(253) ઓલી સંતુડીએ શિખવાડ્યું હતું!

નીચેની વાત ગળે ન ઊતરે તો પાણીનો લોટો લઈને વાંચશો, પણ આ સાચી હકીકત છે અને તેનો તમારે સ્વીકાર કરવો જ પડશે !!!

દૂર સુદૂર સાવ પછાત એવા અંતરિયાળ ગામના પાદરે જૂના સાડલા અને ધોતિયાં વડે ઘેઘુર લીમડા નીચે મતદાનમથક ઊભું કરવામાં આવ્યું હતું. મતદાનપ્રક્રિયા ચાલી રહી હતી. પ્રિસાઈડીંગ ઓફિસર તેના પેપરવર્કમાં રચ્યોપચ્યો હતો. ત્યાં તો એક વૃદ્ધા તેમના ટેબલ પાસે આવીને પેટ ઉપરના સાડીના પાલવને સહેજ ઊંચો કરીને પોતાના પેટ ઉપરનું જાંબુડિયા રંગનું ચોકડીનું નિશાન બતાવતાં કહ્યું, ‘ શાબ, બરોબર હે કે?’

‘અરે માડી! તારું ભલું થાય! પણ ચોકડી તો કાગળિયા માથે કરવાની હતી! કાગળિયું ચ્યોં મૂક્યું?’

‘એ તો શાબ પેટીમાં પધરાવી દીધું. હવં શાબ હું જવ?’

‘પધારો, મારી મા! પણ મને જરા સમજાવશો કે મતના કાગળિયાને અને તમારા પેટ ઉપરના નિશાનને શું લાગે વળગે?’

‘એ તો શાબ, ઓલી સંતુડીએ શિખવાડ્યું હતું કે પેટ માથે સિકો મારવાનો!’

પેલો પ્રિસાઈડીંગ ઓફિસર માથું ખંજવાળતો વાતનો તાગ મેળવવા મથતો હતો, ત્યાં તો એ પક્ષના ઉમેદવારનો એજન્ટ સાહેબની મૂંઝવણને સમજી ગયો અને બોલી ઊઠ્યો,‘શાબ, એ નખોદિયાઓએ ગાયના પેટ માથે સિકો મારવાનું શિખવાડ્યું હતું. આ બાપડી ડોશીના કાન સુધી એ વાત આવતાં ખાલી ‘પેટ માથે’ થઈ ગયું અને ઈંના મને ગાય અને વાછરડું ચરવા જતાં રિયાં હશે અને ઈં પોતાના પેટ માથે સિકો દબાવી દીધો.’ આમ કહેતાં તે ખીં ખીં હસી પડ્યો.

મતદાન મથકમાંનાં હાજર સૌ કોઈ હસી પડ્યાં, પણ પ્રિસાઈડીંગ ઓફિસર તો ન હસી શક્યો કે ન રડી શક્યો. એ તો મતદાન મથકની બહાર જતી એ વૃદ્ધાને પહોળા મોંઢે જોઈ જ રહ્યો!

– વલીભાઈ મુસા

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What else? – Nothing, but humor!

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One day at commencing of an OPD in an asylum, the only patient brought before the team of doctors was interviewed with the typical question as “When we discharge you after fully cured, what will you do  first?” The patient  replied instantly, “I’ll collect  some  pieces of  stones, throw  them towards all windows  and  doors of your  hospital  made of  glass and  break  them  down.” The question and  its answer were recorded on the case paper and he was admitted as an indoor patient for treatment.

After three months, the same patient was asked the same question and to the satisfaction of doctors he replied, “Sirs, I’ll try to have a job for earning.”

“Very good! What next?”

“I’ll save money and marry a beautiful woman.”

Doctors were excited as they were getting different answers with signs of cure.

“Next?”

“I’ll ask my wife to prepare a cup of coffee for me.”

“Excellent! What then?”

“I’ll ask her to bring for me the pair of pincers and our son’s old trousers.”

Doctors were somewhat confused, even though they continued to ask further, “What next, dear friend?”

“I’ll cut the elastic strip from trousers, tie it with the ends of pincers and make a pellet-bow.”

“Oh! My God, but why?”

“To throw pieces of stones with it to break down the glasses of all the doors and windows of your hospital! What else?”

– Valibhai Musa

 

Crying, a unique expression of passions in human life

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We have no any strong and conclusive proof that the creatures other than human are crying. This Article being centered on human being, we have no concern with creatures. Tom Lutz, a biological Researcher of eye fluid (tears) gives three distinguished types of tears (1) Basal (basic) tears (2) Reflex (resulted from irritation or injury) tears; and, (3) Emotional (Psychologically caused) tears. But, here also, there is no any intention of mine to give you any scientific studies of crying or tear shedding. I am going to deal with the emotional tears only now-hence-forth.

Charles Darwin has said, “Crying is the special expression of man.” Crying has no any barriers of age, gender or culture and it will continue for ages in human life. No any external power or authority can prevent crying anybody until the crying person itself calms down in its own way or at its own will. Sometimes it happens that even the crying fellow itself cannot control own crying until the effect of happiness or gloomy whichever might be the root cause is fully wiped off from the mind.

Arnold H. Glasow has quoted, “Crying is a release, a psychological tonic or tranquilizer.” Crying is valuable and yet free, a gift from God to mankind. It is not limited to babies or women; it is for all. It is natural, healthy and curative. To stay fit both physically and mentally, crying is necessary. Sometimes some saddest or happiest events may prove to be fatal to weak hearted persons if they are not reacted or absorbed by shedding tears. At this juncture, I’ll correlate my subject with some literary backgrounds just to justify the importance of crying in human life. Let us go now onwards to an emblematical poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson titled as “Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead”. Instead of any brief summary of the poem, I am going to give you the full text of the wonderful work of the poet. It is as this:

 

Who is really insane? – ‘Seldom’ such Posts (3)

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Today, I am here with my sequential Article as titled above under ‘Seldom’ such Posts series. Here, in this category, you will find some specialty topics which I consider to be most essentially attended to by my Readers. As my regular Readers know it very well that whatever I publish here on my blog is always worth-reading and nothing is special or ordinary; but, just to emphasize the particular Article, I categorize the same so.

Before stepping into the topic, I would like to narrate an episode witnessed by Honorable Mohammad, the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.). Once he was passing through the streets of Medina, the Capital city of Saudi Arabia then. A crowd had gathered in the market place and in the heart of the crowd, an insane person was doing some mocking (jesting) actions. People were attracted with the scene and they enjoyed and laughed at him. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) called them and told them “Do you want to introduce you the real mad man?” All were silent and listening to him attentively and respectfully. He said, “A person who walks conceitedly (proudly), and he continually looks around himself. He moves his sides along with his shoulders (He sees no one but himself and thinks about no one save himself.). A person from whom people expect no goodness and a person from whose mischief people are not safe. This is the real mad man. The person whom you saw is a patient, a patient of mental illness.”

Now, keeping in my mind the above episode, I’ll try my level best to answer the question put in the title as “Who is really insane?” in my own words with some more comparative instances. Insane is not he or she whose mouth leaks with saliva or spittle, but he or she whose mouth always vomits vulgar words, speaks ill of others, expresses back-biting and exchanges abuses. Insane is not he or she whose clothes are torn and dirty as the said person is unable to maintain them decently, but those are really mad persons who are well dressed looking like gentleman or gentle-lady, but whose characters are rated in the third degree of comparison i.e. the worst in the eyes of the society and also in knowledge of the Almighty Creator.

Further to say, the person with crossed eyes and stretched facial muscles is not a mad man. He or she is merely a patient, but real mad people are those whose eyes are always red with anger and hatred of others, twinkling with greed of gathering money by hook or crook and lustful for illegal and immoral sexual entertainment. The former narrated with their peculiarities are the patients and the latter are insane in real sense though he or she may be a master of sharp intellect, possessing unlimited wealth, having sound mental and physical health, occupying so-called honorable position in society or considering themselves powerful politicians.

It is the general tendency of those mentally handicapped people that they never acknowledge them being insane, but instead of that they think that the people of the whole world are insane save themselves. Similarly, the real insane people being discussed here are in delusion of their minds that whatever they do is as a result of their smartness. With their over-confidence and superiority complex, they believe that they are making fool of others and nobody is capable to mark their trickeries. But, they do not know that they are cheating to themselves because the sane people and the God Himself better know what they really are. Here below, I would catalogue some insane groups of people who have knowingly or unknowingly accepted that they are mad, but they like to remain mad with their false and defensive arguments of being practical in routine life.

These groups are such as millions of High School students and their parents worldwide and particularly in India who have gone mad knowingly. All know that their Teachers are paid handsome salaries for their duties to teach them honestly in the institutions. But, what we see is that those insane people defined here are making lots of money through private tuitions and applying also tax-evasion or tax-avoidance practices. If we count all those persons (students, parents, managements and Governments) involved in this open scandal, the size of the population of such people world-wide would be more than1/3rd. Other group of voters and politicians of democratic nations may randomly cover 2/3rd of world population where we can see not only monetary corruption but some ethical corruptions also which cannot be made at par with any huge amount of currency and they are disturbance, destruction, deviation and transgression.

One more group of youngsters who are in ratio of about 30% in the world may perhaps go astray and turn out to be insane in our special definition of insanity in this Article if they are not protected from the popular culture spreading speedily. Grip of elders upon them is becoming loose day by day and it will not be a wonder if they rebel against them and so called modern culture already stands there waiting to embrace them stretching its arms open. Entertainment media has been aggressive to increase TRP rating of their programs by catering vulgarity round the clock just to make money from costly Ads by spoiling culture of youths and teen-agers. Degradation of their culture is being tolerated by their guardians (to say all from parents to politicians) and thus their irresponsible attitude is fully responsible to damage the peace and order of the society.

Just before winding up the post, I would like to say that history has witnessed many cruel rulers who have utterly ruined their nations or kingdoms with their insanity termed here. Their evil ruling has caused to lead the people down to ever darker and lower levels of hell on earth. If my fairly sane Readers, randomly, presume the number of those mentally handicapped people (patients) world-wide and compare their proportion with those so called sane people, they will find that the former are negligible in counting. But, there is no scarcity of such so called sane but as a fact insane people at any place in the world and at any time also.

My good Readers will agree with me that those poor patients of mental illness never do any harm to anybody in the society. On the other hand, we see that those insane in disguise have done all round damages to society in little or more proportion. The real difference between people to people is not sanity or insanity, but more or less insanity. Psychologists and Sociologists have found out through researches that any individual is always insane little or more and occasionally this insanity comes out and leads him or her to such unfair behavior and action which become the cause of repentance for the whole life. If such wrong action damages himself or herself, it is all right; but, sometimes the related person/s and society have to suffer the consequences of the same. A notable quote of Friedrich Nietzsche is as “Insanity in individuals is something rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule.” Terrorism and some other forms of massacre such as racist attacks, confessional hatred and so-called ethnic cleansing are the forms of mass insanity. These are the man-made disasters where there is nothing but utter ruin of human lives. They are such as wild fire in the forest where dry and green trees burn to ashes together and it becomes very difficult to let the fire cool down.

We have to take stock of ourselves whether, knowingly or unknowingly, we are the part of such destructive activities with our silence insanity. A very witty quote of Rita Mae Brown will justify what has been said just. It is as “The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from mental illness. Think of your three best friends and if they are okay, then the fourth that remains is you.”

Summing up, the sanity of individual’s mind makes the good health of his body. Similarly, the healthy mind can dwell peacefully in a healthy body. Healthy minds and bodies of the citizens can establish peace and order in the places where they live. Civilized civilians are like beams in a house or bones in a body that can make own nation strong, healthy and prosperous. Lastly, I quote Lord Byron with his brief text as “Hatred is the insanity of the heart’. Madness of heart is more dangerous than the madness of brain.

Hopefully, this post may be evaluated as fitting to my category of ‘Seldom’ such Posts and be commented fairly by my Readers.

Regards,

– Valibhai Musa

Note: (p.b.u.h.) means “Praise be upon him”

 

Rising above Corruption – A General Review

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India’s ancient Pundit (Scholar) Chanakya, in his literary work “Niti Shastra” i.e. Science on Ethics, quotes as “One should save money against hard times, save wife at the sacrifice of own riches, but invariably one should save own soul even at the sacrifice of wife and riches.”

Not only bureaucrats, but who-so-ever come under boundary of definition of corruption, need to ponder over above words of Chanakya along with the life story of Valmiki, a great Saint (Rishi) and the poet of Ramayana. We know that the members of his family, when he was Vaalio, a Robber, denied to share with his sins saying that the one who commits sins must suffer their consequences oneself.

Violations of duty including to postpone works that are to be immediately done are the abstract forms of corruption. It may be defined in precise as “Corruption is the use of a position of trust for dishonest gain.” I shall remember Chanakya once again with his words as “one who is content with his riches has his heaven here on earth”. But, we see all around the world that the most of the people of all cadres in society are money hungry. They demand bribes for they want to make a decent living. They are not content with what they have and to satisfy their ugly desires they are prepared to do like anything by keeping their ears deaf to hear the voice of their inner soul. They do no see farther than the end of their own nose.