Innocent Humor- A Short Story

Vijay was the only child of Usha & Gopal. Gopal was a junior level executive in a local company, and the family’s needs were tuned to be in sync with his limited income.   

An occasional outing or a lunch at just a fairly moderate restaurant were times of great rejoicing and Vijay who was just a 3 year old loved and cherished every such moments. A nice A/C bus ride or an averagely good ambiance of a restaurant made up for the ultimate in happiness.

It so happened, that Gopal got a job in a company which offered quite a lot of luxuries like a furnished accommodation, free Air-travel as part of leave travel perquisites etc. Gopal decided that he will take the first opportunity to take Vijay and his wife by flight to Mumbai where both he and Usha had relatives. 

The d-day arrived; he said to Vijay that they will travel in an Air-bus, a state of art ultimate symbol of the rich of those early Eighties, and Vijay’s happiness knew no bounds. They got to the airport – in itself a breathtaking environment for the boy- all of them checked in and were thru security to the boarding hall.    

While waiting and as announcements were made regarding the flights that were ready for take-off, Vijay noticed people queuing in and boarding those ferrying buses to the air-craft. He remembered his father talking about Air-bus, and for a moment was hugely disappointed and asked his father cautiously as to whether they will also board a similar bus which will probably fly!!!

At last their time came, they boarded and were comfortably seated. Soon there was this hostess who offered chocolates and Vijay started enjoying the trip thoroughly with drumming up with his hand on the food tray which was in front. Food was served and the hostess taking a liking for the boy handed over an extra piece of sweet-dish. When the flight landed, Vijay got a packet full of chocolates as a gift from the hostess. 

Mumbai was another great experience; the electric trains and the orderly fashion by which they could get an auto –instead of the hassle with the drivers his father used to have to settle the fare amount, which he often witnessed in Delhi- all of this made a terrific impression on this little boy. Within a few days he was to tell his parents that he would prefer to stay in Mumbai rather than Delhi. 

They were staying at his mausi Radha and her husband Vishnu’s co-operative housing society flats. They had a daughter -Ramya- who was a year junior to Vijay. Though the former doted on Vijay, the latter was not very pleased as he was not very comfortable with the girl sharing part of the attention he used to otherwise receive. 

One day there was this fancy dress competition in the society. Ramya was to be dressed as the bride and introduced as Sita – famous Lord Ram’s wife. Vijay was very unhappy as all the attention was on Ramya who was dressed up beautifully and with everyone saying that she was looking very pretty. Vijay when he was asked to comment on how beautiful the girl looked could control his feelings no longer.  He said that the girl was looking so bad that someone should ask Ravan to take her away soon.

How does one react to such a remark from a four year old except to laugh out loud, which only made Ramya crying pitiably. The funny part though was when she gave others the reason for her crying. She was quite fond of the boy who was dressed up as Ravan, and therefore not quite upset with that at all, but she said she was scared of the “Agni pariksha” that was to follow soon!!!!!

Vijay when he saw the girl was crying changed completely; he was all concerned and loving. He hugged her and said sorry, every one chipped in to say that there would be no agni pariksha, and very soon all was forgotten and peace was restored. The competition went off smoothly, Ravan won the first and Sita got a consolation prize.

By the time they returned home it was late in the evening and since the refreshments etc in the evening was heavy enough, the kids were packed off to go to sleep. Gopal, Usha, Radha & Vishnu finished their dinner and when they went into their bedroom they saw Vijay & Ramya in fond embrace and in peaceful slumber. 

It was just a beautiful sight far from the scene that early evening. They had no heart to disturb this wonderful “dosti”; Vishnu decided to sleep in the drawing room couch, and Radha had enough space to snuggle up with the kids. Gopal and Usha went into the guest bedroom. 

By about 3 in the morning Ramya suddenly woke up and startled her mother. In all seriousness of a three year old, she asked her mother as to why Sita had to do “agni pariksha”. It would have been unthinkable for Radha not to seriously address the query despite the fact that she wasn’t very well   equipped at least at that moment to give a comforting answer to the child. 

Call it God’s Grace as Radha was a devout “rambhakthin”; and she found herself telling her child thus. You know beta, Ram is God and being His wife Sita is also God. But while everybody talked about Ram there were not many who would talk of Sita also as God. 

Since Sita was God, Ravan could do no harm to her; in fact he could not even touch her. Similarly even fire could do no harm to Sita and the flames would not even touch her. Ram knew this and asking her to get into fire was just to tell the world that Sita was indeed God as He Himself was. And the fire would just be unable to touch her. 

Unless God wants, one can neither see/touch Him/her she found herself saying finally  and feeling grateful to Ram for His grace which made her say something in terms understandable to the child, and which appeared fairly convincing even to herself.  

The child who was attentive and seemed to understand every bit of this explanation given by her mother; she hugged her and said “I love you mamma”, and kissed her warmly. Radha did not quite know what to say. She just mumbled back “I love you too beta”. The child went back to a blissful sleep.

Radha was grateful that Ram gave her those briefly great moments of experiencing spiritual “fullness”.  She mentally wished her child all the very best, and since could not get her complete night-sleep, wanted to get a quick nap, when she realized that it was nearing 4 in the morning and she had to make breakfast etc earlier than usual as both Vishnu and her had a visit to temple organized in the morning before going to office. 

It would appear that the secular duties had a much greater influence in taking such “call to duty” kind of sacrifices; the spiritual could at best come in aid. It was breakfast which decided her immediate reaction. She woke up and started the day much earlier than other days.         
                              
                                       *****

Sutradhar’s Comments: 
Though this story was initially intended for children, later I felt that such labeling was quite unnecessary. That the Lord had to go thru this elaborately passionate drama, before He killed Ravan, is perhaps a testimony to the fact that even He purely out of regard for his own creation will not normally interfere with His order of things. 
It’s probably a mistake for those participants of this drama, however to assume an unfettered role for themselves, and continue to live in delusion. Praying to Him to shower His grace, to be able to submit to His will, by choice without fear or cohesion, in humility, and in perfect happiness, seems to be the only path to salvation……….To debate as to whether He will intervene to change any order of things etc is irreverent if not irrelevant methinks.   

Ekalavya alias Vichu