Yesterday I was reading Amartya Sen's "The Argumentative Indian - Writings on Indian Culture, History and Identity." The back cover of the book states, "India is a large and hugely diverse country with many distinct pursuits, vastly different convictions, widely divergent customs and a feast of viewpoints. In this landmark book Amartya Sen argues that only by exploring its long, pioneering tradition of skeptical argument and cultural achievement can we truly understand contemporary India's place in the world."
Sen expounds on "The problem of invoking the Ramayana to propagate a reductionist account of Hindu religiosity", and states that "The roots of skepticism in India go back to a long way, and it would be hard to understand the history of Indian culture if skepticism were to be jettisoned," quite contrary to some cultural theorists who "are particularly keen on showing the strength of the faith-based and unreasoning culture of India and the East, in contrast with the 'shallow rationalism' and scientific priorities of the West."
I became ever enthusiastic about setting out on a 'Pan-Indian' excursion and understand the true nature of this unfathomable society. I straightened up and ran my fingers through my hair that was almost covering my ears. "Negative", I thought scratching my cheek that had went unshaven for a month. If I lacked the energy to go to the barber's shop for over a month, which is a few yards across the road, a pan-Indian trip was out of charts.
Anyways, I dragged my feet to the barber, having nothing better to do in the sultry afternoon. He was lazing on the revolving chair alone, listening to Bhojpuri songs churned out endlessly by the Radio Jockeys. What a wastage of time, I thought. As if I were some intrusion in his private space, he reluctantly asked,"Whose hairstyle you wanna have?" Before I could come up with some suggestion, he said,"Not a chimpanzee's of course, which you already don," and tied a towel around my neck before I could protest. He actually detested me for never having my hair colored, something at which he claimed to be the best in town. After trimming my hair he jabbed at the radio and turned it off declaring,"Useless craps, these songs." Mood swing, I thought.
Then in a complacent baritone he reflected,"The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are so relevant even in these 'hi-fi' days." Hi-Fi, I thought, a term often misused as an alternative to futuristic, but which actually means High-Fidelity."The characters are so timeless," he continued,"take for example Prakash Karat and Sonia Gandhi. They are like Krishna and Radha, in deep love for each other, yet could never reconcile." Putting on a wry smile on my face I inwardly laughed at his naivete.
"Or you could take the 'classic' case of the politics behind the Partition of India. Nehru was the Arjuna for us, strong, brave and forthright, with Gandhiji as his mentor, just like Dronacharya. On the other hand, Jinnah can well be considered as Ekalavya. Both Jinnah and Nehru had the right to become the sole heir to independent India. But since Gandhiji had promised Nehru beforehand, he was obliged to hand over power to him alone. So he broke up India and asked Jinnah to be satisfied with half of it, akin to asking Ekalavya for his thumb."
I jumped up straight and tried to flee. The Congress and BJP party offices were not very far off, any eavesdropper overhearing our conversations could bring in Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh scurrying to silence us once and for all.
I tried to save my dear life but he was adamant about pouring out all the highly philosophical thoughts that he considered to be of utmost importance to India and its future. He had finished trimming my hair and was now going to shave my beard. He remarked that Narendra Modi was actually considered evil during the Godhra riots, though he was only following his 'dharma' like Ravana. Who could ever disagree with someone wielding a sharp razor at the throat.
Eventually he gave a lengthy speech on how intertwined our society is with what the epics had suggested thousands of years ago, how there was a lesson in every nook and corner of the composition,etc. And my god , I was taken aback by his thorough knowledge and the way he drew parallels between the characters and events in the epics and present India. Shashi Tharoor would have hugged him hard before publishing his "The Great Indian Novel", had he known that there was another one like him, though quite unsophisticated.
There I was, an engineer having landed a job with a top Indian MNC, erudite and well-informed, gaping with admiration at this apparently oblivious and illiterate barber. He elaborated on so many issues that is shackling India's progress and brought up the ghosts of so many great thinkers of our times, digging out there scandalous lives and clandestine dealings, that if I were to write them out here, a national debate and censoring of my blog would follow. Though I may sound hilarious, he was correct in every sense. It reminds me of Amartya Sen when he quoted a villager's remark : "It is not very hard to silence us, but that is not because we cannot speak."
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