DIVIDED BY POLITICS, UNITED BY OLD MONK



“Divided by politics, united by Old Monk!”

I still smile recalling this status on FB by a friend of mine who was, is and will be a fierce bhakt of the government at the centre. This friend of mine is a successful professional; and, needless to say, that he has clients and professional colleagues, who either blindly prostrate before the leaders of current regime, or outright condemn them. I was unable to understand, being a successful professional, why was he inviting such extreme reactions from his clients and professional colleagues with his relentless attack on the opposition and dawn-to-dusk veneration of the regime he loved…

Bad professionalism and a bad friendship! Yes, that’s how, I personally perceived this senseless public display of love and hate.

There was another gentleman in the friend-list of my friend. He was a senior professional and even more successful. This gentleman hated the current regime like one hated the Ammonia smell. Every post of my friend showing his blind bhakti immediately would make this gentleman react… and, we on-lookers, would witness a barrage of missiles!

I would feel disgusted with this… Sorry, with myself, with my own reaction to what these two professionals waged a war over…

“You can’t stop anyone from loving or hating whoever they wish to,” I remembered these words from another friend of mine, “Let them worship or condemn, love or hate whoever they wish to… Our focus should be on our own well-being.”

I dropped the blind bhakt from my friend-list… and, along with him, at least a dozen more – both men and women, almost all ‘highly educated’ and well-placed. I also dropped another one dozen men and women who spewed poison about the ruling government. Yes, the focus had to be brought back on my own well-being… Who loves whom, and who hates whom was none of my business… I wanted my own space to be ‘clean’.

I do not know what is the present status about the Tom-and-Jerry relationship between the warring professionals. But, I remember the last one by my friend:

“Divided by politics, united by Old Monk!”

Nobody would ever imagine, that these two men were so polarized by their politics… Old Monk was such a fine glue, you see!

Probably, that’s how it should be. I said, ‘probably’! I am a sentimental fool… Neither can be intoxicated by politics nor by Old Monk.

“Raat gayi, baat gayi!” I am still smiling, trying to understand this line from both ends!



We all love or hate whoever and whatever we wish to!

Amen!

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: movieweb.com

Video: WB Kids


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