"Sir", my friend protested, "But I don't understand....What do you find wrong in me ? I haven't puffed a cigarette in all my life. I don't do drugs or alcohol. I haven't ever had any illicit association with any member of the opposite sex. I am a well-educated and qualified man, earning a good six-figure salary and a stable job. I am pious and follow traditions. I have a good lifestyle and nurture the same values as you'll. Why can't I have your daughter's hand in marriage - when we love one another ?"
I was there.
I was listening to this desperate outburst ...
I couldn't understand it either.
The man never puffed - he was right - he only took it in (passively). He refrained from alcohol and drugs (he didn't need them - he didn't have control over himself anyways - no question of wanting to loose it). He didn't ever have any serious relationship (until now) with any female (well, that this was the first girl who said yes to him is a different topic altogether). He was earning and had a job (hmm - an IT job - not really stable, but I discount that)!
What was it with the old snob then?
After ages of silence, he replied - "You are not a Kannadiga".
God knows - and so do the neighbours - I prevented a cold-blooded murder then.
Funny, you might say. It is, sadly.
So - isn't the outburst/anxiety/anger justified - when we come across reservations in the various speheres of life ? These reservations are nothing but the personal biases of elected individuals. These collective, common and mutual biases are passed in the form of a Bill in our House of Representatives - and are then enacted as Laws a citizen of the country has to abide by! Now when the SC has adjudged that 27% reservation be held for OBCs (myteriously not applicable to the 'creamy' layer - creamy layer of and only of the OBCs - someone please explain why not that of the SC/STs/MBcs) what's the brouhaha about ? Why the hue and cry ?
Each one of us, at some point in time or the other, in one way or the other, holds some reservation. That which we seek from others in one form, we deny to someone else in another!
Life is unfair - not because of circumstances we are in, but those we create - accept it and move on!
Oh and to conclude the above happening ...
thanks to my friend's sermon and his reactions to the old man's wisdom - the girl was married off in a month to an elderly Kannadiga gentleman (10 years elder to her) !
Its true - Wisdom has no takers!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Road Not Taken
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
Road Not Taken --- Robert Frost
Life - my friend once explained to me quite introspectively, in his drunken stupor, is a series of Mistakes! I could understand - he had broken up with his girlfriend a couple of days back and then for some unknown reason, he wanted her back...he seemed pretty serious about breaking up then, and he seemed pretty serious about being with her now.
Hang on...the drunkard has more to speak....its not about her alone...its about the "funny thing called life" (aah...deja vu!). "You know TP - some freak said life's like a box of chocolates.....you never know which one's gonna come your way - the guy from Philadelphia or You've got mail...dont recall which one... - doesnt matter ...he was right.... Everything around us is the way it should be - people and circumstances. These are the result of our concious choices. And yet its ironic that we loose appreciation of these. We suck!"
Speak for yourself pig! Quite paradoxical at the moment it seemed to me - Life's a series of mistakes but a box of chocolates we fail to appreciate...that's the rum-effect on both...he's talking gibberish...and i am all ears...go on you *****....
"I hated school - played truant, cheated in tests, skipped homework...did everything that would later be repayed in the parents-teacher's meetings..and boy was i glad to make it to college-rather out of the prison - only to find myself in deeper shit. College life was supposed to be cool, but it turned out to be a stopover that was suddenly going to decide my career! It sounded awesome when someone used to say i am in Biomedical or Electronics and Telecommunication...why do i have to go through this two-year jig to get there- i couldn't comprehend it."....
Made myself another glass ...had decided deep inside (last fraction of my concious self that would soon drown itself in rum) that if this was to go on for the rest of the night...i needed to be out of my senses asap.....
"Gladly college ended - was now into engineering......surely things were back on track! I couldn't be more wrong...they expected me to understand Newton and Electromagentic Theory and Mechanics ...the aim was to graduate into IT and earn big bucks like my seniors...surely that was the life I want...suddenly, i needed to survive the four year stint...."
One more glass and mission accomplished - i will drop dead by his side ...he can puke his heart out after that...would be least bothered...
"Now i have an IT career and guess what ..." I know..it sucks too...."No you moron! "- he took me by suprise.."IT's also ok....". Then what could be bothering the pig i thought.
"I miss school "
Aaaaggghh...someone stab me ..."And i miss college ...and i miss engineering....".
Awesome - the bottle was within my arm's reach - if he was to miss something else too, i could break it on his head...he could miss his life then...
"Dude...its about time we appreciate the moment we are in...the people we are with...the situations we are in... ..busy as we are in our cynical post-mortem of life,we have forgotten to enjoy it......The grass was, is and will always be greener on the other side..."
I fell silent for a while....the grip around the bottle loosened....
"Is that why you want to be back with Sheetal ? " I asked ...kinda understanding the needle-in-the-haystack sermon...
"See! That's why you are my best friend...you understand me so well...I want a second chance at life..."
As his head flopped over my shoulder, i made a note of his wisdom...promised myself to call up my folks and tell them the time i had with them has been the most splendid in all my life...
To be continued......
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
Road Not Taken --- Robert Frost
Life - my friend once explained to me quite introspectively, in his drunken stupor, is a series of Mistakes! I could understand - he had broken up with his girlfriend a couple of days back and then for some unknown reason, he wanted her back...he seemed pretty serious about breaking up then, and he seemed pretty serious about being with her now.
Hang on...the drunkard has more to speak....its not about her alone...its about the "funny thing called life" (aah...deja vu!). "You know TP - some freak said life's like a box of chocolates.....you never know which one's gonna come your way - the guy from Philadelphia or You've got mail...dont recall which one... - doesnt matter ...he was right.... Everything around us is the way it should be - people and circumstances. These are the result of our concious choices. And yet its ironic that we loose appreciation of these. We suck!"
Speak for yourself pig! Quite paradoxical at the moment it seemed to me - Life's a series of mistakes but a box of chocolates we fail to appreciate...that's the rum-effect on both...he's talking gibberish...and i am all ears...go on you *****....
"I hated school - played truant, cheated in tests, skipped homework...did everything that would later be repayed in the parents-teacher's meetings..and boy was i glad to make it to college-rather out of the prison - only to find myself in deeper shit. College life was supposed to be cool, but it turned out to be a stopover that was suddenly going to decide my career! It sounded awesome when someone used to say i am in Biomedical or Electronics and Telecommunication...why do i have to go through this two-year jig to get there- i couldn't comprehend it."....
Made myself another glass ...had decided deep inside (last fraction of my concious self that would soon drown itself in rum) that if this was to go on for the rest of the night...i needed to be out of my senses asap.....
"Gladly college ended - was now into engineering......surely things were back on track! I couldn't be more wrong...they expected me to understand Newton and Electromagentic Theory and Mechanics ...the aim was to graduate into IT and earn big bucks like my seniors...surely that was the life I want...suddenly, i needed to survive the four year stint...."
One more glass and mission accomplished - i will drop dead by his side ...he can puke his heart out after that...would be least bothered...
"Now i have an IT career and guess what ..." I know..it sucks too...."No you moron! "- he took me by suprise.."IT's also ok....". Then what could be bothering the pig i thought.
"I miss school "
Aaaaggghh...someone stab me ..."And i miss college ...and i miss engineering....".
Awesome - the bottle was within my arm's reach - if he was to miss something else too, i could break it on his head...he could miss his life then...
"Dude...its about time we appreciate the moment we are in...the people we are with...the situations we are in... ..busy as we are in our cynical post-mortem of life,we have forgotten to enjoy it......The grass was, is and will always be greener on the other side..."
I fell silent for a while....the grip around the bottle loosened....
"Is that why you want to be back with Sheetal ? " I asked ...kinda understanding the needle-in-the-haystack sermon...
"See! That's why you are my best friend...you understand me so well...I want a second chance at life..."
As his head flopped over my shoulder, i made a note of his wisdom...promised myself to call up my folks and tell them the time i had with them has been the most splendid in all my life...
To be continued......
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