DAVIDS AND GOLIATHS COME AND GO

 


“One doesn’t defend one’s God.

One’s God is in himself a defense.”

Henry James

 

Every time, a little David kills a mighty Goliath, you think the little David will, one day, become a great king – the King David… a wise, kind and just king.

That has been an old story of human behaviour.

Did I say ‘human stupidity’?

Only a few of us are spared from the ‘curse’ of Hero Worship… I am still not, Sir.

So, every time, an Obama explodes on an American political scene, or an Indira Gandhi, an MGR, an NTR, a Modi, a Kejriwal and so on, here, on Indian, I, too, get carried away and, tend to say - ‘It’s going to be a new world, now on’ – Yes, ‘Acche din aanewale hai’… The kingdom of Heaven will come on this earth, soon…

Now, Mamta didi – the so-called woman in a cotton saree and Hawaiian chappals – has done a David’s job… She has just knocked out the Giant!

So, there is this all-familiar Déjà vu, all over again… “Will she be the promised Messiah to usher in a new world, a new kingdom of acche din?




No matter how much I pretend, saying I stay away from politics, I keep finding myself right in the middle of a highly-political world. I can’t stay away from this world, this life. I can only take an honest look at my own stupid – rather blind - fascination with the Heroes and Sheroes of political class… I can only honestly see how carried away I get, at times, and keep pinning my hopes on these new Messiahs about the new kingdom… the acche din they promise!

All political parties and all their tall leaders are there on this planet just as you and I are here for… to earn our living, to advance our own interests. I am not here to advance others’ interests… to expand their own kingdoms. I am not here to fulfill others’ dreams. Sometimes, I may pretend to, claim to… But, the plain fact is this: I am here for my own growth!

And, just as my own little kingdom will, soon, come to an end, the kingdom of all these Kings and Queens, too, will…

So, the more and more I watch myself, the more and more I catch myself doing this hero or shero worship. And, alongside, I, also, become aware of how important it is for me to keep more faith in myself and go about doing my own daily duties, dreaming my little dreams, saying my own sincere prayers for the well-being of myself, my near and dear ones and fellow-beings…




Davids and Goliaths, meanwhile, may come and go on this earth. I needn’t root for any of them.

Yes, I may find the cotton saree and Hawaiian chappals – this Fakeeri – very inspiring. But, Sir, I, also, find it very, very difficult to live by them!

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s: 1. Austin Coutinho 

          2. www.freebibicalimages.org

 

Video: Sakshi Joshi

 

 

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