With my new found enthusiasm for Vichiisms, let me begin this short story with a few of them.
Truth is " Eternal, Beyond Mind & Words, The Providence". All our perceived / empirical truths have an expiry date.
"The Empirical" is a Creation of opposites to perceive that there is that "pure, blissful, state of absolute ONENESS" which is the goal & negating everything of this empirical world as we go along, is the only way.......
This so called "only way" is not for all & sundry; Till you are able to overcome "mohum"(obsessively passionate attachment) in every sense of the word & surrender unto Him, every debate about this is a mere " "kaala Kshepam" or Time - pass.
Now to the Story :
Maitreyi was born into a rich, famous, and truly well read & intellectual family of those times when girls were married off at very young ages of less than 15 or so. She was married off to a fiercely independent young man not very rich but determined to make it good by his sheer dint of application and hard work- the reason the family chose him as the groom; while his independent views excited their supreme intellectual confidence, his being not-so rich, they felt, would make him amenable to accept their eminence.
Maithreyi, though precociously intelligent, her being a girl prevented her from hogging any great credit either at her parent's home or at her in-laws place. While it was quite obvious in her own home, in her in laws' place since all of them innately disliked the supercilious mien of their sambandhis, it could only get rubbed off on Maithreyi. Thus from merely being ignored in her own parental home, in her In-law's place she had to bear their taunts & sarcasm as well. Her husband's ego did not help either; it made it almost impossible for him to acknowledge any one's, least of all his own wife's acumen. Many times it therefore manifested itself with severe "snubs". The intensity increased whenever he perceived her logic to be better in any argument!!.
Being a none-too-rare scene in many households of those yester years, Maithreyi took it all in her stride; her innate intelligence coming to her succor. But she was human after all. So there were times when she would crave for some acknowledgement of "her"; be it in an opinion, or a nice recipe she would dish out which was often, she being an excellent cook. Her opinion would mostly be ignored as irrelevant, or cleverly the topic would be derailed to a totally different one leaving her just wondering. Her excellent preparation of say a sweet, would be countered with something inane such as how a distant relation made lovely paranthaas!!
Life went on however. She had a son and a daughter. The daughter was married off & settled abroad. The son was in a senior position in a big firm with her daughter-in law also working. Being an excellent story teller, she was able to enthrall her grand children with some extra ordinary stories from our epics in spite of the lure of the modern day entertainment gadgets. Very slowly some appreciation came her way albeit rarely & grudgingly mostly prompted by kids.
Since she had to keep herself occupied, she started maintaining a note book, where she penned her stories which nobody cared to read. This did not bother her much as the more she penned, the more she loved what she was doing and increasingly she found herself analyzing & realizing that once you enjoyed what you were doing, outcomes cease to have any great impact. Yet she was unable to reconcile, the fact that neither in her own "maika" nor her in laws place was there any one who was ever keen to just pause & see any merit in anything she had done over 8 odd decades of her life. What was it that she lacked that no one would take any serious note ?
In one of those pensive moods, it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps she had it all wrong. All her family were quite possibly reluctant to accept her not because she was either in the wrong or had been poor in execution, but very probably because she had mostly been right and their ego came in the way in acknowledging it. The idea was fascinating, & for quite a while since then, she reveled in her own satisfyingly pleasant self appraisal, and slowly even started enjoying every critique, as she was able to anticipate them precisely, & when they came she had that smug satisfaction. She was however too humble to give herself such an exalted & lofty status for long; and soon felt embarrassed that she could entertain such thoughts for so long. She felt happy though, as there was some "samaadhaan" in her mind. She had now found a way to be content if not happy, if she could learn to ignore all negative responses as it was more of a waste of time to try & make the world - with illusions of one's own superiority- to change & take notice of her. She would rather let every one just "be".
Providence is alas one which comes calling to possibly test such great insights, as if to see how one reacts to some test. One morning, the daughter-in-law already late for office, while leaving in a hurry, asked her to keep the hot milk-- kept in the dining table-- in the fridge after it came down to room temperature, and added in good measure that she should not forget as lately she was seen to forget often. Off the lady went to her office. About an hour later finding the milk getting cool enough, Maitreyi was about to put it in fridge as she was told, when the maid stopped her to say that "mem sahib " had phoned in, to say that the milk was to be given to their neighbor.
The mem sahib came late in the evening that day and purely out of habit opened the fridge & missed the milk vessel there. Well, without a thought, she confronted Maithri with "how could you" kind of accusation. Maithri was intrigued when she found no need to respond with the fact that the latter had left clear instructions to give it to the neighbor. She murmured something about being a "bullakkad" and walked away infuriating the mem sahib no end. .
As she went to bed, Maithri found herself battling with her own contradictions; should she have retorted & cleared the air or she did the right thing by not responding at all. She suddenly remembered her mother referring repeatedly to that oft repeated verse in Gita which says that one should do one's duty without expectation of results. Was she doing her duty by not responding or responding itself would have amounted to an expectation of a "result"? And so was she perhaps right in not responding at all? She seemed to be somehow comfortable with this latter view, and went off to a good sleep.
In the morning as was her wont, she flipped a page out of the book on Gita, which read " When some one boards say a train he is bound by the path the train takes. The moment he/she gets down he/she is no longer bound. As one who is bound by his/her ego, boards this "ego train", the Lord will take him/her thru all those routes which are the outcomes of his own doing in all his/her previous avatars. The moment however one gets down from this "Ego train" and leaves it to the Lord, without abandoning any of his duties, He will take you to His abode".
Was it coincidence or Providential design? Her letting things just "be"the previous night, was quite close to this. It also struck her that while the Lord repeatedly tells you to leave the outcomes to Him, and "just do what is to be done", the entire gross material world is stuck with outcomes perpetually. Scientists/ Research guys have to validate outcomes endlessly & their theories etc being valid only till one stray failure.
Surely without outcomes being in focus, the world would just collapse. The texts have also spoken of four stages of evolution, and one of the stages is one where outcomes are a focus ...... "artha" literally translated as "meaning", besides various others such as "worldly acquisitions". But when does one transcend ? One will, when the time comes which would be determined by Him, if only one had faith. She knew that she will get her answers as she had immense faith. Till then she will do what she can & let every one else "be"
Her 4 year old grand daughter woke her up from her reverie. She was insisting that she play Snakes & Ladders game with her, making her wonder if this was another way of the Lord telling her about the "meanings" of life..........& happily joined the kid for the game.
Ekalavya alias Vichu
Truth is " Eternal, Beyond Mind & Words, The Providence". All our perceived / empirical truths have an expiry date.
"The Empirical" is a Creation of opposites to perceive that there is that "pure, blissful, state of absolute ONENESS" which is the goal & negating everything of this empirical world as we go along, is the only way.......
This so called "only way" is not for all & sundry; Till you are able to overcome "mohum"(obsessively passionate attachment) in every sense of the word & surrender unto Him, every debate about this is a mere " "kaala Kshepam" or Time - pass.
Now to the Story :
Maitreyi was born into a rich, famous, and truly well read & intellectual family of those times when girls were married off at very young ages of less than 15 or so. She was married off to a fiercely independent young man not very rich but determined to make it good by his sheer dint of application and hard work- the reason the family chose him as the groom; while his independent views excited their supreme intellectual confidence, his being not-so rich, they felt, would make him amenable to accept their eminence.
Maithreyi, though precociously intelligent, her being a girl prevented her from hogging any great credit either at her parent's home or at her in-laws place. While it was quite obvious in her own home, in her in laws' place since all of them innately disliked the supercilious mien of their sambandhis, it could only get rubbed off on Maithreyi. Thus from merely being ignored in her own parental home, in her In-law's place she had to bear their taunts & sarcasm as well. Her husband's ego did not help either; it made it almost impossible for him to acknowledge any one's, least of all his own wife's acumen. Many times it therefore manifested itself with severe "snubs". The intensity increased whenever he perceived her logic to be better in any argument!!.
Being a none-too-rare scene in many households of those yester years, Maithreyi took it all in her stride; her innate intelligence coming to her succor. But she was human after all. So there were times when she would crave for some acknowledgement of "her"; be it in an opinion, or a nice recipe she would dish out which was often, she being an excellent cook. Her opinion would mostly be ignored as irrelevant, or cleverly the topic would be derailed to a totally different one leaving her just wondering. Her excellent preparation of say a sweet, would be countered with something inane such as how a distant relation made lovely paranthaas!!
Life went on however. She had a son and a daughter. The daughter was married off & settled abroad. The son was in a senior position in a big firm with her daughter-in law also working. Being an excellent story teller, she was able to enthrall her grand children with some extra ordinary stories from our epics in spite of the lure of the modern day entertainment gadgets. Very slowly some appreciation came her way albeit rarely & grudgingly mostly prompted by kids.
Since she had to keep herself occupied, she started maintaining a note book, where she penned her stories which nobody cared to read. This did not bother her much as the more she penned, the more she loved what she was doing and increasingly she found herself analyzing & realizing that once you enjoyed what you were doing, outcomes cease to have any great impact. Yet she was unable to reconcile, the fact that neither in her own "maika" nor her in laws place was there any one who was ever keen to just pause & see any merit in anything she had done over 8 odd decades of her life. What was it that she lacked that no one would take any serious note ?
In one of those pensive moods, it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps she had it all wrong. All her family were quite possibly reluctant to accept her not because she was either in the wrong or had been poor in execution, but very probably because she had mostly been right and their ego came in the way in acknowledging it. The idea was fascinating, & for quite a while since then, she reveled in her own satisfyingly pleasant self appraisal, and slowly even started enjoying every critique, as she was able to anticipate them precisely, & when they came she had that smug satisfaction. She was however too humble to give herself such an exalted & lofty status for long; and soon felt embarrassed that she could entertain such thoughts for so long. She felt happy though, as there was some "samaadhaan" in her mind. She had now found a way to be content if not happy, if she could learn to ignore all negative responses as it was more of a waste of time to try & make the world - with illusions of one's own superiority- to change & take notice of her. She would rather let every one just "be".
Providence is alas one which comes calling to possibly test such great insights, as if to see how one reacts to some test. One morning, the daughter-in-law already late for office, while leaving in a hurry, asked her to keep the hot milk-- kept in the dining table-- in the fridge after it came down to room temperature, and added in good measure that she should not forget as lately she was seen to forget often. Off the lady went to her office. About an hour later finding the milk getting cool enough, Maitreyi was about to put it in fridge as she was told, when the maid stopped her to say that "mem sahib " had phoned in, to say that the milk was to be given to their neighbor.
The mem sahib came late in the evening that day and purely out of habit opened the fridge & missed the milk vessel there. Well, without a thought, she confronted Maithri with "how could you" kind of accusation. Maithri was intrigued when she found no need to respond with the fact that the latter had left clear instructions to give it to the neighbor. She murmured something about being a "bullakkad" and walked away infuriating the mem sahib no end. .
As she went to bed, Maithri found herself battling with her own contradictions; should she have retorted & cleared the air or she did the right thing by not responding at all. She suddenly remembered her mother referring repeatedly to that oft repeated verse in Gita which says that one should do one's duty without expectation of results. Was she doing her duty by not responding or responding itself would have amounted to an expectation of a "result"? And so was she perhaps right in not responding at all? She seemed to be somehow comfortable with this latter view, and went off to a good sleep.
In the morning as was her wont, she flipped a page out of the book on Gita, which read " When some one boards say a train he is bound by the path the train takes. The moment he/she gets down he/she is no longer bound. As one who is bound by his/her ego, boards this "ego train", the Lord will take him/her thru all those routes which are the outcomes of his own doing in all his/her previous avatars. The moment however one gets down from this "Ego train" and leaves it to the Lord, without abandoning any of his duties, He will take you to His abode".
Was it coincidence or Providential design? Her letting things just "be"the previous night, was quite close to this. It also struck her that while the Lord repeatedly tells you to leave the outcomes to Him, and "just do what is to be done", the entire gross material world is stuck with outcomes perpetually. Scientists/ Research guys have to validate outcomes endlessly & their theories etc being valid only till one stray failure.
Surely without outcomes being in focus, the world would just collapse. The texts have also spoken of four stages of evolution, and one of the stages is one where outcomes are a focus ...... "artha" literally translated as "meaning", besides various others such as "worldly acquisitions". But when does one transcend ? One will, when the time comes which would be determined by Him, if only one had faith. She knew that she will get her answers as she had immense faith. Till then she will do what she can & let every one else "be"
Her 4 year old grand daughter woke her up from her reverie. She was insisting that she play Snakes & Ladders game with her, making her wonder if this was another way of the Lord telling her about the "meanings" of life..........& happily joined the kid for the game.
Ekalavya alias Vichu
Comments from Narasimhan
ReplyDeleteVlchu,
I think this is getting back to old Jignyaasaa form, I mean with your short stories. Sensitive insights, deep compassion, characters closely true to life, flowing narration. "( .....his being not-so rich, they felt, will make him amenable to accept their eminence)"was masterly. Anger, exasperation, contempt, all conspicuous by their complete absence.Though, even from our generation how many would be able to connect with Maitreyi's sublime personality? Or how despite being caught in the unrelenting crossfire between two conflicting beliefs, one of her "rich, famous, truly well read" maika intellectuals and the other of her unbending, fiercely independent, orthodox, nearly fundamentalist husband, she held firmly to her dignity and trust in God? I wonder. But how does that matter? Who are the losers anyway?
I think this story is fit material for a sensitive movie. Some good script writer can fill up some key incidents or episodes that bring out the themes you have touched upon. There is practically none except the daughter in law's milk episode. Someone like Vidya Balan can do the role of Maitreyi's. There should be a narrator like Amitabh. The story could be a posthmous biography of a rare soul. It can with an eulogy that I have ready with me.
God bless us all.
Gulpa
I didn't realize that my story was so good, till I received these extremely flattering responses. Thanks. You have spoken of an eulogy ready with you. can that be shared?
ReplyDeleteLove
Vichu