Feeling like a worm...

My dear OJ

I’ll take this last sentence of your FB first for my reply:
“Surely you never asked the old man in your post if he wished to live on. Probably no one wants to die.” You are right! I never asked him that question because there was no need to seek an affirmation of the obvious. Who would run such grave life-threatening risks for a few rupees unless he wanted to live on? I know it sounds self contradictory. But the fact remains that for the old man the prospect of dying by coming under the wheels of a bus or truck was negligible compared to the fact that his gnawing hunger was already killing him slowly and his priority was to appease that monstrous hunger. I concede that you have a strong point when you say ‘Probably no one wants to die’ Of course, we’ll exclude the negligible percentage of humans who keep ending their lives for some reason or other because they are not normal. To want to be alive is the predominant wish of even the serial killers! Take the guy Kasab who has murdered hundreds of innocent people for example. He is now trying every trick in the book to escape the gallows!

That reference to the knee-less worm is very interesting. You ask me if I would not want to be a knee-less worm than a stinking maggot. My answer is a strong affirmation. Even if I am offered the position of a perfumed maggot, I would still plumb for the knee-less worm. Kneelessness gives a man a lot of flexibility. Give him a strong pair of knees, he would then show a marked preference to be highly inflexible.

I had lived in Kolkata for two consecutive puja holidays. A Bengali friend told me that every Bengali saved something for the whole year to spend it during the Puja! If one has to give a good example of mindless shopping, we do not have to look beyond Kolkata during Puja. Every Bata shop will resemble the Sealdah during peak hour! In all fairness to the shop keeper, I must say even Rahul Gandhi will need to wait his turn during those crazy four days!

There may be some truth in your begging for FBs but don’t forget that our begging you for resuming your writing in IL is a lot more really!

And I give it to you, you are unbeatable when it comes to quoting fabulous haikus.

Sri

 

Dear Mindi
Very sensible and practical. Only in films, we come across guys like Big B, Rajini or Vijay can put down singlehandedly all the street anarchy. The rest can only be spectators but even to be a spectator, we need a lot of guts. The moment the thugs brandish their lethal weapons the crowd just melts away like the polar ice cap!

By feeling sorry for the affected victims and for myself is the only way I can overcome my shortcoming.
Sri

 

Dear OJ
I have learned to accept bouquets and brickbats alike with equanimity. This is a blessing that aging bestows on people. Brickbats are just heavier versions of Bouquets! Reading your response I knew that I had touched a raw nerve and felt really bad about it. I am happy that all iz well now!
Sri

 

Dear Shail
I felt warm reading your nice FB.

What happens to society is beyond our control but what we can do to our betterment is our personal effort and responsibility. Just as we set our Tuner to correct wavelength to catch some lovely music, we need to keep our mind and soul too to the wave length of the Almighty to understand His design for a daily advancement in our character. Without that effort, we'll be only wallowing in the mud without any hope of redemption!
Sri

 

Dear Ami
"Damned if you do, damned if you don't." That is indeed the dilemma!
Even with a strong body and intensive training in martial arts, it is a big question if one should go after the thugs of the underworld single-handedly. Haven't we heard that discretion is the better part of valour?

Some three decades back, a close friend of mine lost his brother-in-law in a dacoity in a train near Meerut. When every other passenger handed over the valuables without any protest, this guy resisted the bandits and got shot at point blank. He left behind a young wife and an infant son. I know how the girl had to fight all odds to bring up her son. This is foolish.
Sri

 

Dear Rama
Thank you for your warm and nice FB.
I loved your take on the role of yourself as a mother. It is so true. As a young kid, we lived in Triplicane, an utterly middle-class locality in Chennai. It was a kind of small colony with ten families sharing the space. As children we got into some problem or other and how skillfully my mum would defuse the situation! When you mention this, I can’t help recalling my childhood days under the protection of my mum.

You are absolutely right about the unruly behavior and noise levels in our trains. Despite the fact that drinking and smoking are strictly banned in public places, this continues unabated particularly when these youngsters travel in a gang. They rope in the TTE and the support staff too in their drinking orgy. The atmosphere gets so vitiated that the docile passengers resign themselves to their fate and few even join them by the principle ‘If you can’t beat them, join them!’ Strangely any opposition to this partying comes usually from the womenfolk and the thugs do not have the guts to handle the rebellious women in public. If men do the same thing, they get beaten up mercilessly! Fortunately this country continues to respect women at least in public places!
Sri