Commoners: The Sheep Flock and Their Masters

 **2003**

Common folk almost equal—no humiliation intended here—a sheep flock. Both are led by commanding herders: by a poor but supervising nomad in the case of the former, and by a group of superiors in the case of the latter.

Here, superiority means the capability and skills to detach oneself from the meekly bleating, dust-raising mass of poor humanity, unidentifiable individually but defined as a mass in their hopes and aspirations.

Let us drop the first part of the corollary here itself. Otherwise, it would become too difficult to carry the reason for two masses and move ahead with the sheep sense impersonated by the human folk.

Well, those humans who somehow manage to detach themselves, either by birth, by struggle, by luck, by chance, by beneficence or whatever other means, from the clotted, jaded, benumbed mass become entitled to play the piper.

And whatever is told through media, through rumours, through written and oral injunctions, political, social, religious and, of late, economic contrivances, they accept it as a fact. Almost as scientifically and mathematically true as two plus two equals four.

These are the mathematical geniuses indeed, not capable of understanding the underhand, shrewd manipulation of equations due to which two plus two becomes almost two lakh.

But no, they will always unflinchingly play into the hands of these statisticians, who glory in the knowledge beforehand that their message will be taken as it is meant to be.

Two religious sects steal the limelight aggressively, one pitted against the other. The angry, sword-brandishing, yelling scenes in the media show them a great, interesting news of fanaticism, but nothing beyond.

While the seed of reality could be as funny, as simple as the politics behind it.

The last government supported one to win elections. It is necessary, while the present one supports another.

So the religious puppets are danced with political strings while nobody sees it.

They just ogle at the spectacle, clap, become a comprehensive audience, but mostly can see only the print written on the title banner.

And it is so in most of the cases.

So the herd moves, raising dust, mimicking and thinking that it meets the farthest end of reason and understanding, with the herders of different sorts walking in closed ranks.

Each one representing the dignity, bearing and position of the fellow herder.

And many a time they feign disunity, the masters.

But it is just a game of further mastership.