With a pinch of salt : Another Diwali will soon dawn

Oct 27, 2016

I had just settled down for a rest in the nearby bus stand after an hour’s stroll, which is a part of my daily regimen. The sight of an aged man sleeping under the bus shelter was irritating me since the past one week. Something within me kept goading me to wake him and ask him why he was sleeping in a public place. He seemed a normal person, not differently-able or mentally disturbed. He had some personal belongings which he had placed by his side and a few clothes used as a pillow.

I woke him up. He got up slowly with a painful face, slightly disturbed.

“Is it the place for you to sleep, it’s for the travellers” – I told him knowing full well that what I just said was not in good taste.
“Even I am a traveller, brother, we all are” he said. I was stunned. Maybe he was right.

“If I was a rich person, loved by a family, I would not be sleeping here” – he said. “If my wife was alive I would not be sleeping here. If my only son and his wife had not abandoned me, I would not be sleeping here” – he added.

Then he explained his sordid story to me, like how happy he had been as a watchman working for a private company, how content he felt when he married a girl from his neighbourhood, district, how happy they were when they were blessed with a son as their eldest child. “Everything was so nice back then, with everything going well for me and my family. “

Troubles crept into the house after he lost his job for some silly reason, after his wife passed away, and then he went into depression. His daughter-in-law ill- treated him for one year and one day on the night of Diwali he was told to vacate the house.

Since then he had made the bus stops his shelter, shifting from one to the other whenever someone like me objected to his sleeping in a public place. “What is public and what is private for a person who doesn’t have a place of his own?” he asked me.

“It’s going to be a year, and we will have one more Diwali approaching us.” He said sarcastically.

I felt terribly hurt. I cursed myself for having disturbed his sleep, and his peace of mind. Then I decided that I would find him a decent place to stay, where he would be welcomed as a member of a family, where he would be assured of affection and the most needed love and care.

But when I reached the bus stop the next day, he was gone. He was right, he had moved away, for he was a traveller, like any of us, on this earth.

From then on, whenever Diwali is around the corner, a festival that signifies man’s victory over evil and the killing of Ravana, I keep asking myself if we have ever been successful in killing Ravana around us, for they are more than one.

Lord Ram killed one Ravana and that was not the end of the story.

Today we have many Ravana’s to kill, but their names are different – They are called poverty, corruption, terrorism, communalism and lawlessness. Diwali will be incomplete not only this year, but in the years to come if we do not meet them head-on.

With a pinch of a salt -Archives:

 

by Hemacharya
To submit your article / poem / short story to Daijiworld, please email it to news@daijiworld.com mentioning 'Article/poem submission for daijiworld' in the subject line. Please note the following:

  • The article / poem / short story should be original and previously unpublished in other websites except in the personal blog of the author. We will cross-check the originality of the article, and if found to be copied from another source in whole or in parts without appropriate acknowledgment, the submission will be rejected.
  • The author of the poem / article / short story should include a brief self-introduction limited to 500 characters and his/her recent picture (optional). Pictures relevant to the article may also be sent (optional), provided they are not bound by copyright. Travelogues should be sent along with relevant pictures not sourced from the Internet. Travelogues without relevant pictures will be rejected.
  • In case of a short story / article, the write-up should be at least one-and-a-half pages in word document in Times New Roman font 12 (or, about 700-800 words). Contributors are requested to keep their write-ups limited to a maximum of four pages. Longer write-ups may be sent in parts to publish in installments. Each installment should be sent within a week of the previous installment. A single poem sent for publication should be at least 3/4th of a page in length. Multiple short poems may be submitted for single publication.
  • All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format or text file. Pictures should not be larger than 1000 pixels in width, and of good resolution. Pictures should be attached separately in the mail and may be numbered if the author wants them to be placed in order.
  • Submission of the article / poem / short story does not automatically entail that it would be published. Daijiworld editors will examine each submission and decide on its acceptance/rejection purely based on merit.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to edit the submission if necessary for grammar and spelling, without compromising on the author's tone and message.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to reject submissions without prior notice. Mails/calls on the status of the submission will not be entertained. Contributors are requested to be patient.
  • The article / poem / short story should not be targeted directly or indirectly at any individual/group/community. Daijiworld will not assume responsibility for factual errors in the submission.
  • Once accepted, the article / poem / short story will be published as and when we have space. Publication may take up to four weeks from the date of submission of the write-up, depending on the number of submissions we receive. No author will be published twice in succession or twice within a fortnight.
  • Time-bound articles (example, on Mother's Day) should be sent at least a week in advance. Please specify the occasion as well as the date on which you would like it published while sending the write-up.

Comment on this article

  • Vinod, Manipal

    Wed, Nov 02 2016

    Beautiful writing..


Leave a Comment

Title: With a pinch of salt : Another Diwali will soon dawn



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.