SELF-DEFENCE
Pic.: Malabika Ganguly
Suddenly, Kevin, my eleventh-standard
student, showed up for the class, today. He had bunked the class for one full
week, without informing me. So, the moment I saw him, I was all set to yell at
him... But, before I could do that, he pulled out a big-fat bar of Cadbury… “Sir,
for you.”
“Happy b’day dear,” I
pulled Kevin close to me, “Very smart boy, haan.”
“Tell me, have you watched
PK?” I teased the b’day boy.
“Yes sir,” said Kevin.
There was Meenal, a TY
student, sitting on one corner. “What PK has got to do with Kevin’s b’day, sir?”
her puzzled look asked me.
”Meenal, have you watched
the movie?” I enquired.
“I want to,” Meenal said,
excitedly, “But, I want to know why PK now?”
“Because, our PK here is very smart like the PK from
another planet,” I explained, “See how well he defused the bomb in his sir’s
hands!”
Meenal was still puzzled,
but Kevin knew what I was talking about. “Explain to her, Kevin,” I prodded
him.
“Self-defence!” Kevin laughed… “Jis tarah diwar pe bhagwan ka foto lagata hai na, ki koi muute nahi,us tarah
humne ye bhagwan ka foto chipka liya ki kono peete nahi (Just like people put
stickers of God on walls so that no one urinates, I have put stickers of God so
that no one hits me.)”
Meenal got it, “Smart fellow,” she agreed…
Six years ago, when I became the Hon. Chairman of our
housing society, I wanted to end one of the oldest and commonest menaces – the
ugly spitting marks (paan/tobacco... not caused by Members, of course) on our staircases and lifts. “No civic sense,” “Are we in
slums?”… our Members used to react like this. The gently-or-strongly-worded Circulars,
heavy fines and all our methods hadn't worked. One of our senior-most
Members, a very efficient and affectionate Maharahtrian lady, advised us to fix
all around our spit-prone areas tiles bearing images of Gods and Goddesses. “The
menace will end, I promise,” she had advised us…
But, for some stupid reasons, that advice still remains unimplemented…
The menace, therefore, has still not ended!
Incidentally, I gather from the news that many are angry
about the movie PK… One of the reasons, it seems, the above dialogue – ‘Self-defence’
– of PK…
The lady, who had advised us, six years ago, was a very
devout Hindu… but, absolutely practical… “Nobody dares to spit on the image of
God,” she had pointed to us, confidently…
PK from the other planet, in my view, was a practical
person, too… He reminds us, “Just as nobody dares to p... on walls where God’s
images are put, nobody dares to slap on cheeks where Gods’s images are stuck.”
“Hamare
goley pe koi jhoot nahin bolta.” PK was a genuine alien…
And, you know
how it was when PK returned from here to his gola… “He went home,
learning from us how to tell lies,” Jaggu, the girl he silently loved, tells us
with her heavy heart…
On Sunday, my
wife and I had watched PK for the second time!
GERALD D’CUNHA
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