Ordinary Day, Ordinary Experience

Life is all about series of ordinary incidents. And these ordinary incidents happen on any and every ordinary days with us. These are so ordinary that sometimes gives us a very extra-ordinary feeling. A platonic feeling. The importance of these incidents increases when it occurs during the time of your mental occupancies with other stuff.

After finishing my work, I headed to my house a little early when the sky just had started blushing to welcome the evening like a newly wed Indian wife waiting at the door and blush when sees her husband coming after work. The part of sky was having some of the higher clouds running very fast to the blushing horizon to give her the veil from the evening. I was riding back almost engrossed with these sceneries appearing even in the concrete jungle. All my imagery horses came to a halt when the worldly stuff undertook all my platonic imaginations. I had to purchase some vegetables as all thoughts need food too. But more unexpected things were yet to come.

I stopped my bike at one of the vegetable markets on the way home. At one corner of the vegetable market, there is a temple of lord Shiva. Some bhajan was going on outside the temple. I hardly had taken any look there and was busy purchasing some vegetables. I think this had not been accepted by the nature and out of nowhere it started raining heavily. To take a shelter, I ran towards the temple. Oh boy, there was some special bhajan going on there. Then I realized that today is Shri Krishna Janmastami, the celebration of birth of Lord Krishna, one of the most cherished God after Ganesha.

There was a group of Bahurupiya performing at the tent built near the temple. They were narrating and singing with very indigenous kind of musical instruments and there were some bahurupiya dressed in various mythological characters performing. This is a very special form of folk song called “Pandwani”. This is one of the most popular folk song forms of Chattisgarh popular not only in India but in world even. Pandwani is a form of musical narrative. This mostly deals with mythological stories of Mahabharata. This is being sung mostly by the tribes of Chattisgarh. I had heard Pandwani during the Doordarshan Days of my life when one of the famous singers of this form of music, Teejan Bai was a regular in the Krishi Darshan and likes program. The Government of India had awarded her prestigious “Padmashree” award to her for her contributions to this traditional art form.

It was raining like hell. Water had started flowing on the roads and so is the Pandwani. The experience was so soothing to me that it had relieved all my nerves. I couldn’t realize when rain had stopped. I was just flowing in the singing of those local folk artists. The entire performance was so much grand that I was feeling proud being associated with a culture called Chattisgarh. I don’t know the name of the group of these artists neither do I know the name of any of the artists performing there. But what I know was that they were the agent of Lord Krishna to let me realize that how grand our culture is and we need to spare some time to enjoy these ancestral art forms whose soothing effects is really so rejuvenating and vitalizing.

Thank You So Much for making my evening.

The Food Philosophy of Religion

This is the month of Holy Ramadan. This month is having a great importance for the Muslim of the world. For this whole month, the Muslim people fast between the periods of Sunrise to the Sunset, though the calculation made based on the movement of moon. A different kind of enthusiasm can be seen in every Muslim during this month. They take their food in the morning before the sun rises and this is called “Sehari” and the evening food is taken after sunset and this is called “Iftaar”. They are having a tradition of breaking their fast in group during the “Iftaar”. This meeting and eating together makes the bonding between them even stronger. I really don’t know if this tradition has been developed by the ancient Muslims to let them understand the importance of control over their desire or was a way of teaching them the grandness of the unity!

My stockist office is in the main market of Raipur. In between the stockist office to my flat, there a Muslim reigned colony is located. During this month, this colony looks very ceremonial. While coming back to home every evening, lot of people in white Kurta / Sherwani and white Zulfi Cap are seen wandering here and there greeting people, talking, laughing together. This entire scene is so lively that it gives me eminent pleasure witnessing this. What a tradition to get bonded together. And this perhaps is the only reason that Muslim sometimes are misunderstood as the potential threat to the world especially the progressive world. But as a matter of fact, it’s not Muslim but it is their unity which the progressive world is feared of.

There is also a Mosque on the way to home from the office. My time of returning back home almost coincides with the Iftaar time. Near the mosque, a lot of temporary shops can be seen during the entire month. These shops are having just a table in the name of furniture over which lot of food items of different shapes and sizes are decoratively cumulous up for selling. These food articles are being purchased by the people coming out of the mosque after their evening prayers, for the purpose of calling off that day’s roza. These food articles are used for Iftaar. Many a times it happened that when I am passing by this road, the people are coming out of the mosque. From the mosque gate, they just run like a bullet towards these temporary food stalls to purchase their stuff and have it in group after remembering “Allah” and break to their respective works.

What one thing that attracts me is the commonness of philosophy of all the religions. This one common thing is every religious ritual of all the religion of the world ends with eating scrumptious food. We in some dharma call it “Prasad” or in some other religion call it “Langar” and in some religion it is known as “Iftaar”.

Every great religious philosophy ends in keeping the mankind alive. And for being alive, its food and not philosophy that is required. The food philosophy of Religion…!

Religious Liberty

Written a year back on Ganesh Chaturthi

Ever since the ascent of mankind, people would have started thinking of putting some guideline to make them live within the terminus ad quem. This would have motivated people to make some philosophy of life. Probably different philosophy had given birth to various religions. Hinduism is one such philosophy which I believe is more of the way of life. Hinduism gives such a liberty to its partisans to modify it as per the need of time, without hampering the soul of the basic philosophy. But sometimes, the liberty becomes that much boundary less that it starts giving you itching in your soul.

Ganesh Festival is having its own history in our country. Though Lord Ganesha is as old as any Ved or Upnishad or probably more than that. But, in our country, it is believed that Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the person who had started making the celebration of this festival larger, in view of creating a national integration during the rising tension between Hindu and Muslims in the country. Lord Ganesha is one of the most experimented Gods in Hindu Religion. I mean, artists have experimented a lot on the structure of Lord Ganesha in their sculpture or paintings.

These days when Ganesh Festival is commencing, lot of festival pandal can be seen in every nooks and corner of Raipur. I don’t know about the astha or belief of the people, but the statues of Lord are something which is beyond our imagination. If at some place the idol is being limned as software professional with the laptop in his hand instead of modak, then at some other place he is being represented as the hippy, at some place as politician than at some other place people have imagined him as the freedom fighter. The worst is that, at some place the lord is being shown sitting on tiger or on eagle which is beyond any mythological sayings.

Great. Total respect for the emotions of people for the Lord. But isn’t this the way of making fun of the belief of the dharma rather then showing the astha over the god. Though the present stature of god is also imaginations of human. Perhaps no one has witnessed the lord. Neither anyone of that time, if any, had transcripted that how god was looking like. But the ancient visualization of the stature of lord Ganesha or any god is having some strong philosophy and explanation that don’t have any in today’s people’s creativity towards transforming the stature of the lord.

The liberty of Hinduism could not and should not be misused like this. This really hurts me a lot. While seeing such idol, rather than bowing infront of the lord, it gives me a kind of wrath towards the unnecessary creativity of the makers of the idol. I think there has to be a kind of policing over these things by the society so that we should pass on good and great things to our children rather than giving them a very strange form of dharma which in due course of time would become the story of history and the Hinduism would be lost in the books only.

S-(LANG)UAGE

We are educated bunch of people. We know every thing. We have answer to almost all the questions of the world. But there is only one problem. That is the accuracy of the words that we are using. Means, for putting things into words, we often forget the exact spellings. This is well observed on hoardings, boards, brochures and other literatures used by us. This is not applicable with English only. Even in Hindi or Marathi (I know only these much languages, so only that much examples), while writing something, we often makes spelling mistakes. Sometimes, these mistakes lead to totally different meaning of the sentence. I don’t really understand that these mistakes are because of we are so much forgetful or its just we have learnt this way only.

A pure English or pure Hindi is very rare hearing these days. That’s why we generally give compliments to someone who speaks a little correct English or Hindi. While doing so we just forget that Hindi is our mother tongue which we have grown up speaking. Even English is very common these days atleast in the group of people who uses the media where they make mistakes.

It’s not only the education but the correct education that is the need of the hour. Otherwise we will end up loosing the soul of the language and would discover a very new language like we already have done in case of “Hinglish”. And loosing a grip from our own language is first step to the societal degradation.

7 Hours of Injustice

Last weekend I was in Tata Nagar for some of my personal work. As it was just a day affair, so had not taken any leave. The work went well and was to leave by evening train. The train was almost on time. I boarded the train and reached my berth. And there was a kind of shock for me. 5 young men were sitting in that compartment. They were all drunk and their drinking was still on. One of the men requested me to take his berth which is the aisle berth. I agreed as I wasn’t in mood to invite unnecessary problems during the journey.

Thankfully I was carrying this book “Jangalnaama” by Satnam. This is the travelogue of Satnam in the Mao Guerilla camp. Since the time I had been staying in Chattisgadh, Naxalism is one topic which attracts me a lot. I really want to understand that why this philosophy of mid 60’s is still persistent when we already have moved a lot ahead in the economic progression. When Jamindari Pratha is completely eradicated and untouchability is not something which is seen in any part of the country, still why a philosophy based on these thought is attracting people. When education and development has reached to every nooks and corner of the country, why there are groups that think that development in their strong hold areas will dissemble their philosophy which is almost insignificant in today’s world. Why we still talk about social justice when a lot work has been done in last 60 – 62 years from our independence and is more or less achieved in the broader parts of nation. Why the interest of merely 1 or 2% people is jolting the entire nation.

This was a nice book. I was in flow of reading the book and the train was maintaining that flow with me. The distance was shortening station after station. Neither I nor the train cared much about that as we both were busy with the speed, one with the speed of reading and other with the speed of running. Those drunken guys were kept walking to bathroom. Just not to get distracted with this, I pulled my curtain and got engrossed in the book. I was traveling the Guerilla camps from one village to other with the author. Suddenly I heard one of the drunken guys giving some information to their pals is very loud voice. He said that Chakradharpur station is coming and this train will not go ahead of this station till the morning as there is a Naxalite affected area ahead. With this he added some abusive words to the Naxals, Railways and the Government.

I cross checked this with the attendant and this information was totally correct. So this was 10 O’clock night and the train will leave Chakradharpur station not sooner than 5 O’clock in the morning. Till the time we will have to be the uninvited guest of Chakradharpur. This is because of the fact that The Government of India think that the life of every citizen of the country is precious and this is the best our government can do to save our life from any unfortunate incidence in the area which though is part of the great nation called India but even our government is feared to cross in the darkness.

What the heck!

To my surprise our train was not the only one to stay at Chakradharpur station. There were 2 more trains halting there and 3 more were to stay there for the whole night.

This was really disgusting. For the whole 7 hours we will have to stay here for the reason that the entire nation doesn’t have any solution. Would Kanu Sanyal and Ranu Mojumdaar had been alive they would have felt proud seeing our Government helpless infront of their philosophy. Would Gandhiji have been alive, he would have felt ashamed seeing that he worked for his whole life to bring social justice in the society in his Non – violent ways but here even though the social justice has came, people is still beating that same drum just for their own nasty interest, giving priority to their thought over the nation. That 7 precious hours, 7 hours of un-productivity for the part of nation that is having only one geographical fault of being in the red corridor.

Reading “Jungalnaama” was like experiencing the book as the author was in jungle to experience the life of Mao Guerilla and I was waiting outside the jungle for him to come and board the train. Untill that, I will have to give those 7 precious hours for the cause which for sure I am not supporting.

Auf wiedersehen

Meeting people and making friends is one of the common behaviors of any individual. I am not different in that regard. I do love meeting people. But I am a bit choosy in making friend. I generally take a little more time than general to open up with any one. But once I open up with someone, I love being part of the inner circle of that friend or would like to keep him / her in my inner circle of the relationship. In short, I believe in long lasting friendship. I try being or keeping that person near to me. But what is not important is what you like but important is how time wants things to be.

In this much little life, I have made very few good friends. I do have spent a considerably good time with them. Enjoyed every moments of togetherness with them. But what is really painful is departing with them. Not because of any misunderstandings with them but because its time that feel there are certain thing which is more important than the togetherness. Departing with those friends is like something is being torn apart from within you. And while in such a moment I could not be able to express my emotions over my face. That’s because perhaps I am not a good actor. Whatever, but the truth is that, such moment of departure is always a painful experience. However that painful emotion remains momentary for me as I know that this is just a geographical distance not the emotional parting.

Thank God, I never have lost those good friends from life. And certainly this time is not an exception.

Pour Out Disputs

Its rainy season here. I love this season very much. And riding bike in rain is one of the most cherished adventures of my life. To enjoy this rain a little more, I planned to visit one of the nearby small villages called “Chhati” on my bike with one of my colleague. Since morning, it seems like raining, but didn’t rain. We finished our work there and were coming back to Raipur. The rain was a little levelheaded and didn’t have demented us during doing our work. Perhaps the rain knows very well that enjoyment comes after work. So while coming back, it started raining.

I was in mood of enjoying the rain, but of mizzles only and not of those heavy water fall. So, we decided to take a shelter at any first place we will see on the highway. My colleague stopped the bike at one of the hut of the first village that came on the highway. This village was “Birejher” and that hut like structure was a police chowki. Three – four policemen were sitting outside the hut on a bench in the porch like structure intruded out of the hut. Like any common countryman, my colleague is also having a kind of obvious fear about the policeman. He was a little vexed once he came to know that this shelter was a police chowki. To avoid his nervousness, he started talking to me. Though I was more interested on rain rather than what he was talking. There was lot of greenery spread till the stretch of our visual modality. The color of leaf was looking deeper after being sprinkled by the rain. Some bikers and few four wheelers were still running with hastiness on the road, as if they were in a hurry to reach home before the rains worsen the situation. Some people were passing by on their bicycle, enjoying the rain. Kids of the village came out of their hut and were running behind each other while enjoying the rain. Very mesmerizing scenery. A real enjoyment for me of getting such a beautiful visual treat. My engrossment broke only when two people came into the chowki in a hurry. Perhaps those policemen knew these two guys as they replied to their greetings calling their names. Those two persons get involved in some discussion with the police. I was not having anything to do so unintentionally get involved in their discussion as they were trying to address their talk to everyone present there.

They were father – son duo. They came there to take some follow up about their pending case with these policemen. The case was, they were having some plot of land in the village which is being captured by some other person of the village. These two persons lodged a complaint to the police against this. The case went to court. After a much awaited trails, the honorable court had given their verdict in the favor of the father – son duo and has schooled the local police to help them get their land back from the convict’s possession.

The FIR had been lodged by them about 12 years back, honorable court took 11 year time to give a final verdict in the case and now since 1 year they are coming to the police station almost daily to get back their land. The police are every time giving them some condones and showing their incapability of helping them out as the convict had taken the case to the High Court and had successfully got a stay order from there. Now since the case is in higher court, police is unable to help them out in the case. The issue is, since last 12 year, the convict is using this altercated land and getting crop from it year after year, making money from the land and using some part of that earning in extending the case to every passing year.

Huh…

Strange. What to say? How to react? Enjoying the rain has eloped suddenly after seeing this incident. A lot of thought process started. I think, this is one of the areas where we not only as a human being but as a nation need to look upon. I mean, what to say... Really don't know what I need to think upon this issue or what can I do for them. I am a bit confused. But one thing is for sure that I somewhere is not feeling good to hear this whole story...
Really really very much confused of the situation.

Complicated Anthropology

I really don’t know the exact meaning of Anthropology; neither have I known better what exactly this stream of study is for? But one thing which always attracts me is observing and understanding individuals or groups. While doing so, lot of observations comes out. Though, I feel a little discerning about delineating any ratiocination, as this sometimes hurt my thought.

One such observation I came across last days was people’s behavior towards different groups. We in our lifetime remain part of many groups. For different groups our behavior remains different, even our affiliation to different group remains different. Our comfort level remains different. Like a group of Managers stay connected more with the fellow group of managers rather than a group of his own sub – ordinates irrespective of the fact that a manager is manager because of his sub – ordinates. Similarly, a group of HR fellow feels to be in more comfort zone in the same group rather than the employees of the organization, irrespective of the fact that it is people who make an organization and not just HR fellow. Same is the case with the Finance or Marketing stream guys. While being more associated with one group, we often forgets that the group that we are snubbing or rather less prioritized over the other is also our own group which helps in giving us identity and acknowledging us.

It is really not a wise idea to ignore one group while being more associated with the other. I think, plowing a group and making a balance in that, in such a way that our presence is felt everywhere is rather an art than merely a human behavior. And mastering this art would definitely a learnt behavior and not the innate one.

Relevance

I was reading Gulam Abbas’ story. He may be less known author in India but is one of the cherished authors in Pakistan. The story was “Anandi”. He very beautifully had written the thought of society about something which a society think is not good for society’s cultural health but most often a society itself get structured around it. This was the story of a red light area which was in the middle of a “cultured town”. The municipal corporation of the town had passed a bill to shift those prostitutes to some 15 km away from this cultured town. So the area had been shifted to a very abandoned part of the outskirt where there were bare lands all around with barbed herbs. Though far away from the town, this business still flourished there and people started doing there small business to cater visitors and residents of this new colony. To do the business conveniently here people build their own house. And then over a period of time, a town interposed around the colony of the prostitutes. Then a time came when the respectful people of the municipal corporation of this newly built town had called a meeting to discuss how and why this red light area is situated in the middle of the town which is not good for the cultural health of the town.

Very beautiful story, written in a very interesting way. Hats off to Mr. Gulam Abbas. I wish to read him more.

This is a kind of incidence which generally happens around us. Many a times we do observe it though do not put our brain much over it.

There was a same incident that happened just two months back around me.

I am staying in Raipur at one of the good society of a very low profile area. Actually, while passing through this area you would hardly imagine such a good society in the middle. While passing through this area, I often had to put my feet firm on the break as there was a liquor shop on the way to my society. And the area around the liquor shop always happens to be crowded. This had became my routine to ride dead slow while crossing this liquor shop. There was always a kind of glitter I was finding around this shop. Lots of people standing in queue in front of the liquor shop to wait for their number to get their quota of the night. Lots of temporary shops of snacks were having those kerosene lamps with shivering flames, trying to attract drunkards. A group of police man targeting people to earn some penny as a bribe in the course of maintaining the law and order of the area. Some drunkards were found lying on the road after gulping his dose of the day. Some were wandering on the road very abruptly in the effect of alcohol. Quite a lively atmosphere, creating livelihood of lot of people by using their own hard earned money of the day.

One day while passing through that same shop I find something unusual. The liquor shop was closed and there was a group of people doing some dharna to close this shop as this is creating a kind of cultural contamination to the society. This lasted for 3 days and finally ended when the shop owner had put down the board of the liquor shop from its place. And in this way a lively atmosphere of the surroundings had came to a halt with the closure of the liquor shop, allowing the culture of the society flourish at its extreme. 

Just two days after this incident, while coming back to my home, I took other road which was another way to reach my society; I saw the same kind of glitter there which I was seeing near that liquor shop. I saw a big crowd like that of the crowd around the liquor shop, those temporary stalls of snacks seller with the shivering flames of the kerosene lamps, those wandering drunkards and those fallen drunkards. The same group of police man making money while putting the law and order of the area in place. Oh my god, the sign board of that same liquor shop I found there in one of the newly built under construction single story shop. It was the same liquor shop which was being closed after some dharna by some so called social activists. Every thing was same except the fact that this shop was being opened some 200 meters away from its old place.

And suddenly the story of “Anandi” and the Author Gulam Abbas waved in front of my eyes. I just smiled and put my foot firm over the break.

Flame buoyant Euphoria

It was a kind of euphoria which I was feeling after getting some compliment which is not that much big to feel euphoric. I had to courier some document so I went to a stationary shop to purchase envelop. There a boy in his late teen age was sitting. He seems to be sitting there to help his father as his school was having summer vacation. I asked for envelop. And along with the envelop, he gave me compliment that this is first time he had heard the right pronunciation of envelop. Great but nothing that great. You little kid, any one says an envelop an envelop and even pronounce the same way. Perhaps this is first time when you have noticed it. Whatever, I moved ahead to the courier office with a kind of unnecessary euphoria.

While going back to my home, I had been caught by the traffic police. No, not for the rash driving or dishonoring the traffic signal, but for a routine check. I generally carry all the papers of my bike, so I was not panic of this sudden stoppage by the traffic police. I showed all the papers of my bike to them. But it seems that they didn’t have stopped me or others just for checking papers. After checking all my documents, the policeman finally ended up finding some flaw in that and asked for one of the insignificant paper. While all that drama was going on, I saw a lot of folded palms meeting each others. Folded palms of those halted bikers meeting folded palms of policemen.

Ok, so you are really not interested in checking papers, but to have some money. I generally do not appreciate bribing and even do not take part in any such activity. In fact, I hate this. But this time was exception. The single star bearing policeman checking my paper was repeatedly asking me for the other paper he asked for.

I said, “I don’t have that, now tell me what to do?”

He said to pay fine.

I said, ok, tell me how much fine do I have to pay? For this he was not answering anything and again was giving me all the gyan of carrying all the papers while riding bike.

During all that probing and re probing by that guy, one thing was clear to me that he had stopped me to get some money, without any reason. But I was rigid about paying fine rather than bribing him. It took half an hour, and I was standing there like a fool observing bribing and hearing his gyan.

Finally I gave up, took out 2 notes of hundred out of seer infliction, kept those notes in my folded palm and let my folded palm meet the folded one of that policeman. To this he grin and said, would you have done it before, you would not have wasted your and our half an hour.

I was feeling like I should kill that bastard. To me that policeman was not different than any terrorist or Naxalite or anyone who is hampering the real soul of our motherland with their insane act.

Just an hour before the unnecessary euphoria with which I was passing through turned into the great vexation towards that policeman and even for my own self.