As I sat all cool skimming through today’s TOI & reading about the Ayodhya issue, I felt that all these problems prevailing in our country, mostly related to religious groups, casts and communities, are because each group is “intra-monotone”. Most people within a group have similar kind of thought process and perceptions. Safe to say, they have same paradigms. But when the same group interacts with another group, the paradigms differ. In fact what could be beneficial for one group might be a loss for the other. Inter-group difference reside in the roots of our nation, and in a varied country like India, it is bound to reside in future. A simple version of this thought can be applied to each of us individually. Each of us has perceptions different, and at times repugnant, to a fellow being. In a world which is so intense, these differences in perceptions can prove to be grave. Especially under provocation. The following fictional short story of mine describes how the variance in perceptions formed and the deficient conclusions drawn from them are actually stupid, still they compel us to prepare “most craziest” of overviews.
…It was 8:30 in the morning and I was walking to the nearby shop to by the day’s bread and milk. Shops shutters were just starting to open. There was not much activity in the vicinity. With just a few people, newspaper boys, a few plump women on their morning walk and sniffing dogs. In these passive surroundings, the by footer on the opposite pavement was rather interesting. She was dressed in a red salwar suit, which fit right on her, with a couple of red bangles in each hand, Red nail paint and little silver earrings. She was traumatizing fair than any other thing near-by, which gave her a unique glow. With long black hair swaying loose, she could have killed anyone by her looks. She would have been in her early 20’s. I glanced over her for seconds and then withdrew my sight before it turned a stare. But the guy walking behind me wasn’t sensible enough, or maybe was too excited to decide what was right. He just waved his hand to her and winked. She saw it. I was paused for a few seconds as I was convinced to see a high voltage drama this morning. The guy just stood there like a rogue with his lower lips between his teeth and with penetrating sharp eyes set on her. The girl gave a blushing smile, looked down on the pavement and hurried her steps away from the scene. Exactly at that moment a middle aged man, I guess in his late 30’s and looking quite rural came closer to the girl and started walking with her. It was her father. Now this further convinced me of my thoughts about the high voltage drama and the guy behind me was nearly dead. He quickly got away from the spot and made sure he dint match an eye with her father or the pretty lady. I continued to look at the girl and her father. The girl was still smiling, looking down to pavement. Her father just watched the guy go away, not with anger, not with hate, he dint even respond to the situation. He just had a calm expression on his face, with sober eyes and pale flat forehead. I wondered what made him feel so relaxed when some random guy just winked at her daughter and ran away. What kind of disgusting parent was he? I mean it’s OK for a girl to smile after being winked, but not for her father to look satisfied and contended. I just mumbled “What the Hell. Pimp shit.” in disgust and continued on my way.
Later I was back at my house and it war nearly 10:30 in morning when our maid arrived. She had box full of sweets and looked as happy as never before. She yelled to my mother that her daughter’s surgery was successful and she got her face back. I had once overheard our maid telling my mother that her daughter’s face got burned when she was 5 years old. It was a Degree – III burn and they were having trouble regarding her marriage. All boys in their community had rejected her. And they dint want to marry her to a lower caste boy. She was going gaga over her daughter’s new found beauty as any other mother would. She called “shanti. Aaja”. In her unique accent and a girl stepped up the stairs on my floor and appeared near the door. My jaw dropped. Shati was the girl who got winked this morning. It was she who smiled. It was her father who stood contended. And would he be not? He had every reason to be happy. It was like lightning struck me. These folks had put together each rag to make up the cost of her plastic surgery. And now she was beautiful, beautiful like goddess. Any guy would say yes instantly to her proposal. I wonder how god could give a burn to such a beauty. Did he have no logic? Suddenly all my thoughts got reverted. How foolishly, without knowing the basic cause, or the whole story behind, I just drew atrocious conclusion about her father. How a father could not be contended after all his hard work, earnings and sacrifice earned his daughter her lost beauty. That wink had actually set a seal of success on his hard work. He knew it. Hence he was calm and contended. I did not. Hence I was disgusted.
Later I was back at my house and it war nearly 10:30 in morning when our maid arrived. She had box full of sweets and looked as happy as never before. She yelled to my mother that her daughter’s surgery was successful and she got her face back. I had once overheard our maid telling my mother that her daughter’s face got burned when she was 5 years old. It was a Degree – III burn and they were having trouble regarding her marriage. All boys in their community had rejected her. And they dint want to marry her to a lower caste boy. She was going gaga over her daughter’s new found beauty as any other mother would. She called “shanti. Aaja”. In her unique accent and a girl stepped up the stairs on my floor and appeared near the door. My jaw dropped. Shati was the girl who got winked this morning. It was she who smiled. It was her father who stood contended. And would he be not? He had every reason to be happy. It was like lightning struck me. These folks had put together each rag to make up the cost of her plastic surgery. And now she was beautiful, beautiful like goddess. Any guy would say yes instantly to her proposal. I wonder how god could give a burn to such a beauty. Did he have no logic? Suddenly all my thoughts got reverted. How foolishly, without knowing the basic cause, or the whole story behind, I just drew atrocious conclusion about her father. How a father could not be contended after all his hard work, earnings and sacrifice earned his daughter her lost beauty. That wink had actually set a seal of success on his hard work. He knew it. Hence he was calm and contended. I did not. Hence I was disgusted.
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