Distant dreams - Birbal and Winter night in cold water!!!

There are many stories we have heard of Akbar and Birbal. All of them mostly involve subtle and timely use of wit and wisdom to solve any issue at hand or problem faced.

One interesting story I recalled some time back was that of the poor man winning a challenge laid down by King, for standing in cold water for entire winter night. When at the end of excruciating night, this poor man demanded his prize, one of the courtiers disputed and told that throughout the night the man was staring at the two lamps lighting at the lamppost of the palace. Therefore he got the warmth from these lamps and violated the condition of standing in cold water without warming himself. He ruled the man out of court and dismissed his claim for prize.

Birbal saw this and thought that it was against what he considered just and right. He tried advocating for the man, but Akbar did not listen to him. Some days later, Birbal did not come to court. On enquiring the King got to know that Birbal has put “Khichadi” for cooking and will resume to the duty of court once the “Khichadi” is cooked. For entire month he did not come to the court, and then King himself went to his place. He found that Birbal had put on the stove on the ground and the pot containing “Khichadi” far above it.

King asked “How foolish are you? This way Khichadi can’t be cooked, it is not receiving the fire.” “Huzoor,” replied Birbal, “how can the man, then, get warmth from the lamps lighting that night. Please award him the prize he deserves.”

Enamoured by this wisdom, Akbar gave the prize to the poor man.

So far so good, but a thought crossed my mind once. Was the analogy used by Birbal fit?

Aren’t there times when we human beings actually surpass long never ending testing times by keeping our eyes on the distant dreams we have?

These dreams, though way too far for any direct effect and impact, surely have power to influence people in countering their present plights.

Who knows what dreams ran through that poor man’s mind while he was focusing on those lamps.

It is slightly unnerving to dispute with someone with so much celebrated intelligence as Birbal, but I would fancy a probability that the man was surely lighting some dream in his heart through those lamps that night. And that lamps did play a role in his being able to spend that winter night in cold water.

Do you also think so??

Scorecard of Success

While reading something random some days back, I came across a mention of an economist who had propounded one of the most relevant concepts in sociology and economics.

This man’s name is Thorsten Veblen, trained at Yale, he wrote a book in the year 1899 in which he described three concepts which, I believe, have gripped our lives from all ends very tightly. Not only these concepts guide our actions they also shape the way we think, believe and even dream!!

The first one refers to the phenomenon where a social class of a person is defined by the kind of consumption that a person indulges into. The more the extravagance associated with the purchases, the higher the social class. He called it Conspicuous consumption. Remember that friend of yours who always flaunted the “Most expensive Mobile, bag, house, car etc.??

This concept was innocuous and healthy until it gave way to another dangerous phenomenon that Thorsten observed. It was “Pecuniary Emulation” it referred to people going beyond their means in order to emulate the consumption and consumer behaviour (You better get the difference between the two!!) of those who are considered to be belonging to the higher class in the society. After all who does not want to be talk of the town???

It is astonishing how brutally these concepts have eroded much of our sense of proportion and aesthetics. We now keep a constant scorecard of our success with material benchmark, which in Thorsten’s words is called, “Invidious comparison.”

It has been just a little over 100 years that these concepts have been identified and examined, yet they seem to be getting stronger and stronger in their application and grip over our minds.

Isn’t it???

PS: For better understanding of what I am saying, sell off the dictionary and buy yourself a nice mirror!!! It will work better.

Change cheated on us again......

An honest announcement of a friend of mine on a public forum regarding his disappointment in the New Year forced me to think a bit about change today.

Despite all hue and cry around it, the world had not changed the way it had promised. The euphoria created made us believe for a second that New Year will be significantly different from the one that is just going to end. In New Year, people will be kinder to each other. (As if Santa were to shower some sense and sensitivity in their minds!!) There will be some sanity in our celebrations and the considerations paid to the concern of overall well being will increase, at least marginally. So on and so forth we contemplate so many other changes that we need to implement for a better world.

The grand new day arrives, on which all these and many other hopes are pinned and what happens?

All this fall flat as a castle of cards. To sheer shock, we observe people acting even more brutally, with renewed force. Our celebrations almost anesthetize us from most of the realities. Engrossed in our life we tend to make our senses numb so that we don’t have to bother our minds with problems that others face. Corruption still flourishes. Thousands spend nights shivering while we cuddle in our warm quilts without even giving a single thought to their apathy, let alone doing anything to solve it. Foeticides continue, public money misappropriated, strikes for reservations go on…. Apart from these public pains, some private pains also keep aching millions around us.

But who cares? We are too busy to halt, think, act and make a difference to anyone else. Ask yourself, when did you last wipe of a tear from an eye??? I asked this to myself and struggled to find an answer.

It is very easy and tempting to consider the misfortunes of others as a result of their own bad deeds or mistakes or downfall. It is equally difficult to empathise and act towards making the world a little better place for others also, irrespective of the magnitude of that improvement. Somehow we have developed a habit of adopting easy routes. (Some CALL IT OPTIMIZATION!!)

Many may rub this comment off as a vent of frustration, anger or jealousy also. And accuse me of playing a spoilsport. But as they say, problems do not go away if you turn your eyes away from them.

One thing that commands some celebrations is that still we have many people who feel the disappointments for absence of some changes. So long as there is a desire for change, determination to work for it can be attained and acted upon. I firmly believe that all these (Choose your adjective: Positive/negative) forces, will confluence and lead to some of the changes we so badly need to execute.

Act while there are still some days in calendar none knows which one will be the last…. .