came to his village, did some magic tricks and fooled people into giving away hundreds of rupees. He then boasted "Main in sab chalo mein nahi aata, maine ek rupiya bhi nahi diya". Baba was listening with patience as Saleem said "Ye sab dhongi baba hote hain" and concluded the story.

Saleem was expecting the baba to be embarassed, instead baba said "Beta, fir bhi tum mujhe chamatkar dikhane ko bol rahe the." Saleem instantly went in to a hole and did not speak for the next few minutes.

I was not involved in the conversation as I was already preoccupied with thoughts of moving to Delhi. But Baba's reply got me instrested.

I was already embarassed with my fellow pessenger's bid . "Sadhu ke bhesh mein dhongi bhi ghumte hain na baba." I said as if to make up for Saleem's act. Baba said "Beta, Jungle nahi hote to mor kahan chhipte, sadhu nahi hote to chor kahan chhipte." and looked at me, I gave a silent nod as if no more explaination was required.

I then started asking curious questions, all of which he answered patiently. Finally he deboarded the train at Mathura, but not before leaving a mark on all pessengers (including Saleem...!)

Law of inertia applied to humans..!!

Great scientist Newton gave three laws relating to motion of bodies in a straight line. These laws form the fundamental principles for other theories pertaining to rest and motion of a body.

The first law also known as the law of inertia states that every body has a tendency to maintain its state of rest or motion unless a force acts on it. While Newton thought strictly on scientific lines and used 'every body' in his principle, we being in a free democracy can take the liberty of extending this law to human behaviour and use "everybody" in the same statement.

Can we not say that human beings also have the same tendency. Whatever is our daily routine, becomes a habit and we start living with it. Humans get into a comfort zone in both static and dynamic states - the states can be thought of as professional, academic, personal, relating to relationships or of any other type. We grow and sustain a routine which seems impossible to break.

It takes a great deal of motivation to bring a change in this routine. One is apprehensive while moving from school to college, from college to job, from one job to another, from a single status to courtship.

Like Newton says, if you roll a marble on an ideal frictionless floor, it will always remain in this state of motion and will roll forever.Similarly a bachelor in the back of his mind does not want to give away of the freedom ( like that of a rolling marble) and enter into marriage. He does so because of internal ( insecurity, loneliness) and external ( social pressure) forces.

Even the most brilliant of people of any profession will need some time after a long break to get into their job. All this time they are applying a force on themselves to overcome the inertia of their comfort zone.

I guess I am facing the same challenge of getting over my inertia and getting into my new routine. Once I start, I wish to be like the rolling marble on the frictionless force.

Emotions on SALE...

I happen to watch one of the millions of reality shows currently being aired on Indian television.. To quote the promoters of the show... "The whole idea of our show is to provide a platform for young couples of the country who are facing the challenges of a conservative society, to show how love can win hearts".....

About half a dozen couples, apparently all madly in love... parents of most of the young couples did not know about their affairs before they publicly came out on the show... Some are Hindu-Muslim couples as well.... the winner couple will get a dream marriage ( of course an all-paid extravaganza)

The promoters of the show want the couples to convince their parents about each other and get them ready for a happily-ever-after type married life...

In the episode that I happen to watch, a Hindu girl tries to convince the brother of her Muslim boyfriend, but the brother is adamant that the girl will not be able to adjust in a joint and conservative Muslim family..the couple still says we will not get married until our families give their consent...

Now comes the girl's family... her sister is shown on the big screen almost cursing the girl for a shameful act of choosing a Muslim partner... the girl starts crying and says.. " bahut hurt kar diya mujhe"... the boy's family now consoles the girl...

Finally they take a commercial break.... I have never seen a more pre-scripted emotional drama like this in my life... But it works with our Indian viewers who are known to be "sweet at heart"... People weep with the couples..they smile with the couples and they are not shy of sending multiple SMSs to vote for their favourite couple ( mind you.. Rs. 8/SMS)..

It all appeared to me like a market of emotions.. every emotion is at sale.. of course there are a lot of takers...

GABAN - Munshi Premchand

Here's a book that will bring the memories of pre-independence era. Munshi Premchand has given such a beautiful picture of the life in that times, one feels like living with the characters especially RamaKant. The book moves ahead slowly and has a certain flavor of simplicity.It may appear too heavy and tragic but its really worth moving till the end. Typical of his style, Munshiji uses a very commonplace dialect instead of highly sanskritized Hindi (as was the practice during his period).
Jalapa, the daughter of a small time Munshi of a Zamindar is fascinated about jewelery since her childhood days. She got married to Rama ( son of a court babu DeviPrasad who earns a meager Rs. 50 a month and refuses bribe)... who is an 'avara' college drop out. Deviprasad buys a lot of jewelery for the marriage and spends a lot of money in show off hoping that the bride's father will give a lot of money and he can pay the debts of the Sunar.All the money that came from Jalapa's father was spent in other arrangements.Rama finally ends up stealing the jewelery from Jalapa and giving it back to the Sunar.Finally Rama gets into a job but ends up spending government's money due to Jalapa's obssession with the yellow metal. He runs away to Calcutta to avoid being arrested.. As soon as Jalapa comes to know this.she gives away her jewelery and pays back the government money.. but Rama doesn't know this and is still hiding in Calcutta.He stays with an old couple in Calcutta who start loving him like their son.Rama somehow falls into the police trap who make him give testimony in a fake dacoity case leading to one life sentence and 11 others being jailed.Now the story moves really nice.Its Jalapa's turn now to move her husband out of this mess.
The story is really moves your heart and depicts that the root to all misery in life is man's obsession to accumulate material wealth more than what is required and in fact more than that possible by the means available at his disposal.A great read..