Kaw caw
Enlarging the Perspective
Today, I met Mr. Kapur after a long
time.
“Where have
you been all this while?” I asked.
”Well,
I have generally been at home,” he said,
despondency dripping from each word he spoke. “What else do you expect? I am getting
on in years. You know my age? I am sixty seven.”
“Sixty
seven?” I laughed uproariously, “You call sixty seven old? What about me then?
What am I?”
“It is not
age alone. My knee is troubling me. I cannot walk properly.”
I said, “Is
your knee troubling you or are you troubling your knee?”
He looked at
me, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,
look at your weight . You have put on at least ten kgs since we met last. Don’t
you realize how you are punishing your knees with all that extra weight?”
“Of course,
I do. But it is a vicious circle. I can reduce weight by walking, but I cannot
walk because of the pain.”
I was
reminded of a conversation my mother once had with Sathya Sai Baba. She was
requesting for his intervention in curing Papaji of the pain in his knees.
Baba
said,”knees ko pain nahin hoga to aur kya hoga? Itna zyada wazan uthhana padta
hai. Wazan kam hoga to pain apne aap chala jayega.”
Mother: ”
Wazan kam kaise hoga? Isko bhookh lagta hai to khana dena padta hai.”
Baba
laughed, “Maine kab kaha khana kam do. Bhook lagta hai to ek kilo cucumber de
do. Do kilo cucumber de do. Us se wazan
nahin badhta hai. Cucumber bas pani hai. Jitna chahe utna cucumber kha
sakta hai.”
Kapur asked
with his usual innocence, “Cucumber kya hota hai?”
I clarified
that cucumber is kheera.
“O kheera?”
he made a face.
“And let me
tell you one more thing. When I was sixty seven, I had this notion that I will
live at best up to seventy. That gave me a time perspective of three years.
What can you plan for three years? And that too the last three years of your
life?”
“Exactly”,
Kapur said half-humorously, “I have the same feeling. The reverse count has
begun.”
“No, it has
not.” I said vehemently. “ A very strange incident took place which changed my
entire outlook on life. My
brother-in-law Kanwarji was going on a tour of Uttaranchal. He took my wife and
me along. We were on our way to Badrinath. When we stopped at some place on the
way, Kanwarji told me that he will go out for an hour to meet someone.
“Is it
someone official?” I enquired.
“No, no,
nobody official. You will laugh if I tell you.” Kanwarji replied.
“Try me,” I
challenged him,”I don’t laugh easily.”
“If you
insist,” he said, “Last time I was here, someone introduced me to a Panditji
who lives in this village. My informant claimed that Panditji just looks at
your face and forecasts the events in your life. He doesn’t need a horoscope.
And his predictions all come true.”
“Kanwarji,
Kanwarji, “ I said in a tone of reprimand, “You are a scientist. Don’t tell me
that you believe all that balderdash.”
Kanwarji is
much younger to my wife, so I can take liberties with him. He made a rueful
face.
“I told you,
Bhai Sahib, that you will dismiss this whole thing with a laugh. But I can tell
you that the three predictions that he made last time I was here have all come
true.”
Goaded thus,
I decided to accompany Kanwarji. The Panditji saw each one of our party
individually. My turn came. I went in with a beating heart.
I was
curious to see Panditji, but he was so ordinary if I had met him in the street,
I would not have given him a second look.
“What is
your question?”he asked.
“My age, “ I
found myself blurting out.
“We don’t
generally answer such queries, but you have come with Doctor sahib. I can say
with the utmost confidence that you will live up to ninety two.”
He said many
other things about me, but I hardly heard him. But ever since that day, my
perspective on life has changed.
I now saw a
stretch of twenty five years before me. One could start projects, learn new
things, write books and do other things with the clear understanding that a
quarter of a century was available.
“So, Mr.
Kapur, do you see? The question is not about your present age. What matters is
how long you will live.” I advised my friend of the Park.
“Go and find
your Panditji. Your whole perspective can get enlarged.”
*************************
(9th
July,2014 785 words)
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