freedom

Two friends were going on a bike. It was a very windy day. The

pillion rider decided to wear his windcheater back to front to

protect his chest more effectively. After a while the rider

felt something amiss and looking back found to his horror the pillion

rider missing. Flustered, he turned around and raced back to look for

the friend. After  a couple of kilometers he saw a crowd of

people gathered around an inert body. To his dismay he found that it

was his friend lying quite still and dead to the world. He dismounted

and asked what had happened. A man who seemed to be in charge

said  , " The poor bastard had fallen off a bike . He

seemed to be allright when we got to him . But his head was

turned completely the wrong way. We turned it round and he had been

like this ever since".

Great suffering finally leads an individual to resignation and this is mistaken by many as acceptance. Acceptance in turn is regarded as the cure for all suffering - the eternal balm. But this kind of acceptance or resignation is seen by those who see that all events are in their efficient and unerring control,as meek submission to the vagaries of chance. To them Prostheus fighting a battle he knows he has no hope of survivung is a symbol of unflagging spirit.And Jesus hanging on a wooden cross pleading for forgiveness for his tormentors is a pitiable picture of abject surrender.

Well, this is only one point of view. Consider Promeheus chained to a rock and quite helpless against the vulture that descends on him to peck at his open heart. He struggles against the chains and tries to free himself to fight off his adversary.This is considered by many as the last word in courage and steadfastness. But in reality this is due to his ignorance which has resulted in a sad failure to appreciate his situation. His fight is only an animal instinct to survive.
On the other hand Jesus did not struggle against his detractors not because he was resigned to his fate. If it were so , he also would have struggled and shouted obscenities and curses at the Roman soldiers.Instead he only said that the Centurions who had nailed him to the cross and denied him water be forgiven for they know not what they were doing.
How was he able to behave in such an extraordinary manner that defies human understanding? Because here was a man who accepted his situation and this was not resignation to the inevitable. He accepted the inevitable with open eyes and the awareness that the real "he" was something other than the gross body gave him the courage to ask for the forgiveness of his enemies. How was this possible? Jesus was a fully evolved man who realised that he was not just body, mind and intellect. The real "he" was something apart from these three confining entities and once a person gets that awareness he is really free because he knows that whatever is being done to his physical body can not harm his real self which is eternal and unperishable.That is why he said that his tormentors do not know what they were doing. They did not know that the real self of any man can not be crucified and what happens to the physical entity comprising of body ,mind and intellect does not affect the Self. Only such a man who has attained that awareness could have said those words in those moments of extreme physical agony. For such a man has elevated himself to be not the son of God but God Himself.Now you see the difference between Prometheus and Jesus , I hope.

Today Gabriel Garcia Marquez turns 80. Marquez is by far the greatest living writer of his genre. His novels written in his own style of magical realism are a heady mixture of fantasy and reality. The reader gets the feeling of having woken up from a world of dream into something he can't exactly place where. His autobiography , "Living to tell the tale" is a vivid and graphic account of the world he knew and a world we all ought to know. Most of his novels carry large fragments from his own life with reality and fantasy interwoven in the most exotic way. I had been an avid reader of his books which have given me days and days of pure pleasure. Happy birth day Gabo ! May you go on and on and on giving us books that enrich our lives.

I have many friends , successful in their respective spheres of activity such as the professions, business, services etc. All of them , when asked what they enjoy most in life , invariably replied , "The struggle for existence ". They say this in all sincerity and honestly believe that without what they perceive as struggle for existence , life will be pretty dull and not really worth living. But is this struggle for existence they say is essential to their lives the same strugle a person has to put in to save himself from the depths of poverty ? The answer is no. A daily wage earner or a peddler of small articles has to struggle so hard that a moment of relaxation will not bring food on his table. The successful businessman or the company executive when he says he has to struggle for existence, he is actually struggling for success or at worst to keep himself from what he fears is ruin. (loss of a contract or the inability to buy the latest car or to get into a swanky club).
But the other man who really has to struggle would not have known what financial ruin is because he never had any money to lose in the first place. When an affluent , well placed person says he loves struggle for existence, he is simply trying to give some dignity or even sanctity to the various gimmicks he has to perform to go on being successful.

God appeared before a little boy and asked him what he wanted for He could give him anything.

" You can do anything "? the boy wanted to know.

" Sure,I AM God".

" Then please create a rock which you can not lift " , said the boy.

Caught in a catch- 22 situation , the Lord was floored and disappeared.

I wanted to clobber the chap who narrated this to me :

Three very attractive girls were waitng at the bus station when a young flamboyant chap came in a flashy car and offered them a lift . The girls consulted amongst themselves and agreed and got into the car. On the way he stopped the car in front of a beautiful house and told them he had to make an urgent phonecall and will be back in no time. ( this happened before cell phones were in vogue). After a while he came back and said the business he was transacting will take more time than he thouht it would and would the girls mind waiting inside as it will be more comfortable ? The girls again consulted amongst themselves and decided to go in. After all they were three, weren't they? Then they heard him talking to a friend on the phone. He was inviting the friend to his home to have a good time : he had three very wiilling and pliable girls with him. Now the girls really got scared and decided to bolt. They tried the door only to find it locked . Then they noticed the small window open and went for it. The first and the second girl squeezed through it and jumped out to safety and they were helping the third one when the chap came in rushing. He caught hold of her by her calves and pulled her legs as hard as I am pulling yours now.

I am not an etymologist but the origins of words have always fascinated me.Sometimes one comes across really interesting stuff - like the word Blackmail , for instance. I was always under the impression that the 'mail' in the word owed its origin to the fact that blackmailing was a black deed usually perpetrated via the post by black guards who demanded that the receiver comply with the threats in the letter lest some damaging secret about him or her would be revealed to the world at large. But this apparently is not the case - the origin of the word I mean. The word has its genesis in mediaeval Scotland where chieftains and warlords collected rent which was called 'mail' from tenants and sharecroppers in return for protection and general safety. But they thought this was not enough and imposed an extra cess on the tenants the default of which would invite terrible retribution from the landlords in the form of plunder and pillage. The tenants referred to this illegal payment which they were forced to pay as black mail as the legal one was known as white mail.

There is a certain element of struggle or effort that is built into the chromosome of every living being including us , homo sapiens.In fact is it not because the sperm strove hard and succeded that the embryo was formed bringing us into this world?? In human beings , it is this effort that constitutes an important component of happiness. A desire fulfilled gives joy only if an amount of struggle to attain it is put into it. But modern living has reduced this struggle to a minimum that it has become possible to attain a desire with comparitive ease. This fulfilment of man's desires with moderate effort has actually made desire not really very rewarding to work for. The ease with which a desire or wish is attained makes man conclude that happiness does not lie in fulfilment of one's desires and he goes as far as to believe that desire is a wretched thing.In fact this has come about because the desire was small enough to attain with moderate effort therby rendering it not worth pursuing all the while forgetting that it is precisely his inabilty to realise all his wishes that forms an integral part of happiness.Therefore all this talk about the attainment of one's all wishes will lead to a sense of futility or hollowness in worldly possessions is really not true.

I read a news paper report that bars in New Mexico have toilets with urinals fitted with a gadget that warn users it is not safe to drive after having one too many. It was found that bar rest rooms were the most likely places tipplers were bound to visit just before they got into their cars. Just as a man is about to zip up after relieving himself , a sultry female voice will flirtatiously but firmly remind him that driving and drinking do not mix . The voice also pointedly says ," The future is in your hand".
I wonder how a woman will see it !

The Green House effect with all its frightening ramifications is the result of modern man's ceaseless quest for improving his lot. Global warming,rise in sea levels, unpredictable weather are alll due to this , we are told.Green house gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide etc. are released as aresult of heavy industrialisation which in turn has enhanced human welfare. Therefore this is a price we are paying for our comforts which modern life has afforded us.Therefore it is in our interest only to see that the release of such damaging gases is controlled. But it is easier said than done.The main impediment to this is distrust among nations and people. For instance if I do forgo some of my comforts towards this goal, what is the guarantee that the other man will also do likewise? So is the case with nations.Inorder to curb the release of carbon dioxide, if governments ask a clamp down on jet travel, it will be greeted with howls of protests from the industry which a democratic givernment can ill-afford to ignore.Moreover such a situation will be politically exploited by the opposition.Therefore in matters of such grave import, all political parties should come to a consensus and implement the agenda to save the earth. Otherwise no one can stop its inexorable journey to oblivion.