સહજ વિનોદવૃત્તિ

Click here to read in English
સર્વ પ્રથમ તો આપણે માર્ક ટ્વેઈન (Mark Twain)ના અવલોકનને તપાસીએ કે વિનોદ અથવા રમુજનો અભ્યાસ કરવો એટલે જીવવિજ્ઞાનના અભ્યાસમાં દેડકાને ચીરવું કે જ્યાં આપણે દેડકા વિષે ઘણું બધું જાણી તો શકીએ, પણ તેનો અંત તો મરેલા દેડકાથી જ આવે. મારો આજનો લેખ હળવા નિબંધપ્રકારનો હોઈ તે તેની રીતે હળવાશથી યોગ્ય દિશાએ આગળ ધપતો રહેશે, જેમાં પેલા દેડકાના વાઢકાપની જેમ કોઈ કંટાળાજનક વ્યાખ્યાઓ કે તેનું વૈજ્ઞાનિક પૃથક્કરણ જોવા મળશે નહિ. કેટલાંક ઉદાહરણો તમારે જે રીતે સમજવું હશે તે રીતે સમજાવવા માટે તેમણે જે કામ કરવું હશે તે તેમની રીતે કર્યે જશે.

વિનોદ કે રમુજ એ એક એવું અસરકારક સાધન છે કે જેના થકી તમે તમારાં ભારે કામો હળવાં બનાવી શકો. એક ખ્રિસ્તી પાદરીનો દાખલો લો કે જેમણે એક રવિવારની સવારની ચર્ચની પ્રાર્થનામાં એકત્ર થએલા સમૂહ આગળ પોતાની એક વાત મૂકી જેની વિશિષ્ટ રજૂઆતની શૈલી આ પ્રમાણે હતીઃ “મારે તમને કોઈક ખરાબ સમાચાર, પછી કોઈક સારા સમાચાર અને છેલ્લે કોઈક ખરાબ સમાચાર કહી સંભળાવવાના છે. (૧) ખરાબ સમાચાર એ છે કે ચર્ચનું છાપરું તૂટી પડ્યું છે. (૨) સારા સમાચાર એ છે કે તેની મરામત માટે નાણાંની વ્યવસ્થા થઈ ગઈ છે. (૩) છેલ્લે ખરાબ સમાચાર એ છે કે તે નાણાં તમારા લોકોનાં ખિસ્સાંમાં છે.” અહીં થોડામાં ઘણું કહેવાઈ ગયું છે અને પાદરી તેમની નાણાકીય જરૂરિયાતને પહોંચી વળવામાં ચોક્કસ સફળ થયા જ હશે. અહીં વિનોદવૃત્તિની શક્તિનો પરિચય તમને સ્વયં રીતે સિદ્ધ થએલો જોવા મળશે.

 

A Sense of Humor

Click here to read in Gujarati
Let us mark first Mark Twain’s marking that studying humor is like dissecting a frog in biological studies where we may know a lot but we end up with a dead frog. Being my today’s post a Light Essay, everything will go light in a rightway with no any boring definitions or scientific analysis or any dissection of the topic like a frog’s. Some illustrations will do their work what they have to do to make you understand what is to be understood by you.

Humor is such an effective tool with which you can make your tasks very easy. Take an example of a Priest who addressed to the gathering in a Church one Sunday morning in a typical style as this: “I have some bad news, some good news and some bad news. (1) The bad news is that the Church roof has fallen down. (2) The good news is that I have found the money to repair it. (3) The bad news is that it is in your pockets”. Here, much more has been said and the Priest would have surely succeeded to cope better with his requirement of funds. Here, the power of ‘sense of humor’ is self explanatory.

Now a days, people are living stressful lives throughout the world. They are suffering from pains for some gains. Economically middle class and BPL people are many and they are in want of increasing immune power, reducing their stress and coming out of their worries. Humor is a tonic which works more effectively rather than any other remedy and easily available within one’s own self also. The person has to try only to take it out and the life will look worth living.

Not only financial but some other minor matters also matter with our lives and become the causes of our dis-satisfactions. Let us look at baldness of Mr. Allen Klein, a humorist. He focused his humor on himself as saying “Because of my lack of hair, I tell people that I am a former expert on how to cure baldness.” To make others laugh, such style of comments on self is safe as no question to irritate the feelings of others arises here. Let us enjoy one more – Abraham Lincoln’s very intelligent and funny quote as “How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” If you have the sense of humor, you should laugh here; otherwise share these quotes with your spouse and perhaps he or she may help you to laugh by stretching your cheeks and/or lips and poking with fingers in your arm-pits.

Many people are found around us who wear such surly faces in the shape of English numeral (eight) i.e. hanging, cool, dry or still photography-like and they not only live their own lives bore-some, but make others’ also boring. If we happen to travel together with such persons for some hours, we feel that we have passed an era with them.

Laughter is the source of connecting the people together. A humorous bus conductor can attract the passengers to take only his bus to ride. Humor is a ‘give and take’ process. I’ll illustrate my experience of traveling in a bus. After issuing the tickets at starting point, the conductor announced, “Don’t be ashamed of having your tickets, please!” My seat was near to him and I whispered to him softly and smilingly, “Don’t you need to change this dialogue sounding like a broken record, my good friend?” He broke out in shouts of laughter and went positive with me and said, “Well spoken, dear uncle, well spoken! Really, it is a very common dialogue among all we-conductors and it may be of no any effect to create humor. I’ll think over it for some change and try. Thanks a lot.”

Sense of humor is an outcome of the presence of mind. The following is my paraphrase from my memory of having read the episode somewhere and perhaps I may be wrong here. But, my dear(s) ignoreit as somebody has said, “Who says is not the least concerned, but what he says is important.” Yes, go further to read.

My favorite personality Mr. Churchill once made a comment in the British House of Commons (Lower House) as “Half of the members of the House are idiots.” Being a non-Parliamentary word, the members stood up from their chairs with a protest shouting with ‘Shame .. Shame!”. Mr. Churchill requested them to calm down and apologized in these words, “I am sorry. I withdraw my statement. I represent it with amendment that half of the members of the House are not idiots.” The House was so excited watching their PM apologizing that they could not catch the last words in-between the noise of patting the desks and roaring.

 My good Readers, it is upon you to make out any definitions of the subject in discussion. My assurance of not giving any definitions is already there in my first Para above and I still stand by it. But, suppose if I write down “A sense of humor is the ability to experience humor.” forgetfully, ignore it and forget that you have read it.

Equivocal words are many in languages which can create humor if they are used sharply at right places and moments. To reach the efficiency of ‘laugh and let laugh’, we will have to sharpen our sense of humor. Without sharpening our ability to grasp any humorous point of a narrator, our position will fit with a deaf person who has to laugh twice. I won’t clarify why twice being the prestige issue of my intelligent Readers. Equivocal words are called as Puns also which sound the same but having different meanings. An illustration is here as “A cross-eyed teacher could not control his pupils.” Such Puns are many and you may invent them to make your treasure full with them to entertain others in your own style.

 The technique of anti-climax at the end of a story or an episode becomes the most effective part to make the listeners laugh. A single example will be enough for you to make this technique clear. Well, let us have a laugh together. Here we go:

Mr. X: I am in true love with your daughter. Please allow us to marry.

Mr. Y: No, no! Not at all! You are not fit for her. Forget your love and be off.

Mr. X: If you don’t, do you know what will I do?

Mr. Y: You will make suicide, what else?

Mr. X: No, why should I? My life is not very cheap as you think.

Mr. Y: You will run away with her and do court marriage!

Mr. X: No … No! It is the job of a coward, not mine!

Mr. Y: Bark… Bark! What will you do then?

Mr. X: I’ll marry with any other girl.

I sum up my Article here with no any tension whether it has succeeded to make you laugh or smile at least by uttering ‘cheese’ as photographers instruct to bring an artificial smile on face in their studios! Ha! Haa! Haaa!

Bye,

– Valibhai Musa
February 1, 2008

 

Charity (ભાવનાનું મૂલ્ય)

Click here to read Preamble in Gujarati
Charity is emphasized in every religion of the world. Somebody said, “Every charitable act is a stepping stone towards heaven.” This may be true for a religious person, but what about those people who do not believe in Heaven or Hell and not even believe in existence of God. It makes no difference to God if anybody created by Him believes Him or not. He is always kind and merciful for all His creations, either the Believers or Non-believers. The slogan of those Non-believers is “God is nowhere.” But, ask them to talk to a victim of any disaster who might have got help through charity by any individual or organization at the right moment. That fellow will invert their slogan in this way, “God is now here.” But, here our topic is about charity and we leave them here to experience the critical situation in their lives and; perhaps a day may come, when they may be compelled to change their attitude of a Non-believer.

My article in Gujarati will follow this preface, but before that, I want to add something here in brief for my Non-Gujarati readers. I shall quote one of my favorite personalities – Sir Winston Churchill in this regard. He said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Further, he said: “Even the poor should give something to charity.” The last words will reflect in my Article that follows. Mother Terasa also said, “It’s not how much we give, but how much love we can put into giving.” This will also be qualifying to my scanned blog. Giving something is better than nothing while doing charity. Frank Tyger quotes, “If you cannot lift the load off another’s back, do not walk away; but try to lighten it.”

In my opinion and also in yours, when we give something for charity to any needy person; it is not any obligation or favor to him, but is merely the payment of royalty on behalf of God for what we use as the raw material of what we produce and earn if we are a manufacturer. If we are a businessman or professional, we pay the levy of our intellectual property borrowed from Him. If we are a farmer, we use land, water, seeds etc. provided by Him. If we are a laborer, we pay Him for the physical strength He favored us. Nothing is ours, everything is His. Even we-ourselves are in existence at His will and our every breathe is dependent of Him. Hajarat Imam Ali, in a sermon, said, “When a man dies, his relatives ask how much wealth he has left. While the angels look to see how much he had given in charity, in the path of the God.”

Summing up, the God loves those who love Him, but loves those more who love their fellow-men. Now, proceed further to read my blog in Gujarati and try to co-relate it to the content of this preface:

charity.pdf