The Solitary Reaper

-
Rudrapur, Saturday Night: The word “dignity” traces its origin to medieval times, when the royal subjects were supposed to conduct themselves with character and nobility- thus dignity. I have a strong affiliation to this particular word, as on the personal front I aim to live life with dignity. Little did I know that a particular movie experience will change the way I understood this particular word and life in general.

So we, (flat mates, friends, better halves of friends) were out for a movie, on a typical weekend in the foothills of the Himalayan city of Rudrapur. The movie, a misogynistic guy one, (“ban gaya kutta” for heaven’s sake!) was on, with our group commenting about the various comparisons of the opposite sexes shown in the movie.  Fortuitously I notice a middle aged man on our adjacent seats, looking down on the seat adjacent to him. Curious, I cram my neck, to see a small boy (I believe 8-9 years old), fidgeting around in the chair. The man, presumably his father, was lovingly watching over the young surd kid play with the popcorn, the cold drink, the chair and stuff. The child was restless, presumably bored with having to sit in a closed area for so long.

So let’s look at the weirdly strange scenario here: a father with his young child, alone at the theatre in the middle of the night, watching an adult comedy movie, which dishes out slurs and slangs and all sorts of misogynistic comments through out! To top it all, the man is sitting next a group of hooligans (us), commenting and clapping! I was trying to imagine the state of mind of the man, trying to “dignify” his presence in that particular moment.

So the movie comes to an end- the child is asleep, tired from all the hither thither done. As we are making an exit, I glance at the man, gracefully picking up the kid in his arms checking for anything left behind. He picked up a small bracelet- stared at it for a second and walked on. I was right behind the man when he help up the bracelet again- a middle aged lady looked back- with the words (“Maa”) scrolled on the bottom. The man glanced at me- I understood.

I carried on, smiling, with dignity...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Cat

-
Image
Gurgaon, Jan 2023: I slammed the brakes, bringing the car to an abrupt halt. Heart pounding, I looked at my wife, who looked shaken and a bit weird (the mascara she was applying spread unevenly on her eyelids!). An SUV in front of us had suddenly braked in the middle of the road, causing me to take take evasive action. We narrowly avoided colliding with the SUV, with only the seat belts preventing any kind of harm to us.  Fuming, I stepped out of my car and went to see what had happened. The driver, a man probably in late twenties, looked at me apologetically. He was accompanied by an older lady (I am guessing his mother), and said, "Sorry bhaiya, Kali billi rasta kaat gyi. Mummy ne chilla k bola car roko!" (Translated: Sorry bro, a black cat crossed our path, so my mother panicked and asked me to stop!).  Welcome to the world of superstitions, which rank from some genuinenly scary ones (keeping knives under your pillow while sleeping drives evil away), to funny (you will hav
Read more

That Damn Spotlight!

-
Image
Mumbai, 30th March 2022 Phone in hand, I froze. Suddenly, every face in the audience became clearly visible to me, all looking at me. Talking to people was my profession, but today, I was talking about myself, my creation, my poem, the hook line was coming up, and I had stumbled on the previous line. This needed to go well, otherwise, the entire fun of the poem would have gotten lost.  Hands shaking, I took a deep breath and continued.  -- Glossophobia- the fear of public speaking, affects about 75% of the population. Some individuals feel slight nervousness, while some experience outright fear. Those staring eyes, those mocking faces, those uninterested looks, and those dreaded yawns!  I was a glossophob too.  Image Courtesy: https://images.app.goo.gl/CrPL8r2TCYf74K126 Let alone public speaking, I was uncomfortable talking in family gatherings! My modus operandi was to sit in the farthermost, discreet corner of the room, and gaze at a corner, cooking up stories (some of which are now
Read more

Small Steps, Big Impact!

-
Image
Somewhere in the clouds, en-route Mumbai to Lucknow: I was staring at that guy- snugly sitting without his face shield on, while the lady next to him was eyeing him nervously. A similar scenario was playing out four rows ahead of us; a middle-aged lady was comfortably sleeping in the middle chair, without her mask on, with no regard to the people besides her. On the other side were me and wifey- one bottle of sanitizer already over, hands washed about thrice since entering the airport and face shield on throughout. I know, we can be a bit paranoid about things, but in my defense, it is my life and I am not bothered by the infamous “chaar log” of our society. So with our defense mechanism in place, we continued our trip, culminating in reaching home, taking a bath, sanitizing entire baggage, and staying away from the family for the next two-three days. The scene in Lucknow was another story in itself- people sitting and happily chatting away, without the masks, the usual chai
Read more