September, 2018
Sweep, swipe, broom, spray, and smile. Everyday he comes and cleans. Everyday we have a conversation that lasts 2 seconds.
“920 bhaiya”
“Kar deta hu bhaiya”
Men stay strangers, till we weigh their words. I did.
“Bhaiya aap ka ghar yaha se kitna dur hai?”
“Kaafi dur hai bhaiya. 10 km. TaanDa gaon hai.”
“Yeh toh kaafi kam faasla hai bhaiya. Mera ghar toh 2500km hai yaha se.”
“Aapka ghar kaha PaRta hai bhaiya?”
“Kalkatte se hai bhaiya.”
“Yeh kya Banaras ke paas hai?”
“Arre nahi nahi bhaiya. Banaras kam se kam 700 km dur hai Kalkatta se. Pehle Banaras, phir Patna, Bhagalpur, Murshidabad hote hue Kalkatta. Ganga jaha ko behti hai.”
“Mujhe pata nahi bhaiya. Mein kabhi Haryana se bahar gaya nahi.”
“Phir Banaras poocha aapne?”
“Ha bhaiya ek picture dekh raha tha TV pe, ‘Indra the Tiger’. Usme bata rahe the Banaras ke baare mein.”
Governments may come and Governments may go, but the Telugu film industry makes Geography accessible like none other! Bhaiya is happy with his own little corner in this world, and a 15 inch window that recently told him that Kashi and Banaras might be the same after all. He is still figuring out where Kalkatta fits in. Bangal is beyond his mental geography of Hindustan. Only a ‘picture’ can set the records right.
***
August 2018
“We all live our lives by stories. And ultimately it’s the stories that remain. Like a Human Library. You know I did something like this when I was in Sweden. We are still looking for a license here though. When the University gets it, we should bring up a character like a Gaurakshak. We have such misconceptions about how these men would be. You know they are perfectly ordinary beyond this label that they bear. It would be interesting to document the life of a Gaurakshak!”
Evenings later, the stories continued. Professor Chatterjee quipped,
“You know I went to Old Delhi once. There I met a man who had never stepped outside of Old Delhi all his life. He would have been 60 years old. He looked towards his right and told me New Delhi lay that way. Then he paused and looked left and said Ajmer lay that way. And when I asked him how he knew, he just pointed out the gates of the walled city. He knew the names of the gates. He built his story around the old city.”
Strange as it is, whether modernity will ever catch up mentally with these men is debatable. And this notion too is debatable. What is also debatable is whether the Walled City itself is a product of modernity, more so now as the Yamuna recedes, hills corrode and the wires on the posts violate Kirchoff’s Law. Historically medieval, culturally plural, poetically and sociologically modern, the Old City is a space that defies the normative. In continuity with our ancestors, the tradition of ‘Bahas’ will go on with regards to this space. The stories however, continue to progress irrespective. Happiness lies in the stories lived by men. And men live by stories.
***
September 2018
“Happiness is a product of your values. When I say values I mean virtues in perpetuity. Your Pre-Frontal Cortex stops developing after 25 years of age. It determines how you react to situations, and the levels of dopamine released due to certain actions and impulses. It’s a matter of hormones and secretions at the nerve endings really. If your value is to not to swear, and you succeed in doing that every single day, you will feel happy when you look back on your day. Or if your value is to help at least one person every month, and you succeed in doing it, it will make you feel happy. You see happiness is like a horizontal line, whereas pleasure is like a topsy turvy graph line. If you have an ice-cream, you will feel pleasure. It is short. Happiness is something that lasts for the longest time. You must make yourself goal oriented. It works”, said Dr. Merchant launching his book called Happiness.
A complete separation from nature, and one finds elements of the self in goal-oriented values. The race applies to Happiness too. Perhaps Ramakrishna Paramhans was right when he said “Joto mat, toto path” (More the number of beliefs, more the number of ways to salvation). Modernity has found its own system of happiness. It is working well too. Dr. Merchant has a 85% success rate with his patients. Man always finds a way.
Sweep, swipe, broom, spray, and smile. Everyday he comes and cleans. Everyday we have a conversation that lasts 2 seconds.
“920 bhaiya”
“Kar deta hu bhaiya”
Men stay strangers, till we weigh their words. I did.
“Bhaiya aap ka ghar yaha se kitna dur hai?”
“Kaafi dur hai bhaiya. 10 km. TaanDa gaon hai.”
“Yeh toh kaafi kam faasla hai bhaiya. Mera ghar toh 2500km hai yaha se.”
“Aapka ghar kaha PaRta hai bhaiya?”
“Kalkatte se hai bhaiya.”
“Yeh kya Banaras ke paas hai?”
“Arre nahi nahi bhaiya. Banaras kam se kam 700 km dur hai Kalkatta se. Pehle Banaras, phir Patna, Bhagalpur, Murshidabad hote hue Kalkatta. Ganga jaha ko behti hai.”
“Mujhe pata nahi bhaiya. Mein kabhi Haryana se bahar gaya nahi.”
“Phir Banaras poocha aapne?”
“Ha bhaiya ek picture dekh raha tha TV pe, ‘Indra the Tiger’. Usme bata rahe the Banaras ke baare mein.”
Governments may come and Governments may go, but the Telugu film industry makes Geography accessible like none other! Bhaiya is happy with his own little corner in this world, and a 15 inch window that recently told him that Kashi and Banaras might be the same after all. He is still figuring out where Kalkatta fits in. Bangal is beyond his mental geography of Hindustan. Only a ‘picture’ can set the records right.
***
August 2018
“We all live our lives by stories. And ultimately it’s the stories that remain. Like a Human Library. You know I did something like this when I was in Sweden. We are still looking for a license here though. When the University gets it, we should bring up a character like a Gaurakshak. We have such misconceptions about how these men would be. You know they are perfectly ordinary beyond this label that they bear. It would be interesting to document the life of a Gaurakshak!”
Evenings later, the stories continued. Professor Chatterjee quipped,
“You know I went to Old Delhi once. There I met a man who had never stepped outside of Old Delhi all his life. He would have been 60 years old. He looked towards his right and told me New Delhi lay that way. Then he paused and looked left and said Ajmer lay that way. And when I asked him how he knew, he just pointed out the gates of the walled city. He knew the names of the gates. He built his story around the old city.”
Strange as it is, whether modernity will ever catch up mentally with these men is debatable. And this notion too is debatable. What is also debatable is whether the Walled City itself is a product of modernity, more so now as the Yamuna recedes, hills corrode and the wires on the posts violate Kirchoff’s Law. Historically medieval, culturally plural, poetically and sociologically modern, the Old City is a space that defies the normative. In continuity with our ancestors, the tradition of ‘Bahas’ will go on with regards to this space. The stories however, continue to progress irrespective. Happiness lies in the stories lived by men. And men live by stories.
***
September 2018
“Happiness is a product of your values. When I say values I mean virtues in perpetuity. Your Pre-Frontal Cortex stops developing after 25 years of age. It determines how you react to situations, and the levels of dopamine released due to certain actions and impulses. It’s a matter of hormones and secretions at the nerve endings really. If your value is to not to swear, and you succeed in doing that every single day, you will feel happy when you look back on your day. Or if your value is to help at least one person every month, and you succeed in doing it, it will make you feel happy. You see happiness is like a horizontal line, whereas pleasure is like a topsy turvy graph line. If you have an ice-cream, you will feel pleasure. It is short. Happiness is something that lasts for the longest time. You must make yourself goal oriented. It works”, said Dr. Merchant launching his book called Happiness.
A complete separation from nature, and one finds elements of the self in goal-oriented values. The race applies to Happiness too. Perhaps Ramakrishna Paramhans was right when he said “Joto mat, toto path” (More the number of beliefs, more the number of ways to salvation). Modernity has found its own system of happiness. It is working well too. Dr. Merchant has a 85% success rate with his patients. Man always finds a way.
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