Caring for the Treasure House

We often realize the worth of things and persons only in their absence. A father may be the worst kind of person and notorious drunkard, and the mother may curse him each day, why God is not calling him; but look at the same mother after the untimely death of the father. She would not be happy to have lost her husband; she would feel the pinch only when he is no more there. Probably all these years, she was able to look only at his drunkenness, and not any thing else. But after his death, she realizes that he was much more than a mere drunkard; at least sometimes, when he was sober, he used to be affectionate and loving towards her.

The same is also true of our human body; we do not realize what a treasure house we possess in our bodies; maybe a whole life will not be sufficient to understand the minute intricate mechanism which is operative in our bodies; the crisscrossing of veins, bones, flesh, and all of them perfectly linked to the mind, the central processing unit. When one of the body parts is dysfunctional, it affects the entire body, and that is what is so very obvious, when we look at one of our senior friends, who has spoiled both his kidneys, and is frantically on the look out for a donor, and a nursing home which will conduct the transplant.

Life is not the same when these kidneys have refused to filter the waste; he has to go for four agonising hours of dialysis, twice a week. When he returns after the dialysis, he is half dead; he has not much energy, and each day, as his body weight increases due to the accumulation of urine, he feels uncomfortable, and so cannot engage in any serious work. Life has come to a standstill for him, and therefore whenever there is a ray of hope for transplant, he gets excited, and sincerely hopes that something good will come out of this desire. When he neglected the care of his body for several years, he did not realize what could happen to him one day, and today he regrets for neglecting the care of his health.

It is illegal to even indirectly convince a person to donate one of his/her kidneys so that this friend of ours may live a fairly healthy life, for atleast another ten or fifteen years. It is also unethical, to imply that our friend's life is more worthwhile than the donor, even if it is a friend who has come forward to do this great favor. The moral and ethical questions are not easy to resolve, though it is easy to cut short the arguments on the ground that all lives are equal, and if one has destroyed one's kidneys due to neglect, it is for the one to reap the fruits of what he had done, but humanly speaking we cannot stop at that.

Most of us falter in life, not out of willful, deliberate action, but out of ignorance and carelessness. If only our friend had known for sure that if he did not care for his health, and take necessary precaution, he may lose his kidneys, probably he might not have landed at this stage. But could he be given yet another chance to taste and see what life has to offer to him? It is a big lesson for us, to realize the worth of each of the body parts, big or small, all of them have a specific role and function. Yesterday I saw a middleaged man, whose both feet have been amputated. Yet he looked quite happy, walking on his knees. He may feel envious of us, but do we sufficiently care for our feet?

Worldly-wise vis-a-vis Truly-wise

A friend of mine quite casually gave me a name, which I found quite amusing! Idiot. She even felt so bad and embarrassed at giving me this beautiful name. I am not kidding, I like this name very much, and as I just look at this word, a lot of associations float in my mind. Needless to say, idiot is synonymous to fool, and having gone through the Shakespearean literature, especially his plays, I realize to be a ‘fool’ or an ‘idiot’ is a rare privilege. The Shakespearean ‘fools’ are often just the opposite of what we might think them to be; they infuse wisdom into characters, in their associations, and they cannot be taken for granted. It is these clowns and comic characters who, while providing the much needed comic relief, provide an insight into the plot.

It is said that often we come across fools who appear to be wise, but in reality remain fools; the wise may appear fools, but beyond their deceptive appearance may be truly wise. The philosophy of being a clown is that it is better to appear a fool, than to be! But in reality, most of us spend most of our time, energy and resources to appear wise, and at the end realize we have been fools. It is in this connection that it is a wonderful thing to appear a fool, and at the end realize that beyond the foolishness, we have insight into reality, which can go beyond the flimsy side of life. It is only the people who acknowledge themselves as fools, who can reality take a dip into reality of life, where we may discover pearls of wisdom.

Is it a crime to be a fool? In our society, foolishness is often associated to lack of adequate knowledge (ignorance, or avidya, to use a Vedic word), lack of common sense, lack of presence of mind, not being prepared to respond promptly to situations and circumstances. If we apply these criteria to foolishness, then every computer should be deemed wise, far better than human persons, who may not have much date at their finger-tips. Believe it or not, every one born as a human person has a large size of foolishness ingrained in us; the degree may vary from person to person, but no one can claim that s/he cannot be considered a fool. Denial of foolishness maybe the first and major symptom of being a fool par excellence.

If ever we claim ourselves to be too wise for this world populated with foolish men and women, certain per cent of the blame will go to the world and our social upbringing. When we are born, we enter into the new world as tabula rasa! We know almost nothing; instinct tells us that for survival we have to start breathing, and begin to suckle the breast of our mothers. But at this stage we are quite happy to be ignorant about the ways of the world, and are not much bothered about it. As we grow, we realize that not knowing things is not a positive element, but a matter of shame. So we make frantic efforts to overcome ignorance, and begin to project ourselves as wise men and women.

Am I a fool, and an idiot? I see all around film posters on 3 Idiots, a film by Amir Khan, and though I do not know much about the film, yet I could remove the 3 and make it four, adding my name in that list. In fact, if I am not mistaken, all the three ‘fools’ depicted in the film belong to the Shakespearean model, and therefore cannot be equated with the commonplace ‘wise-appearing fools’. When it comes to the final analysis, what matters is not how we appear to the world, but how we appear to ourselves. If one has a reasonably positive self-image, no wise-fool can make him/her part of his/her own clan. And ultimately that is what matters in life!

Learning to be a Literate

While talking on the ceremonial conclusion of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of St Xavier's College in Kolkata, the Prime Minister of the subcontinent made it clear that the government was keen on eradicating illiteracy from the country, and more so of female illiteracy. Every child should have the fundamental right to education, which goes beyond the scope of basic literacy. Unfortunately today all those who know how to sign their names are deemed literates by the government records, but will that ever suffice to live a honorable, diginified life, where education is all but taken for granted?

If the country has not attained 100 per cent literacy, even 63 years after its independence, who should be blamed and be held responsible? On the one hand are the selfish exploiters, who would make use of people's ignorance and illiteracy in order to fulfil their selfish goals, and on the other are faulty government plans and policies which had not made basic literacy an obligation. But now that Right to Education bill has been passed by the government, more effective ways of implementing literacy programs is expected to be operative soon.

One of the main reasons for illiteracy in every nook and cranny of the subcontinent is faulty literacy methods; the government had been pushing a uniform pedagogical method in all cities and villages, hoping that children would benefit from the methods; but the method has failed miserably in the rural areas, where the students come to school with different kind of expectations, preoccupations and hopes and aspirations. We still believe in chalk-and-talk method of teaching, which is an alien concept to village children.

No one in a tribal community teaches the children the art of archery, hunting, swimming, singing and dancing. The community takes responsibility to introduce the tiny tots from their very early age to the different artistic repertois of the community, and one cannot come across a tribal young man or a lady, who does not know how to sing and dance in his/her own tribal language! But how is it that the ministry of education has not thought about this kind of innovative ways of imparting true education. The same thing is also true of the art of farming that the children in villages learn from their parents, and can't it be called an art in its own right?

Sometimes I wonder what is my role in spreading the vibrations of literacy and true education around me? I am a single man, and my area of operation is quite limited, and yet how could I be part of the process of spreading literacy around me? Can I just close myself from ignorance all around me (and the Indian Vedas would call 'avidya' as the root cause of all trouble, evil in the world), and live in my glass house? If I am not able to come down from my pedastal to reach out to the hundreds of ignorant children, men and women and teach them what they know, and learn from them the art of caring for the earth, singing to the tune of birds of the air, to flow with the carefree currents of the brooks, to lie leisurely with drunken donkeys... I have a lot to learn, and am now ready to take my literacy classed today!

Transposing Transparency

I got a shock of my life, when she told me that I was not transparent enough to her, that I was not sharing with her about my 'friends'. After months, I got this severe jolt, and I was not prepared for it. My friend had a doubt, and she wanted me to clarify it, and I found myself in a helpless situation how to explain to her, or prove to her that I am quite open and transparent to her and that I had nothing more than what I had been telling her all these days and months. But still she felt that I was hiding something from her. There are certain things in life, which cannot be expressed in words, and today I felt strongly that I ran short of words!

Human life is a web of relations, one linked to another. Sometimes the web is shattered by reasons beyond one's control, and certain contacts fall instantly, and some others get strengthened. The ones with very little significance cannot bear the jerk, and fall off even before the jolt; the ones which have stuck to the heart are prepared to bear any amount of jolt and may only feel that their grip has been strengthened. We live in a world where we cannot live with exclusive relationships; even in marital relationships, there is scope to have friends, well-wishers, relatives, and that is the web of friends and neighbors who would come to one's aid, when s/he is in trouble.

When I tell someone that I do not believe in exclusive relationships, she often misunderstands me, and I had enough of trouble because of this conviction of mine. There are very few people who really see my point : I was touched by this wise saying of Tony De Mello: my happiness does not depend on anyone else other than myself. I decide if I want to be happy or not; no one will have the right over me, concerning my happiness. In an exclusive relationship, I expect that my happiness would depend on my partner, and vice versa. If something were to happen to my partner, then my happiness is doomed. Should I allow this kind of predicament to me?

All human relations are woven on the basis of mutual trust; when doubt surfaces in the mind of any one of the partners, then the relationship is bound to break into pieces. It is not that doubts do not rise in the mind of partners, but they will have to be clarified, and sorted out as soon as possible, or else the doubts will eat up the relationship, and too soon it will be in tatters. But what I can I really do when such a doubt rises in the mind of my partner/friend; what can I do to dispel doubt from the mind of my friend, and resume the former relationship we had been cherishing for years?

I am not feigning ignorance in this matter, but do feel helpless sincerely. If human relations should depend on proofs and witnesses, then there are less chances that any lasting relationship could ever be possible. I do understand, if I had not given any scope to my friend to doubt my trust, she would not have done so, and therefore I am partly responsible for making things this way, and will have to crack my mind to find an amicable solution to this problem. I know for sure that time is a great healer, and if I do give enough time for these things to settle down, probably I may find that the doubt has evaporated in the meantime!