Colours We Adorn

 Colours We Adorn
I have always been fascinated by human behaviour. While it may require a scientific study to ascertain why a person behaves the way he does, there is nothing to prevent us from undertaking a study  at the grass root and mundane level. I will not abide by  the  conventional categorisation of people.That I will leave to psychologists and psychoanalysts.  I will go out of that format  and try to analyse people as I have observed  them.Let me warn that this approach  has limitations and may be controversial. Not that I am anxious to get into any such unenviable situations. I admit that there can be hazards but life will not be  exciting  unless there are challenges. Now I will attempt to enumerate some broad headings which cannot be exhaustive but may be exhausting!! These are as follows;-
1.Smooth talker  
 Smooth talkers occupy a predominant position  in the lives of men and nations. To name a few, ambassadors and diplomats come under this category. It is not, however,confined  to them.They do not hold any monopoly over it.
I will go back to my college days.It was the year 1951 when I was in the senior Intermediate class.As is the wont  with teenagers I also had my own share of prejudices and predilections.  I was diffident and vacillating. I had a vacuous expression. It was at this juncture that I was  introduced to Dale Carnegie's  book  'How to stop worrying and start living'. One thing led to another. I chanced upon another Dale Carnegie  classic 'How  to win friends and influence people'.This book acted as a catalyst in my life. From a shy  timid teenager, I overnight  blossomed into  a self confident and persuasive adult.I shed all misgivings and inhibitions.I wanted to practise some of the formulas  explained by the author. I started spreading my charm all around.The next logical step was to concretising  my strategy. Then I struck! My first victim was a hotel keeper. Except for an  occasional travelling talkies, there was no scope for entertainment in my hamlet. Only the district town     situated  about  thirty kilometres away  had a few cinema halls. Once my friends and I decided to go there for watching a late night movie.Those were the days when bus service was in a rudimentary stage.Nerve-racking and bone-breaking ramshackle buses used to ply on decrepit roads. The preferred mode of transport was therefore generally walking. My friends and I walked to the nearest railway station located five kilometres away  from my village. After viewing the movie ,  when we came out of the hall, it was the unearthly hour of 2.00 am. No trains, no buses. Walking at midnight through dense tree laden and flooded fields was no option. Beside, it would have been a risky venture.It was then that we decided to spend the night in a cheap hotel.Money was hard to come by those days and together we could not afford more than one room. We were four and only two occupants were allowed in each of these small  dingy  bug and mosquito ridden apology of rooms.It was then that I directed my charm on the hapless hotel keeper.I took him aside and harangued him. I do not recall what transpired between us. However the miracle happened. All the four of us were allowed  to spend the remaining part of the night in one room on condition that at the crack of dawn we should make ourselves scarce.This episode brought me laurels . Overnight I became a hero among my friends. They could not decipher how I cracked the nut of an  obstinate hotel boss . They believed in my invincibility and ability to influence men and events. I indulged in some more experiments in the heady days  of my youth. However to put the record straight  I am no crook and I have not duped anybody.. In my work place and else where I have encountered past masters of this art who could simply gobble me up. Here I would like to salute my wife.In reverse gear, she practised this art on me when I was totally bewitched by her. 
 On the positive side, if viewed properly, this is a noble pastime with all the trappings of divinity. This has helped me to understand myself and others better. This knowledge has benefitted  afflicted and striken people to alleviate and sometimes even overcome their maladies. I am still a practitioner of this art but instead of targetting fellowmen I have now directed it towards the God Almghty  whose grace I require in abundance  in the evening of my life.
2. Self adulators
 Self adulation is a trait  which we observe in people who lack confidence. I am slightly twisting a common saying to mean that a worker is known by  his work. If he is an intelligent and efficient worker, no form of tom- toming or advertisement is required to bring him into the lime light. Only people, who are deficient in qualities  of head and heart and which fact is reflected in their performance, resort to outpourings of self praise.They will appropriate, rather misappropriate, achievements of others  and project them  as their own. As the saying goes one cannot fool all the people all the time. The day of reckoning will come  and the hollowness of their claim will be exposed.
3.People with wicked disposition
 They act overtly or covertly. People who adopt stealth and deciet in their dealings  come under this category.  Those who act overtly or under public gaze  may be less dangerous than those who operate covertly. It will require a discerning eye to size them up. We come to know about their intentions only when we suffer at their  hands. Such persons , irrespective of their gender ,have demonic or satanic  propensity. We should be wary of such people and avoid befriending them. Such persons can appropriately be compared to poisonous cobra whose mere hiss will be blood curdling what to speak of their fatal sting.Once we are trapped in their stranglehold, it will be difficult to extricate ourselves from their vicious grip without any harm or damage.They display iniquitous tendencies and are seldom amenable to correction. 
 While writing this piece, I felt that evil was creeping on me.In utter fright, therefore, I stop further delineation  on the subject. 
4.Boasters
  Boasters hardly require any elaboration. We come across such people  in daily life. These pompous species  are not of  any use to the society or their fellow beings. You may conclude that they are inveterate liars  and can safely be written off as not of any consequence.
5. Bores
  Such people are a great nuisance. The general tendency is to avoid such persons.They think that it is their fundamental right to impose themselves upon  others and inflict on their  unsuspecting victims with meaningless rattle and prattle.Those who are regular train travellers might have come across such  people. They will warm up and catch  your attention at an unguarded moment. You can escape them only  when you reach you destination . Make sure that they are not following you.
6. Hypocrites
      Classic example of this category are some members  of the political class.They mesmerise people  by the sheer weight of their logic and rehetoric.They are high on promise and low on practise.All this they perform with such a finnesse that the incredulous  keep gaping in disbelief .
7. Pretenders
  Pretenders can be equated with impostors. Even impersonators may come under this category.
8. Pedigree hunters
  After the abolition of royalty and privy purses, such people can now be seen  tagged on to industrialists and politicians.  They may not all be perverse but can adopt ingenious methods  to achieve their goal.
9. Gentle, kind etc.
    People  coming under this definition can broadly be classified as 'gentle,kind,considerate,loving and affectionate'. In one word, can we  call them gentlemen in the true sense of the word?In brief they are the good samaritans of  society, the torch bearers of our civilisation and representing all that is great and noble. How do we explain such people? Are they endowed with all these qualities since birth or acquired  them in the course of their life's journey?  Some might have got transformed or reformed due to some cataclysmic episode in the torrid waters  of their life.
 Even though it is said that all men are born equal, I cannot  buy this thesis. I will say that  it is fallacious and does not satisfy the touchstone of reality. There is a popular belief  that circumstances and environment alone make the man. It may be partially true but cannot be the whole truth. Men and women born  of the same parents, brought up in the same environment and attended  same or comparable   educational institutions exhibit  different personality traits.How can this phenomenon be explained? In  several people goodness is an inborn and inherent quality  which gets nurtured  and cemented in the course of time. Irrespective of the circumstances , they continue to represent all that is good and noble.Some may not have been born with these gifts. But it is not a hopeless situation. There is something that is called 'Purusharth' in Sanskrit.Our scriptures say that we can change our destiny.Sincere, dedicated and unflinging effort is the hallmark of such persons. It should not be half hearted . There is no halfway  house to attain glory. One has to go the whole hog to attain it.History is replete with instances where the ordinary folk  have changed their destiny and come to assume  the  mantle of glory and greatness.
 In the end ,I may stress that it may not  be  possible or justfied  to compartmentalise people. The embodied beings  possess  some or  all of the these qualities in some measure.


  

Romancing Old Age

                         Romancing Old Age
At last I have been woken up from somnolence. I would like to pen some thoughts on a subject that is upper most in my mind.That pertains to old age. Has age got any significance in the modern age? It has been reported that by the  year 2030 India's young population would be about 95 crores,ie. in a short while we can reach the billion mark!!Old people no longer behave like old  people. Even in their dress and attitude they  mimic  the younger population.And why not?Improved  health care and health consciousness  coupled with a rigid exercise regime have to some extent  delayed the onslaught of the advancing age.I would  not call it a reprieve  as I   some times feel that age( I will not say old age) relentlessly pursue its prey  and frustrate  all  efforts to keep it at bay.
      When does old age begin? That is a debatable question as the marauding forces of age attack different  people at different time  keeping in view the health of their mental and physical faculties and emotional and psychological  propensities.It is no longer  rare  to see centenarians standing upright and  walking in swift strides. My opinion is that age is a matter of attitude.  A person with a pleasant demeanour, non complaining and contended nature and ever obliging will  go far in life  smart and healthy  despite the ravages of age. 
    My first brush with old age  was when I was hardly  23 years of age.I was travelling  in Delhi Transport Corporation bus. A smart girl got into the bus and addressed me 'Uncle, will you please move?' I felt that a thunderbolt has struck me and the ground under my feet was slipping. See her temerity!! Uncle indeed!!  I hardly  became a youth  and suddenly metamorphosed  into an ageing Uncle. I then realised that in Delhi all men are uncles and all women are  aunties whatever may be their age or status. I counselled and consoled myself that since this is a regular if not acceptable practice I should pardon that impertinent girl.  But what  took the cake  was  when  the bus conductor addressed as 'Lalaji'.' Lalaji where will you go?'   Sorry, even though I had  a corpulent figure, I should not be assigned to the category of  lalaji. I was just 22 when I landed in Delhi and was completely ignorant of the ways of this historical city. I expressed my  agony to a local friend. His reply was comforting though not very satisfying.  He looked very serious and like an oracle  pronounced  that wealthy people are known  as Lalas. I was confounded. A stripling has entered a higher social bracket without sweating or swearing for it. Years later after I entered  wedlock  and  me and the apple of my eyes were on  extended honeymoon,  a vegetable vendor knocked at our door. When I opened the door to my utter consternation he said that he had brought some special vegetables ordered by 'your Mother.' My mother!! Gosh!!  The ignoramus meant  my wife , who still had  dreamy eyes. To this day  I have not revealed  this unsavoury episode to my beloved wife who still treats me as her eternal Majnu. She refuses to acknowledge my age in spite of all tell tale signs  of a crumbling physique  if not spirit. I am on the  threshold of becoming  an  octogenarian.I  am a host to various ailments, some not very serious and some life threatening. My daughter and  son-in-law, who are eminent doctors, have so far succeeded in thwarting all attempts made by fate  to snatch me away from their midst and I am reasonably hale and hearty. My daughter-in-law does not spare  any  effort  to keep my old age at bay.She went to the extent of shepherding  me to a stylish beauty parlour, got an awesome haircut  and  special treatment to  bestow on my dull and dark skin some brightness which may not last long.The sun God will ensure that. All this while my son was viewing this drama with an indulgent smile.Thus there is a combination of forces  which keep me at a safe distance from the rigours and ravages  of a senile and decrepit old age. The moot question is how far  and  how long  we can fend off  the inevitable. Man is an evolutionary and  evolving being. Right from birth  he evolves and changes. Infancy, childhood, youth,  old age and the ultimate unspeakable truth are his characteristics.. But as the old saying  goes ,old age is second childhood. I see God's beauty all around  and a sparrow or a butterfly excites me. No wonder Somerset Maugham  observed that"old age has its pleasures, which,though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth". My message, therefore, is  so long as  the show goes on, let us enjoy it.











 

Romancing tomorrow

Tomorrow is a concept, a beautiful concept, but not a reality. It is at best a presumptive or prospective or plausible reality but not an absolute reality. It is true that bards and bandits have woven ballads and bizarre poems around it. That does not in any way bestow on it a currency as for example, today.
Tomorrow! I love you with all my heart and soul. Today is dull and drab. What is today? It is a grind, it is horrifying and scurrying. Running from pillar to post. Tomorrow, ha my beloved! How much I miss you. Your unjustly labelled procrastination. Even if you are that, I will say, that you are the life and soul of all that is and that will be. Everybody loves you; the whole world adores you. My life companion is jealous of you, I hold you so tightly that she feels that I am flirting with you and that that hug is rightly hers.
Saints and savants, poets and pugilists, philosophers and pedagogues, pagans and purists, meek and the mighty, lowly and the lost and pugnacious and obnoxious all sing paeans about you. They lie at your threshold to have a glance of you or to be glanced at by you. 
Regular shoppers will be aware of a slogan engineered by clever traders. They promise things on credit for tomorrow which never comes. Even such ordinary folk know the value and beauty of tomorrow. Chasing tomorrow is an elusive pursuit. As the saying goes, tomorrow never comes.  You can say today is yesterday's tomorrow, but you cannot say that it is tomorrow. Who has seen tomorrow? Not any living being, I reckon. Even though some astrologers and soothsayers claim that they can see tomorrow, after all what is prediction about, nobody can verify this claim because it is at best a conjecture or a science of possibilities and presumptions.


The invention of 'tomorrow' is a boon to many of the weak-hearted, and of course to procrastinators. If it is entertainment, I want it now at this very moment. If it is work, the first question that comes to mind is whether I can postpone it for tomorrow. Our work piles up like this because tomorrow never comes. Then we fret and fume and complain that we are overworked. Having said so, you cannot still ignore the concept of tomorrow. As distance lends charm, tomorrow sheds its charm all around.We make detailed plans for 'tomorrow' as we cannot do that planning tomorrow, since tomorrow is still in the stage of imagination if not hallucination.
Rightly or wrongly, justifiably or unjustifiably, in certain quarters tomorrow is equated with procrastination and delaying tactics. The truth is that there is some truth in this belief. A large segment of the populace either because of inertia or difficulty in grappling with a problem or situation puts off things for the morrow.
Stigmatized with procrastination, ruin and rumination will be their repast with hardly any scope for reparation or respite and often resulting in rumpus situations. Even though subsequent alacrity may, to some extent, mitigate the damage, most of what is obliterated will be irretrievable and irreconcilable. Such a situation may devastate a man's equipoise and cause severe mental disquietude. Procrastination is the commander of evil and feeble forces. Procrastination is also known as the virtue of the wise. If this enemy within is not routed in a straight battle of non-reticence and rectitude, recurrence and recrudescence will be the result which in one mighty sweep can wash away all that is achieved with valiant efforts.   
Let us view tomorrow in its proper perspective and discharge all possible functions of the fabled tomorrow today itself. This is the lesson that we have inherited from the past and should be bequeathed to the succeeding generations.  

Hail yesterday! Hail!!

There is one school of thought which advocates that since yesterday is dead and gone do not rue over it.Similarly tomorrow is in nature's bowel and we do not know what will happen tomorrow. So do not give a thought to it.Only today, that is the present, that matters.I have some serious  reservations about the first statement.  What does it mean?  Since yesterday is dead and gone, throw it out of your window.What a blasphemous thought! Can we forget that today has blazed forth from yesterday's blast. Can we forget that all our booty came from yesterday.If this Philosophy  is accorded any undeserved status, those compulsive criminals and hoodlums who lack in circumspection and introspection and who consequently indulge in malpractices will sleep peacefully without any sense of guilt or compunction.What will happen to the society especially the law abiding citizenry.If this not curbed,law  abiding citizens will start hobnobbing with criminals and upstarts and become victims of hocus-pocus tendencies.This hypo-allergenic is fraught with grave consequences.Now turning to practical life situations what do we see. Let us take a building under construction.You have to build upon what has been built yesterday.In this case the theory mentioned above flies out of the window.
             Several cultures and civilisations in the past have collapsed, crumbled and bitten the dust because lessons of history were not heeded to. Similarly several mighty empires also disappeared  into the dark cavern of antiquity. It has been well said that history repeats itself . Take the case of individuals. How many of us are benefited  by past experiences.Or rather how many of us bother to conduct a post mortem of yesterday's events. How many of  us have  learnt any thing from the lessons of history. How many of us  will acknowledge  yesterday's  follies and foibles.How many of us will have the courage to prick our elephantine ego and own up our  past errors of  omissions and commissions, blunders and blusters and turn a new leaf. With a myopic outlook we brush aside the past
and  forge into the present committing all the mistakes and blunders  all over again. We are so afraid of our past conduct that we wish to shut them out like the cat who shuts her eyes in the fond hope that nobody will see her. Proper understanding of all that has been done and undone yesterday will restore our perspective about what should be aimed at today, what is practicable  and feasible,what is to be discarded and abandoned  and what is to be embraced. Otherwise, a recurring and punishing nightmare will ensue.
           Coming to mundane level  let us suppose that we have invited someone known to us for a meal. What will  be our first thought? We will definitely try to entertain him with dishes that we know  he likes and not what we like.This is concrete lesson from yesterday.
            Rome was not  built  in a day is an old adage  that comes to mind. All the great and endowed minds   whether they are philosophers or academicians or scientists or even  seers and  sages   have not attained theit  heights  simply by slogging in the present. Lot of preparaton of yester years has gone into their making. Contribution  of  yesterday to their activities is thus considerable. A studious student will work on  where he left unfinished  yesterday. A finished work of yesterday will be a springboard for further activities and achievements in the years to come.A wise man will  never lose sight  of his achievements as well as his failures It is only  an uninformed and petulant brain that fails to see this phenomenon.Even though I will not call it a perversity, it is at the same time  a lack of perspicacity  and sagacity. This is the saga behind all human failures.
            My thesis, therefore, is  that YESTERDAY should be accorded  the  same,  if not better,  status which TODAY  has got.
      Hail yesterday, hail!!