Mutterings of a poor voter in thawing democracy

 Jinping wins (Tibet atrocities and Xingiang concentration camps), Putin wins (Ukraine massacres), Modi wins (Godhra riots), Trump wins (Convinced felon)😰😨😓😥😢😨😧😩😫😷🤕🤒🤧😪 Now is the time for us to be like three deaf, mute and blind monkeys 🙊🙉🙈 or shift to some other planet, for which unfortunately there is no choice except Musk, Zukersberg and Bezos... But Musk won't take that option. He is the bright eyed super genius of mighty Trump. The rest two beware. Take your rockets out. In any case the mighty four have the power to dispatch anyone to some extraterrestrial planet - I mean if not in body but soul at least.😀 The super-strong guys are actually eligible to share the same table and have relaxed talk over wine. Modi of course will have milk. Then who will be their common enemy? Maybe small people like you and me who think they have their own mind and feel like speaking the truth. Democracy will get diluted like never before. It has already thawed quite significantly in the world's biggest and the strongest democracies. I think Putin and Xi Jinping are the trend-setting big, bad guys, inspiring the rest to follow in their steps. Who will they hunt if not each other then? Because the most powerful can't help hunting. They have to. Almost natural. I think they will hunt the little voices of liberalism, freedom of speech, truth, human rights, equality, gender parity etc. Putin will be allowed to retain whatever he has captured in Ukraine. China will be allowed to take over Taiwan somehow (with the shamshaow of American opposition to that). If India plays its cards well, it might have some more chunk from PoK. And America? It will be allowed to have the symbolic chairmanship on the table of the four. The mighty tigers then will be free to play cat and mouse with little liberal intellentsia mice😂 But who knows the aliens, who have been taking reconnaissance of our small planet for decades, will finally step in and present a common challenge to the four. 😜 Then it will be quite interesting.

A creepy, crawling encounter

 

There must be cockroaches in the house otherwise why would a big rascally centipede enter the house. Well, rural houses usually have many claimants including snakes, rats, lizards, frogs, spiders and many more. Maybe the centipede got angry for not finding a cockroach. An angry x, y, z is almost suicidal, be it humans, reptiles or animals. And if there is an angry creature nearby, you feel the pinch. I felt it. A sharp pain in the left big toe. I’m watching news, sitting on a chair, right leg crossed over the left, leaving the left toe open for attack by the angry centipede. The body seems to be its own master. We overestimate our conscious, voluntarily done efforts to save and preserve it. It knows far more than we think. My conscious part is absorbed in the political slugfest going on the television. But my toe has independent authority to save itself from a big, bullish centipede. I find myself jumping in the air. The toe knows how to save itself from a centipede that has decided to bite the hell out of it. The automatic vigorous shake by the toe and its ally foot and their bigger sister leg is enough to undo the centipede’s brazen attempt to taste my blood. There is a needle sharp pain. Thankfully it couldn’t pierce the skin.

The calculating and planning human has taken a backseat. It’s only the life force in the body responding to the emergency. The left foot is angry as can be understood. O God, the way it counterattacks! It swings into action. And the slippered foot is pounding the enemy, knowing exactly how rapidly to strike with full force. It’s done so swiftly. The centipede is a juicy mass in an instant. It happened so quickly. I’m staring at it as if someone else has done it. Where was I while all this happened? It wasn’t me who did it. The body did it of its own volition! Imagine the instinct of self-preservation ingrained in each cell of the body. And still we overthink and burden the mind about  preserving it. The way it strikes at a centipede in retaliation over a bite at its toe proves that it’s always on guard against the predators both visible and invisible. I think we can allow it more freedom in its functions and not burden its natural operations with our unnecessary worries.

I’m not sure how a saint would have behaved if attacked by a centipede. I hadn’t even stepped on it. It just attacked. Some karmic balance I suppose. Of course the saint’s body would have jumped in air at the bite. But I’m not sure about his foot going into retaliation of its own in an instant.

I don’t think I could have caught it alive because it would have crawled under the hideouts available in plenty in the room. As a normal person staying in society, you have to put a boundary beyond which the parameters of sin cease to operate. You have to take measures to maintain the safety of your place. Maybe that dharma is bigger than the killing of poisonous reptiles that sneak into your place.

Little Maira, my two-year-old niece, is enthused at watching her Tau’s body jumping like a monkey. She laughs. Thank God centipedes don’t have blood. It’s a watery juice of life oozing from the carcass. And a child would always take you out from the complex world of thoughts about sin, nobility, kindness, etc. As I’m staring at the consequences of my foot’s retaliatory strike, I hear Maira mumbling, ‘Tau isne sussu kar diya.’She meant‘uncle it’s peed’. And that lightened the moment instantly. Holding my leg, she is staring at the dead multiple-legged crawler mired in the watery discharge of its life force. We both laugh then. God would always pardon you if you are sharing laughter with a little kid, even if you are laughing at a dead centipede.

A snarling extension to one's persona

 

As if hundreds of stray dogs weren’t enough, the village lads have started keeping pet dogs, not with the cause of polishing the streaks of affection in them. The pitbulls and other fierce dogs—hardly needed for security—are a fierce snarling extension of their angry selves to present an intimidating picture. Two lads walk with their dog. Another one passes on his bike. ‘Take away this fat sloth!’ he taunts. ‘Saale, we will make him pee on your bum!’ they shout with derision. A fierce dog is an expression of raw, romanticized anger to them. And they flaunt it. It scares ageing people like me though.  

The weightlessness of a joyful, loving responsibility

 Osho tells a beautiful story of a Sanyasi named Bhavani Dayal. He was on a pilgrimage in the Himalayas.. it was a very hot noon and he was moving up the hill with his bedroll on his shoulder ...he was sweating and breathless because of the weight and the steep climb...in front of him a small hill girl was carrying her brother on her shoulders. She herself was small and that is why she was also struggling, panting, sweating ..all  breathless. The Sanyasi said to her, 'Daughter you must be feeling a lot of burden and weight on you.' The girl said, 'Swami ji the weight and burden is on you. He is not a burden, he is my brother.' The Sanyasi was shocked. A small girl taught him a big lesson of life. Where there is love, there is no burden in life. It was joyful for her to carry the physical weight of a little brother, while he joylessly struggled under the physical weight of his belongings.

Belated Diwali Greetings

 

Light a little lamp of friendly bonhomie and care among your small circle of friends and family. We should always remember that there are a few people who would have tears of sympathy for our pains, smiles on their lips for our gains, a friendly hand to help us rise among slippery rains. It’s a very tiny lamp burning with its little wick, throwing gentle pale rays around us, helping to light a stage, a tiny stage in the infinite darkness around, the stage that defines our existence, a stage that is set up for us to understand the meaning and purpose of this life. It’s a very small lamp and needs tiny drops of the oil of trust, support, encouraging smiles, tears of empathy, gentle words and an assurance that we are there around you, keeping you safe from the darkness ready to encroach from all around. It’s a gentle light, with soothing rays. But it lights up our lives like a bright sun, helping us move over the little troubling pebbles of life scattered on the path.

Keep this little lamp burning. It’s a delicate, fragile light but has the strength the beat the darkest clouds of loneliness and pain. And like all delicate things it needs a very careful, gentle attention and protection. Keep your little lamp of hope and friendliness burning. Keep it safe. Keep your palm around the glow to save it from the chance winds. Keep supplying tiny drops of love, care and share. This is your little lamp to help you on your journey. Keep praying for the light of your tiny lamp. Keep it glowing.

People will come and go from the little dim-lit stage around the tiny lamp. That’s inevitable. But you have to keep your little flame alive so that you aren’t in dark when someone passes by you. Maybe others need the light of your little lamp. Keep it alive. Keep alive the flame of hope, love, belief in people, happiness and joy. And when you light lamps on Diwali tonight, see the sanctity of your little lamp in all the flames around. Wish you all a very happy Diwali! Belated though!