“There is a huge amount of freedom that comes
to you
when you take nothing personally.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz
It’s very, very difficult not to take sides when
two people fight, even though it’s very, very important not to take sides.
Now, who are these ‘two people’?
They can be anybody – from intimately close
ones to absolutely strangers…
I remember, just a few yards from our
local primary-school in our village, there used be weekly cock-fights… ‘Kori
Katta’, they would call them in our local Tulu. I suppose, it’s banned now. The
players would raise sturdy fighter-cocks at their homes and, assemble every
week at those designated arenas, where a huge crowd would round up to watch the
brutal game. Imagine those hapless roosters, sharp razors tied to their feet, provoked
to fight to the finish… Even when the roosters were bloodily wounded, they would
stitch up those wounds up and make those poor cocks fight… People from all over the
village, even though had no food at home to eat, would religiously turn up to
these public spectacles to gamble, or to have some thrill… It was a crazy sight!
Yes, it makes me shudder when I think of it,
now. Yet, as little kids, sometimes, we would quietly sneak into the crowd to
watch the ‘fun’… and, like in all sports, before we knew it, we would end up
taking sides… “Yenna Kori… Yenna Kori!!!”… Yes, each one of us, the
grown-ups and the kids, would jump almost intoxicated, screaming in our local
Tulu – “Yenna Kori, Yenna Kori”… “My rooster, my rooster!”
Even though I did not know a single soul in
that crowd, even though those fighter cocks did not belong to me, and, above
all, even though not a single paisa of mine was at stake… yes, even then, I, a
little school boy, would take sides!
So, now, at 61, everybody assumes, that I have ‘grown
up’!
But, I alone know how much I have!
Just as those village cock-fights were our major
entertainment, the cock fights on our TV and social media are our modern-day
entertainment… We all are wired to watch them, take sides and scream in
intoxication – “Yenna Kori, Yenna Kori”… “My rooster, My rooster!”
In village, it was only once a week… Here, it’s
24/7/365!
We all will continue to ‘patronize’ these
sports… and, we all will continue to scream even though we have nothing to do
with those ‘fighting cocks’… nothing at stake… and, will gain nothing from that
intoxication.
…
Marcus Aurelius, hailed as one of the five ‘good’
Roman Emperors, advised us, almost two thousand years ago:
“You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never
any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t
control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”
I am trying to, Sir!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.:www.pinterest.com.mx
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