Guise's of grief

To some loss of money is a insurmountable grief.To others loss of name is an unspeakable grief.To some failure in love is a unquenched grief .To several losing a close family member to the cruelty and finality of death is a inconsolable grief.
IN each of the above mentioned grief commonly plaguing mankind is the element of selfishness.One loses money and then thinks what will to happen me ? I'll be on the streets!Well there are several living on the streets already and that to happily .Just a couple of yards away from my house a young couple have converted part of the pavement into a dwelling place .They cook,eat and let their tiny tots play on the road happily.They are a public entertainment yet they are living cheerfully!I have come across people who mourn loss of wealth and consider it to be the greatest grief - I fail to understand this degree ,because a turn in events and life can bring back all if not even more than the wealth so tearfully lost.But can life once lost be ever brought back? All the riches in the world cannot do so .
Then comes the matter relating to the loss of ones name and reputation. This is something both the rich and the poor abhor. What will people think of me ,how will Iface my friends and relatives is the question that reveberates in the person 's mind who is grieving the loss of name.Why? Because in their own circles they are moulding their life according to that group's notion of right and wrong,i.e instead of living for themselves as per their natural inclinations and tendencies ,submit to the demands of parents,friends,collegues etc and when one slips ,the imaginary and illusory world of name and fame comes crashing down ,its impact so terrible that some never get up. Just pause a bit and take a look at our political leaders..They project themselves as clean and full of integerity but figure on and off in one scam or the other and some have even cases pending against them!Do they care for loss of name?Hardly.Another shining example not to bother about loss of face unduly are our iconalistic cricketers ! They 'll hit a duck, miss catches nonchalantly and fail to win matches and give interviews without batting a eye lid quite cheerfully[ whilst their fans millions in number become gloomy ,and depressed] They [cricketers] are ready and raring to play the next match in high spirits!
to be contd...

Why?

My heart swelled with pride when Vidat aged about 22 years an adult to the world but a mere lad to me went to his office in a chaffeur driven white car ,even more when he refused to drop me on the way saying the conveyance was for official purpose.
The same heart broke into peices when 2 years later he was conveyed in a black van.The unthinkable has happened.My son ,my child who should have succeed me has preceeded me.He,my son [ putra ] should be the one performing my last rites but here I am performing his. Some Events which were within my grasp and several beyond my control or comprehension has pushed me into a life of deep sorrow.All my love,affection and knowledge couldnt save Vidat. Is it true ? Did it happen?Won' t he push open the front door at 7 in the evening ,kick his shoes off and say Ma do you know what happened today and relate to me the day's happenings ?
The same heart is still ticking.How and why ?Was it God's intention to shake me up from my comfortable cocoon of middle -class life that chiefly consisted of untiring rounds of shopping, attending social functions to show off my latest pure silk sarees and ornaments,watching films ,enjoying languid noonsiestas, genarally a lotus eaters life ,to look around and endeavour to wipe the tears of his imperfect creations and make attempts to serve those less privelleged, who were ofcourse always there ,whose conditions had evoked pity from the periphery that was far from, my comfort zone and make a hea dlong plunge into a life of service to the deprived lot ,though stressful is sort of spirutuallyuplifting ?

India shining

A funny sight outside my first floor bedroom window on a hot May morning.The pvt company..... sanitary workers started shovelling two days of un collected garbage that was and is being dumped every other second by the the multitude of slum dwellers who seem to average 10 per single room tenements right opposite to my apartment and generate tremendous amount of garbage [a pointer towards economic prosperity] which they unhesitatingly and as a matter of right dump on the taxpayers side of the road as we the middle class sincere tax payers are a dumb lot having no political clout whatso ever, because we never vote enmasse' ,in fact enjoy election days as hollidays relaxing at front of the t.v whilst they receive money,goodies etc and vote religio usly,Now to get back to my story ,the sanitary workers started cleaning the dump from which such a huge stink arose that I had to flee from my room to the next.After a few minutes the stench ceased and I returned to myr oom and looked out of the window to greeted byan unusual sight.The 4or 5 young cleaners were drinking tea near a waiting mini truck in which all the garbage was dumped chatting happily whilst a young lad was taking photos of his co workers with a cell phone camera!
Clearing the road of garbage is not such a memorable event so as to be recorded in a cell phone camera, as it is part and parcel of his job , so most probably he was in augurating his newly purchased mobile! A sure sign of India's growing prosperity!B arely a decade back possesing a mobile phone was a symbol of luxury and the perogative of the rich but now it is considered as a neccesity in a highly voluble society and is accquired easiley by a vast majority of Indians !Even my neighbour hood rag picker has one !