Biji

LESSONS OF LIFE

Let me tell you a story today. And like the film waalas I’m not going to disclaim any similarities to any character living or dead. It is in fact, a true story about a true person in a true situation. Truth as they say is bitter, don’t hope for a happy ending therefore.

Once upon a time, some years ago, during an era; choose the beginning that suits you best. So I was telling you that during my childhood we lived in a rented house owned by a wealthy landlord of our small city. On the terrace was a room inhabited by an old lady addressed as Biji. She was over sixty and lived all alone, cooked by herself and cribbed all day. She would enquire what the time was some seventy two times a day to the irritation of the neighbours and mohallewaalas. A boy, whom I thought, was her son came to meet her once in three days. Upon asking, my mother told me that he was her husband’s son from a second wife. Biji used to be a beautiful high class society wife in her times. But, she could not bear any children despite medical aids and innumerous test. In desire of an heir, she convinced her husband to get remarried. The man loved her dearly and would not budge at the idea of getting a second wife. She had persuaded him by fasting, weeping, vowing, arguing et al. The new lady bore four children to Lalaji. The eldest one was very attached to Biji and he was the one who visited her now. But why was she left to lead this life of a solitary person when her full family existed? Had she committed a crime? What was so wrong with her that she had to be left this way?

The only wrong, the only crime was her being infertile. The woman who bore children came to acquire the supreme status gradually and the enmity that exists between any two competing women persisted. The property, the husband, the children- all were coveted possession to be claimed by the victorious one. Biji lost the battle and was thrown out of the house. Being her legal husband, the man put her in this room on one of his properties. The thing that disturbed me the most after having learnt her story was that her husband had never come to see her. Was this the plight of the lady whom he had loved so much, married and adored?

Biji was very beautiful even at this age and after so much. Her youth beyond the wrinkles would surely have made many crazy. But, today, she was going crazy, battling her solitude and pangs of seclusion. She asked what the time was not because she had appointments to keep but to know how much of it had passed, how much remained; to see a human face pop out of a house to answer her. Being illiterate Biji had no other way to connect with the living world other than by talking. However, with limited life and exposure, what topics could she chat about? The time … of course. After a while she stopped cooking listing her age as an excuse. But I think, this was her way of making someone from her family to come to her thrice a day to deliver her meals. She had taken seriously ill and after much deliberation was taken to her house, her own house, where she breathed her last within a few hours.

What had Biji done to deserve such a life and such an end? The story of this woman whom I saw every day for five consecutive years makes me wonder what use are the scientific temper, the modern thought if they can not alter the plight of the women of our age?

How Hooked can You Get?

YOUR HOROSCOPE TODAY

Hence proved! What? Well, the fact that you have decided to read this piece among many others is itself a testimony of the attraction you felt towards the topic. How the world nowadays is lured by the tarot cards, horoscope predictions, numerology, star positions, palmistry and the likes seems strange. Why so? On one side we have landed on the moon and are vying to reach the stars and on the other we tend to believe that all the planetary objects conspire to direct the lives of the humans living on this planet Earth. Isn’t this an interesting paradox?

There was a time when the contemporary thinking was catching up…ah! Rather it seems more appropriate to say.. once upon a time India was getting educated and abandoning the superstitions it had lived with for ages. However, those times of rebel, revolutions and scientific temprament are long gone. Today the parrot readers have given way to much sophisticated Pundits and Devis who claim long time slots on our channels and huge space in our newspapers. And here, the mention of media infuriates me further. The fourth estate, the watchdog, the gatekeeper…woo what names ... but are all these addresses justified for the media of today, which seems to have forgotten its function of forming the public opinion in the mad craze to raise TRPs and readership. The more you make the people fearful of the uncertainties of their future, the more will you be able to pull them to the solution offered by the Vastu and Kundali experts is the Mantra of the media today.

Solar and Lunar eclipses take shape of opportunities to offer ideas of how your lives shall get affected by the heavenly bodies today; earthquakes and Tsunamis are predicted by the Pundits; performances of players and box office conditions of films are calculated by the numerology experts; Tarot card readers tell us whether a government shall win a no confidence motion…. Oops, what great science! Loose the charm of living in every moment to the efforts of knowing the future is the idea being propagated. The ripples of mysticism and fallacy are forming and rising with no near possibilities of an end.

Influenced by the high class Bas and Bahus of Balaji, the Indian middle class had turned back to Kundalis and horoscope matching as foundations of a healthy marriage. Names of new borns have again come to be suggested by palm leave readers. This is an uncanny alteration when compared to the modern thought that ruled our society in the mid 70s and 80s. The age of liberalization has again come to be dominated by traditionalism. I say again because four decades back India and Indians had started to learn to believe in themselves, but now the trust has gone back to the stars. The power that we had has shifted back to the planets.

Ah, all you believers who started reading me with some expectation of knowing your lucky colour and lucky number for today, I shouldn’t disappoint you. So here is your horoscope today: You will believe any Tom Dick and Harry who writes any horoscope column in any newspaper. Correct?