OUR MODERN-DAY MORNING-PRAYERS AND GOODNIGHT-STORIES





Pic.: Anand Ashokan

Right now, as I write this, something exceptionally happy or something exceptionally sad, shocking or disturbing might have just happened - or might be happening – somewhere, there, in the world...
Like our Mangalyaan doing it to the Mars orbit...
Or, that white tiger eating the school boy inside the Delhi zoo...
Like those Andhra ladies thrashing the two auto-drivers for raping a hapless girl...
Or, those terrorists slitting the throat of American journo...
Like our brave soldiers doing so much in Kashmir...
Or, those young college-kids getting washed away in Beas river...
Like that deadly road or air accident...
Like that wife cheating on her husband or other way around...
Like, that local politician flaunting his crores-worth shirt made of pure gold...
Like that dog who does what a man cannot...
Like someone, in the dread of the night, sighting a ghost or an alien in his backyard...
Like that just-born, who can play with the latest Apps, or who can do some hardcore math...

I can go on and on... Yes, right now, as I write this, so many things – the greatest or the worst, the most inspiring or the most the most repelling, the warmest or the saddest – might be happening somewhere in the world...
A thought has been repeatedly coming to my mind, today: Was is not so right since this world began – when there were no one to capture it on his cell-phone and send it across the globe, just in a blink?

What happens in my heart – I am holding my hand over my heart and asking this – when I see that white tiger eating the boy or those terrorists slitting the Journo’s throat? What happens to my heart when I watch those deadliest road or air accidents or tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes? What happens to my heart when I see a TV anchor tearing apart a politician or vice versa? What happens to my heart when the Mars-trip and Kashmir bravado unfold?

My cell phone and PC are flooded with videos, both mood-lifting ones and mood-sinking ones... They come, twenty-four-seven, just as I open my eyes in the morning and just as I close my eyes at night...
They come as my modern-day morning-prayers... They come as my modern-day goodnight- stories...

When I was a little boy, my mom in our village used to advise us never to listen to any ‘bad’ stories while going to bed. “You will get bad dreams,” she would remind us. I don’t know how correct she was scientifically. But, how does that matter? The truth was: “Whenever I took in my mind a very sad or horrible story to bed, I did get bad dreams; often, I jumped out of my bed frightened and screaming!

And, today – when I am a 56-year-old grown-up? Does the same thing happen, now - when I see those horror-videos on WhatsApp or Face book – the tiger eating a boy or terrorist slitting journo’s throat... Wife cheating on her husband or village women thrashing auto-drivers for raping raping an innocent girl and, yes, when I watch those horrors and terrors - hate, blood and fear - on small-screen or big-screen?

Yes sir, it does...
After all, I am not that strong, you see!

GERALD D’CUNHA


Comments

Anonymous said…
Fully agree with your view point; very negative feed to take to bed every night.
---- Parvesh
September 26, 2014 at 4:49 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or painful that
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How does it matter
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...