Saturday, October 12, 2013

Good People: Chapter 2: Classic Novel and Classic Romance




Chapter 2

Shaan was different from others from the very beginning- from his childhood. And lately as a responsible adult he decided that he did not believe in sticking to any one religion.

He soon defined his own religion, which was nameless. Yet he described it as a one-liner. That one line was: “Feel, think and do good to self and others.” It was that simple. His religion was done. But he did not term it as ‘religion’. He called it his ‘guiding principle’ of life.

He could not convince himself if he would enjoy any further value addition to himself by being part of any organized religion. Rather he thought that many things prescribed in the organized religions were a drag. He was not the one to accept a drag.

And over the years he did not believe in many other established things of the human society that he thought were retrograde.

As a child he refused to address the elders as an “uncle” or “aunt” or “sir” or “madam” which was the custom of the place. He was told time and again by many people around him that younger ones should not call the elders by their first names or surnames. That was the established etiquette in Indian community and everyone followed. Everyone followed except Shaan. He insisted on addressing them as Mr so & so or Mrs so & so or Ms so & so as appropriate.

He even addressed his teachers in the high school and later in college by their surnames prefixed by a respectable Mr or Mrs or Ms. He did not address them by the conventional ‘sir’.

Shaan’s argument for doing so was, “Most people are so much accustomed to this master-slave relationship that a person at the lower rungs of official or social hierarchy is always treated as a dumb donkey. And this feeling is further aggravated by this three-letter word ‘sir’. This word when spoken creates, immediately, a sense of false inferiority in the subject who speaks this word and a false superiority in the addressee. As soon as this phenomenon takes place, the actual work, the intended results from the work and the real objective of the discussions between the two persons get surrounded by the ego satisfaction of the boss and the selfish motives of the subordinates. In majority of cases, it is not out of respect that a man wants to call other person with a dignified address. It is out of selfishness, fear, doubt and the bad custom. This word ‘sir’ arouses the base feelings of the human beings. If ‘sir’ is used as a mark of reverence, it has different connotation- no motives are attached. But it is rarely so.”

Most people agreed but dared not follow it in practice.

And teachers obviously did not like it much and he missed the grades occasionally despite being the most brilliant student of the class. But he couldn’t compromise.

An important elderly guy was to visit his parents once. His father insisted, “When he comes to our house you must call him ‘sir’. He is elder to you. You must respect him by addressing him appropriately.”

“But, father, he does not invoke any respect in me. I see him telling lies all the time. And he has a bad habit of using abuses every now and then. He swears all the time. Age has not done any good to him. I just cannot call him ‘sir’- that’s my decision.”

His mother coaxed too. But Shaan could not be convinced. Yet, to honor his father and mother and not to create any scene he excused himself and went out to play while this guest was around the house.

Shaan developed a kind of maturity at an early age. He read a lot. He read all sorts of great literature. He was a keen observer too. He learned a lot soon enough. It made him highly flexible to accept all the good and shun all the bad howsoever established and traditional it looked or sounded.

There were occasions when as a child he used to accompany her mother to the church. It was quite close to their house. As he grew older, he noticed that his father did not accompany his mother while going to the church. He asked her, “Why doesn’t father accompany you to the church for offering his prayers to the god?”

“He believes in another faith and for his prayers he has to go to a mosque,” his mom answered.

“But you had been telling me all along that god is one. Then how can he be different for you and daddy? The god should be present in the church as well as in the mosque. Dad could as well pray him in the church along with you and me? And also mom, when daddy takes me to the mosque, you can as well accompany us and pray there.”

“We cannot do such things. We are bound by some established practices. We cannot flout them easily. Some people around us keep on scrutinizing us on such issues.”

“Well mom, then do it your way. But I don’t understand you and daddy at all. And you also tell me that god is everywhere, even in our hearts. He or she is omnipresent, everyone says. Then what is the need of going to a church or a mosque or for that matter a temple? I can pray anywhere, after all god resides even in my heart.”

Then his mother just laughed and dismissed the discussion midway. By that time they had reached the church and they needed to remain quiet inside. Despite his curiosity on the subject he remained silent in the church. Later he decided to let it go. He was smart enough to decide when to pursue a topic and when to drop it.

When he started going to the higher classes in the school and later to the college he stopped accompanying his mother to the church and father to the mosque. If he needed to pray for some reason, he would just keep sitting or standing or lying down or walking and pray for a few seconds in his own way. He made his own text for praying at times and at times he just remained silent while praying. He stopped following the rituals of prayers followed by his parents. He invented his own processes.

Over a period of time he also broke the earlier practice of strictly addressing his father as ‘abba’ and mother as ‘mommy’. He took liberty in additionally addressing his father as ‘daddy’ or ‘papa’ or ‘baba’ and mother as ‘ammi’ or ‘mummy’ or ‘ma’. He loved teasing them. By then he had started understanding the various ways in which various religions influenced human beings.  And all of that amused him.

Once he went to a temple with one of his schoolmates who was a Hindu. His friend placed some money as offerings to the god. Shaan asked his friend, “Why are you bribing the god? I am told that god has very large heart, he is always so generous. And the least he needs is money. Money may be important for mortals like us but not to the god, I suppose.”

His friend looked at Shaan quizzically and went ahead with his offerings. He thought, “Shaan is crazy. Giving offerings to god is a done thing. No one asks such stupid and objectionable questions on such a pious action.” His friend prayed a little longer than usual that day in order to wash the sin Shaan had committed by asking that question.

On another occasion he had gone to stay with one of his friends during his college holidays. His friend followed Christianity. He wanted to take Shaan to the church. There was one very close to his friend’s house but he took him to a church, which was some eight kilometers away.

When they reached this church Shaan asked, “Why didn’t you go the church that is next to your house?”

“No. That is not our church. The highbrow people visit that. For poor people like us, this is the church.”

“Different gods in the two churches?”

“No, god is the same in both.”

Shaan always felt puzzled at such goings-on.

Pleasing the teachers was an accepted practice with most of the students in his school and later in college. The internal marks were allotted by most of the teachers based on how pleased they were with a student. Shaan never disrespected any teacher yet sycophancy was not in his blood.

A piece of conversation between him and his fellow student once created hell of a problem for Shaan.

His classmate was telling about one of the most influential teachers of the school to Shaan, “Mr Forbes is the most brilliant teacher. Don’t you think he teaches the best?”

The classmate spoke all of this when this teacher was walking past them. The idea was that Mr Forbes should hear this praise and notice this student.

Shaan did not notice the teacher and replied, “I don’t think so. He does not teach anything original. He pours out everything from the cheap guides that are freely available in the market.”

Shaan was straightforward but polite.

Mr Forbes overheard this criticism and after this incident Shaan could never score the highest marks in the subject that he was used to.

Despite a few setbacks like this one, Shaan always topped the list year after year, in the school and later in the college finally becoming the university topper and the gold medalist in engineering and technology. No professor or co-student could stop him.


(Get your copy of the novel "Good People" as an eBook from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BHH37G  only for $ 0.99. You may also like to get its Printed Book from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Good-People-Dream-Boundary-World/dp/1479333085/ref=sr_1_8_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380916602&sr=1-8&keywords=shyam+bhatawdekar%27s+books)

Novels and Stories

Novel "Good People" http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/
Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/
Stories Children Will Love http://stories-children.blogspot.com/

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