Truth about people / Things

Truth about some People/ Things we come across.


It was an after noon; in the year 1967.I was sitting with some of my college mates, in the local park, where we assembled once in a while to exchange views on various subjects we studied in the libraries till that date.

The libraries – I mean both situated in our college and the one close to the park. In both places, we could read almost all periodicals published from all over the world.

Usually, one of us will fetch some eatable – like salted ground nut without shell, or puffed rice or soft nuts depending what is available cheaply and more in quantity.

Some days, if it was beginning of the month, then we could buy samosa, vada or some heavier stuff, as the economical condition of the pocket was better.

On this particular, day, we decided to discuss about special people in general, and how they are useful in our society. We spoke of Writers, Vendors, Teachers, cobblers, cooks, beggars, blind men, petty thieves, and street vendors, traveling sales men who do a kill with passengers in any train and make the best of the weakness and greed of the passengers.

When my turn came, I spoke of a different type of people altogether. Most of the time, my fellow mates expected me to be special in any contribution as they always believed that I’m a widely read person.

So, I spoke of two calibers of people, who are totally on the opposite sides of the society. I learned this information, from elderly people in the family who are a kind of wise men.

ONE:

The most un-reliable people whom one cannot trust:

Priest / Pundit: This kind will do anything in the name of God, to convince you and extract maximum benefit out of you. They will literally threat you of so many evil and demon which will take over you unless you perform as per the priest’s recommendation.
Broker: This type is a very shrewd one, and will always talk good of the other side while trying to sell your land, house or find a match for your ward. He will also gain maximum from both sides while cheating the other very sweetly. For example, if you are desperately trying to sell a piece of land,

The broker will say, that your land is out of the way, not close to any bus stand, and has no proper road etc;

But will talk the opposite way to the intended buyer like, you are very fortunate that the development in this area is slow but will pick up fast and the price of this land will be up many folds, a tarmac is being laid before the next bi- election, the man wouldn’t ordinarily sell this land, but is in dire need for money, so please take this opportunity and let me strike a deal for you and you won’t get another chance.

Same way, if you are trying to find a groom for your daughter, the broker would say, he has got the best match in town, even though the girl does not deserve such a case, boy is very well settled, has lot of business connections land etc;
To the boy’s party he would say the girl is a very lucky one as per her horoscope, will be an angel to the boys party if welcomed as daughter-in-law, many families are also trying to take her as their daughter in-law, but, I spoke very high of you and still suggest that you let your son meet this prospective girl without any second thoughts.

The next type is a Prostitute, whose only job is to sell her body / rather rent her body for a night and get maximum income out of her customer. If the fellow happens to be rich, she will cheat the customer to his skin and retain him till fully fleeced and will ditch him and switch to another better or similar one.

She will tell stories to get sympathy of the customer, blame her family members for screwing her life, accuse her ex-husband who sold her without her knowledge, which forced her into this noble profession of pleasing men. She would pretend, like she never had any gold or silver ornaments. She would say whatever she inherited were retained by her in-laws while being thrown out.

Having used to live by the oldest profession in the world, she will be friendly with people with power and authority. She will make use of them to get away from her evil performances and to protect herself from would be trouble makers out of her past customers.

TWO

Here, there are people / things who are selfless and God fearing while performing their work / duty. These people are never tired of their service which gets repeated several times in their life time and are happy with menial benefits received for such a noble service.

In this analogy, one is human and two are devices and one is a natural product.

Teacher: A teacher is a selfless and very much a devoted person, in imparting knowledge to students and enjoys their progress out of his sincerity.
A teacher enjoys conveying life’s truth to students, preparing them for the challenged future ahead, and the necessity to tackle them.

He lives entirely on his hard earned income, with contention of his need without ever exceeding the limit or wanting more and more of anything.

Above all, he is stationary in his level, while the students go further up and attain higher qualifications and occupy far higher positions in life. The teacher is again very happy to see as many of his students attaining such levels. His ambition gets hardened and a near vow is taken by him in maintaining a stream of intellectuals in his career as a simple and humble teacher. Among many teachings of reputed teachers, there are two simple cautionary words of wisdom is always linger in my thoughts.

a. Heavier the head, severe is the injury.
b. Higher the level greater is the fall.

We all can understand the guidelines within these statements.

Boat:

A boat is always in the water and on either side of the shore, waiting to transport people from one bank of the river to the other. While people come and goes, (majority being non-returnees,) the boat is in water only- except when needing a repair on shore. Boat is a selfless device or a means of transport and remains so for more than a life time.
Its life is entirely for sacrificing for the benefit of others, while it is seldom recognized, by the users.
Ladder:

A ladder is again a selfless means of inter-connecting piece of device, linking two levels – mostly top to bottom in a place – a house, shop, temple, construction site, or the trunk of a tree.

A ladder, if at all given a location, it is always under or along the lover level of the floor only. A ladder serves its duty by allowing stepping over it and reach the higher level while it stand in one place only.

It probably gets beaten up at times in the name of repairs / mending , and when its life is almost over, it is used as fire wood without any decent ceremony.

Bitter Lemon- Citrus fruit (Large with thick skin)

Bitter lemon is dried with salt and used as home remedy for indigestion. Large loaves of it are dried with salt, repeatedly under the sun. In this process, the loaves turn into small black rings with salt appearing over its skin.

The beauty of it is something never explained. It digests everything, but our stomach cannot digest it. The piece comes out as it is.

So, in all the above four subjects, non changes its state, remains dedicated and dies as it is.

The simple truth is one has to be truthful, loyal, honest and devoted to our duties without expecting any rewards.

I learned a lot more for balancing of my life, so that it remains contented, and free of trouble to others.

My fellow classmates too enjoyed group discussions and we aways shared our knowledge for the benefit of each one in particular and society in general.

V.Sivasubramaniam
26-09-2009