Short Story -Aswin the lawyer

Aswin the lawyer:  A long “Short Story”.

Manohar Joshi was a middle aged man tracing his lineage to a family of well-known astrologers. The surname Joshi which is a corrupted form of original “Jyotishi” meaning an astrologer; belonged to persons with origins in Maharahtra, who it is believed, had migrated to hilly regions in the North during Mughal times to avoid persecution and conversion to Islam. These Joshis of North were preservers/experts of astrology.

Manohar had however not inherited much of his ancestor’s mastery over the subject, but worse, had far lesser humility. He retained a part of the former, and had the slyness of being able to feign the latter.  To his mind, the needs of the secular world outweighed everything else; thus this took a slightly undue precedence in his scheme of things. He pursued a subject he liked, namely Law, which he felt would pay him later adequately, to sustain a good living.  He was a fairly successful lawyer.

As times passed he became more and more Worldly-wise; his limited knowledge of astrology was reserved for those select few, who mattered to him.  His studied silence on the subject especially to others who came to him for advice,  was more in the nature of trying to create an impression of his being a true-believer of the theme that Astrology is too-serious/divine a subject to be treated casually.  But the most pertinent reason was that this helped in preventing exposure of his limited knowledge.  Yet, in spite of all these, he had no embarrassment in telling people who were close about his excellent lineage, and still worse, tell them that his name was often associated by his colleagues as representing “truth, kindness, and beauty”. TKB.  

His mother Sita came from another illustrious lineage of excellent astrologers who in those times were recognized as “noble” with their overarching principles of fair-play and being extremely religious with divinely intuitive powers of predictions. Their house was open 24X7 for succor for every needy soul.

Sita therefore was more than slightly disturbed when her only son Manohar turned out to be different and was more than willing to compromise those exalted qualities, having succumbed to the lure of the material world. Her great regret was this; being a practical man her son could effortlessly cultivate an aura of greatness around him with calculated tidbits, enough to pass them on as gems. She tried to make up for this disappointment, doting on her grandson Aswin -a boy hardly ten- in whom she discerned glimpses of greatness of her own “maika” lineage. And she made up her mind to nurture this trait.

She was thus determined to ensure that Aswin grew up learning about deeds of her forbears, and imbibed in him all those values which she considered as more noble pursuits, rather than allow this boy to follow his father’s footsteps and dilute the traditions still further. She was however very practical; she knew precisely the demands of the ever-growing needs of the material world, but still was very clear about what cannot be compromised.

These to her were: faith in one’s religious moorings, being truthful to any profession one chooses without deviating from the path, not offering facile alibis/justifications too often for such straying and claim that these are just part of being relevant in the context of prevailing times, and the need to adapt etc,. To her these just appeared to be convenient excuses to morph some cleverly disguised hypocrisy.

Just to complete this family; Manohar’s wife had also come from a rich family, but without the trappings of big education let alone any knowledge of esoteric subjects like Astrology etc. The money she brought from her marriage suited Manohar well, and the couple got along fine. Aswin had a sister of seven named Padma, who was so divinely beautiful, that everyone doted on her. She and Aswin were extremely fond of each other and the family atmosphere on the whole -- in spite of granny’s unease at this perceived over- indulgence with material side of life -- was one of contentment, and happiness.

Being a pet, Aswin always slept with his granny in her room where she told him stories before retiring for the night.  The boy’s fascination for stories which had a moral impact was mainly the reason the granny nurtured hopes for this boy. The stories were from mythology as well as based on local folklore and incidences from her own family‘s lineage.

For instance Aswin would be far happier to hear about Bharat’s outbursts when he hears from his mother about Rama’s exile. Similarly he would love the character of Karna who tells Krishna not to let Dharamputra know about his being Kunti’s son lest the latter pleads with Duryodhan to hand over part of kingdom to his friend Karna. The guileful Duryodhan would happily do that as he had to only ask Karna later to have it back as the latter was never known to refuse a request.  

There were also these two narrations based on the latter; one about a Kerala astrologer who would predict to a pregnant lady that only a son would be born to her and simultaneously tell his assistant to keep a small chit of paper with “ daughter” being written on it to be placed on the top of the thatched roof of the house.  If a son was born there would be no problem, and if it was a daughter the astrologer would always refer to that piece of paper and claim that he had predicted correctly!!  

The other was about her own grandmother who on hearing from her sons that they had finally won a court case after a very long drawn battle asks innocently as to whether this would mean the other party has lost. When the answer comes in the affirmative she would still more naively ask as to whether there was any possible scenario where even while  one party won, the other party need not have to necessarily lose.

Granny would repeat these stories in moving terms to the boy who would love it every time, to the absolute delight of the former. For a boy to understand not only the import but the moral dimensions at that tender age gave her the greatest comfort that the boy had indeed inherited the genes of her forebears.

Other tell-tale signs she noticed in the boy to conclude thus were; the boy would rarely ever lie, he would always take cudgels on behalf of anyone who he thought was wrongly treated, he would find it hard to appreciate his father’s indifference to a guest just because he/she was slightly of less standing socially-which he would share with his granny at night, and most importantly, he would be fascinated by astrological discourses when some important people came home to consult his father.

As for Aswin his innate sense of fair play was substantially re-inforced in the class-room in his school one day. The teacher had a habit of asking questions to the students one-by-one. Every student will stand up to answer, and the ones who were unable to answer were not allowed to sit till the end of the class. At the end, these students were given appropriate punishments.

It so happened, that on this particular day, Aswin was one of those who could not answer. And then there was this girl named Lakshmi -- one of the top ranking students-- who was also one among those unable to answer a particular question. Being a difficult one, the teacher decided to explain the answer in detail and at the end of it just asked Lakshmi to take her seat.

Aswin was waiting for the class to be over and tell the teacher that Lakshmi was also equally punishable as he and the others. The class was over; and before he could start to protest, to his great amazement, Lakshmi stood up to be counted among the ones who had failed….The boy was just ashamed and could only curse himself for a bad judgment; he felt that this girl should be hailed for her exemplary character rather than being punished for not answering a difficult question. This was at the age of around 12/13!! His granny was ecstatic when he narrated this to her at night!! 

Times moved fast. He had to bow to his father’s wish and join a Law course in college. He did exceedingly well. One of his school mates happened to be doing a science course and they had to travel together daily and soon they became friends. Lakshmi had gone to some other town and he quite forgot about her. He graduated with honors and was absorbed in a highly reputed law-firm dealing with corporate laws. 

His friend Raju passed out with minimal percentage of marks and was employed in an ordinary firm. The friendship however was very strong and Raju often visited Aswin’s home, and was also in good terms with his parents, though at times he was disturbed by the father’s attitude which were decided by the social standing of the visitor. He was happy that he was welcome and was very surprised when the senior man himself told him proudly about his being referred to by close friends as TKB. 

It was perhaps a providential design that the girl, who was now an extremely beautiful twenty odd, developed a fondness for our boy Raju. Notwithstanding, the fact that his social status as also his meager attributes both were terrible handicaps, and which greatly increased his diffidence, he was just not able to resist the temptation to reciprocate the girl’s feelings as she was not only exceedingly beautiful but one with a remarkably good heart.    

Aswin, an innately good man was quite pleased with the development as he loved his sister and wanted her to be happy. Raju’s social standing never really bothered him. But his father Manohar was different; these were matters too dear for him. He was just not prepared to accept anyone who was not above his social status ladder as his would be sambandhis and a fairly well placed son-in-law. Aswin for the first time in his life was soon to be exposed to his father’s cunning ways.

The senior Joshi chose to take recourse to astrology. Aswin was a beginner with some basic knowledge of the subject. He had found nothing untoward with the match based on the horoscopes of Raju and Padma- a prerequisite- to come to any negative conclusions. His father who was known in public as an expert however had a different view. He warned his daughter that she would become a widow if she were to marry the fellow of her choice. Padma loved her parents, and had implicit trust on her father’s grasp of astrology. Aswin thought it fit to be neutral, though he was aghast at his father’s masterstroke.

To cut the story short, the marriage was not to be. Raju overcame his disappointment (this was more due to the fact that he had also guessed this guile) but the friendship with Aswin was broken.  Padma was married into a very rich family, and soon she was able to find happiness in her new home.

Aswin meanwhile was getting more and more uneasy with his profession; neither could he easily digest those innovative interpretations of law for gains to his corporate clients, nor could he accept the give and take involved in deciding disputes with authorities. His family had now grown; he had a wife who hailed from a rich cultured/educated family and she was herself employed decently. He had a boy and a girl who were growing and their needs were seemingly endless. His parents though not dependent were frequent visitors and were quite keen on socializing in grand style. All of which made it impossible for Aswin to think in terms of leaving the job as not only was he at a very top level but the pay was simply too good. To add to his woes, his granny whom he could lean on at such times had passed away creating a void which was very difficult to fill.

It was during these hard times that he got an invitation to attend a get-together of his school alumni belonging to his batch mates. He wasn’t too gung-ho about this, but his wife who also was an alumni of the school --though a few years junior,-- insisted that this would be fun. He reluctantly agreed, and quite forgot about this till the day finally arrived.

Expecting this to be a hugely boring affair, he was mildly surprised to see his friend Raju there. Before he could summon up his wits to talk to him, he saw Lakshmi-the quintessential good girl of his youth- in front of him. It was a pleasant experience, and soon enough he was able to not only engage him-self thoroughly with her, but able to relate to Raju the same way as he could, about two decades back.

Lakshmi it turned out was running a small home in a rural set-up where she taught destitute/poor children and found perfect happiness. Her husband had passed away recently, and her children were well settled abroad, and who visited her regularly. And surprise of surprises; Raju who was single, was part of the same set-up. He got along extremely well with Lakshmi, which prompted Aswin to jokingly wonder if it would be possible to join the twosome and settle down with them…..

Poor Raju- his response was too spontaneous to be pre-planned; his feelings -dormant for the past so many years- about the raw deal he got from Aswin’s family, just found an expression. His quick response was whether Aswin seriously thought that the work at the destitute home was similar to his father Manohar’s astrology discourse and his TKB pride!! The barb hit home, but being innately a good man, and considering that he was having a gala time, he let this pass and brushed aside Raju’s immediate apologies.

Lakshmi was discreet enough not to pursue this, but sensing Aswin’s unease at his work place, asked him as to what had been bothering him. Aswin was only too glad to open up; after the passing away of his granny he never felt comfortable talking to anyone about his misgivings about the job, but in Lakshmi he found empathy.

Lakshmi did not disappoint him. Exactly like his granny, she quoted parallels from mythology. Taking a purely mundane view, she pointed out to him the example of  Ravan, Kumbakaran, and Vibhishan –the three brothers- with 3 totally different outlooks in life. Ravan’s bad ways had never come in the way of Vibhishan -the noble one- to do what he thought was right but well within the environment he was in.

There was also a deeper and more spiritual view; as per the epic, all the three went into deep penance. When the Lord appeared before them, and asked them to reveal their desires, Ravan who wanted to live life king-size, in splendor, asked that he be so powerful that nobody could kill him but left out ordinary men and monkeys whom he held in contempt. 

Kumbhakaran wanted eternal sleep and it was only Vibhishan who was granted eternal life without even asking. But yet he chose to serve his brother till the time came for leaving him, namely when Rama himself came to the battle field to kill Ravan.  

All of them were fully aware as to their ultimate destination namely merger unto Him; they only chose different paths. The only difference for us was that the path has been chosen by Him. Without undue worry about either the environment one is in, or about who does what etc, doing our duty sincerely without straying the path laid down in texts, seemed the only way to experience inner peace. Deliverance will come when it has to and with His Grace at the appropriate time. 

Aswin was not fully convinced though he felt that there was some merit in what she said and tried to immerse him-self in work truly and sincerely. A few weeks passed. One day the chief called him to his cabin- a very rare gesture- it either meant a sack order or a huge appreciation. He went in with mixed feelings but surprisingly not a bit afraid.

What came about made Aswin speech less. The chief said that after completing necessary formalities, the company will be handed over to him as the Board felt that     he was the most apt to take the mantle from him. He himself would retire and enjoy life. It was up-to Aswin to take the company where he wanted, and he had full confidence that the organization’s place in the corporate world, will be safe under him.

Aswin for a moment felt that it was as if Lakshmi had a divine intuition just like his forbears and God was telling him that he was destined to be a lawyer, and He wanted him to serve in this capacity for some more time. How happy, he thought, his granny would be, if she were alive…

His immediate plans were made up; he would take a few days off to not only let this news sink in, but go visiting Lakshmi and Raju for a few days as suddenly he realized that it was His way of telling him that he had friends who had His sanction…… though simultaneously felt guilty that his immediate thoughts did not go to his parents, wife and children.

He however promised himself that he would not be found amiss from then on, and live up to his granny’s vision about her grandson, in every respect……...and found himself singing and trying to recall his horoscope to find out what was there that the stars decided to shower him with such unexpected windfall. Something he had not done for a long, long time…….      

                             

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