Mission incomplete

Mission incomplete  is the story of a man who is very ambitious and progressive. He is retired now but he is not happy with his accomplishments till date. He has a burning desire to do something more and more in this world. At the age of 60 also  he has a fighting spirit of a 28years old youth. He dreams big and tries his hand in different ventures. Here is the story depicting his life experience and description of the emotions which  erupts in his mind while ruminating on the societal reactions ,feelings of love joy or while enjoying the nature. His  mission is yet not complete and he is always planning ahead to do something different in case success is not achieved in one attempt.. Now he has taken up pen in his hand to prove that pen is mightier than sword and he has decided to educate the present day youth  about  not only how to decide what to do in your life but also to live a LIFE  without getting trapped in rat race.

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Desai has retired from service a few months back. One day he was sitting in the balcony of his flat, it  was early  Sunday morning ..   He was sipping a cup of tea and waiting for the news paper to come. His Newspaper hawker “Tripathi” is a very slow moving item. He comes on a cycle enters the society from the left side and then gradually comes to his flat in the last because his flat is in the extreme right. Within the block of Desai also he comes last because first he gives paper at ground floor then takes the lift and goes to top floor then comes down by stairs distributing paper at each floor and as Desai stays on 1st floor, his number comes last.

One day Desai requested him “can you please deliver the paper early” and further suggested that he can start delivering paper beginning from the right side of the society so that I can get it a bit earlier as  I am getting up early in the morning and I need paper a bit early. Hearing this Tripathi just stared at Desai blankly and did not react further, kept quiet and left. Desai thought that now Tripathi will improve as today he has given him a piece of mind. Desai was eagerly waiting next day about the reaction on the hawker of his suggestion. But to his surprise  there was no change next day, the hawker delivered as per his established routine.

Hawker Tripathi is the only vendor in the society so he has monopoly, therefore Desai did  not gather courage to point out next time about the delay. A bit irritated Desai accepted the prevalent system of the hawker and he rather adjusted himself to the timing of the Hawker. Gone are the days when we could have taken such actions to task or replaced the hawker for his delayed delivery.. Despite all the liberalisation, competition and plethora of choices for the consumers, practically if we see, there is cartel everywhere. We can’t change our maid servants or hawkers at our sweet will. They have got their own associations. There cartel is so strong that you can’t get new service unless the service provider leaves  voluntarily.

Desai ,while sitting in the balcony was watching the early morning birds in the park in front of his balcony .Desai’s flat faces the park, in fact the only thing in this flat , while purchasing it last year, he had liked most  was the park facing view. Being from a hill town he has a great love for fauna and flora. Chirping of the birds  in early morning fascinates him as much as the rains. Still at this age, he equally enjoys the rains. Getting wet in the rain has  always been  a craze for him. He always tells his wife   “enjoy the rains, get wet and after wards have a hot cup of  ginger tea, nothing will happen to you”  if you do so you will never fall sick due to getting wet in rains . in fact last year one day  when they had gone for evening stroll together, while returning it started raining suddenly , Desai told his wife “let’s  enjoy the rain”  and they kept on walking in the rain and returned getting wet all the way. Praveen , One of his  neighbour of the society who saw them walking in the rains together, exclaimed sarcastically  from his  own balcony “oh,  so you are back to your youthful days”.

Our society has a tendency to react upon your actions with a lightning speed , the thunder depends  on the merit or demerit of your action and if the action is iconoclastic then a storm will blow you over. Else, what has age to do with having such fun. It is probably the social perceptions or our dogmatic inhibitions that we can’t dare to derive pleasure from such rare, little occasions gifted by nature. Nobody else but we ourselves are to blame for such a mindset prevailing in the society. We ourselves have set standards for our children for not getting wet in the rain lest they fall sick or catch cold. This sermon I have seen is going on from generations to generations. Then how can we break those norms as an adult ourselves. Fortunately, the Hindi film industry has numerous songs depicting the young couple romancing in rains and  believe me these sweet songs have always been appreciated for their sensuousness.

Lovely scenes or songs brimming with implicit sensuality  appeal to the pituitary gland and release such hormones which captivate  the listener or viewer in such a fusion that leads him/her to ultimate bliss.

Desai  saw a white crane came flying and sat on the roof of a car below his balcony. The scene was beautiful, he ran inside to bring his mobile and came back to flick a quick photo of the crane on top of the car thru his mobile camera. Photograph was lovely. Looking at the photograph he started remembering his visit to Bharatpur bird sanctuary long back where Siberian crane used to visit those days and the great ornithologist Dr Salim Ali used to camp, watch, snap and study their movements.  What a great bird watcher he was !

Sitting in the balcony in a pensive mood waiting for Sunday times Desai remembers:He was around 50 years old when he used to think that after retirement he will go to his hometown a hill city and join politics. His ambition at that time was to become the education minister of his state. How such things come to mind you never know. He remembers that when he was in class 6^th , the regular teacher had not come and the boys were making noise. The neighbourhood class was getting disturbed by this noise so the matter went up to the Head Master. He in turn sent a substitute teacher for monitoring the class. This  teacher asked all the boys “let’s play a game”.  He asked the whole class to select a cabinet of ministers amongst the students.

Initially, the students thought that Desai is the topper of the class so they named him the C.M. just see the psychology of the young boys, they thought that if a person is good in studies then he will also be a good C.M.  but Desai  refused to accept this position. The same phenomenon  is prevalent in our society. Good people don’t want to join politics. We want that system should improve, we curse the people who legislate, but we ourselves do not want to risk our secured career. it is a tragedy of the able citizens that they do not want to come out of their secured shells. Then who will improve the things. The best  talents go abroad to have a rich and wealthy life full of comforts and with all the amenities of life. The next choice or the similar choice is to join the coveted civil services. Then who remains to go to assembly and parliaments. The same thing happened that day in our dummy cabinet.

After his refusal the class opted for  Manoj , a tall looking, Muscular bully for C.M. ship . In real life also  such characters only join politics. The so called cream of the country, the renowned doctors ,capable IAS officer and genius technocrats are ‘ happy’ to stand in servitude to such politicians/ministers at whom they will look  with cynical disdain at every possible  moment of their  introspection.  However, we do have good people in politics as well, those who have dared to venture outside the ambit of fixed and safer boundaries, they entered politics by choice to follow their deep passion to do something for this country. Probably in the same fashion, when it came to the allocation of Education Ministry the whole class was adamant  that Desai, because he was the most meritorious student of the class, should take up the assignment.  Desai , very reluctantly under pressure accepted the position. The whole episode  is symbolic of what exactly is happening in our society today. Desai realised in his later years of life that It was a great fun and as this exercise was highly educative and inspiring. The whole process of electing their own cabinet by a student class reflects the mindset of the young generation. It shows how mature they could be in their perception of a cabinet of ministers even at that young age of 11 years only. This probably substantiates the decision of Indian Government to give the voting rights to 18years plus.

But as the saying goes  ‘if wishes were horses beggars would have ridden them’, forget of becoming Education Minister of his home state , Desai  could not even settle down in his home town. As the destiny would have it, he had to settle down in a Metro Town in NCR, be it the circumstances or family compulsions. A sarcasm on his dream of becoming a education minister is best described as under:

“बैठे बैठे बनाता था वो ख्यालि पुलाव,

शिक्षा मंत्री बनने का था उसे बड़ा चाव।

नहीं जा  सका जब  वो home town,

सुबह शाम पार्क में घूमता था पहन कर  gown.”

Most of us, especially in the service class, postpone our those activities which we desire to do utmost, for the post retirement period. The reason being that all of us first want a reasonably fair security for our family. This is the main cause that children are not allowed to pursue their hobbies or the  occupations of their natural flair by the guardians. This is the reason for  the mushroom growth of institutions providing degrees to engineers and MBA’s in our country, howsoever substandard they are. We, the middle class  are scared of financial insecurities. Have u seen a zoo. How lions are kept there. They are kept either in a cage or  if it is kept in open space then the perimeter of the premises where lion is kept is dug out with such a width that he can’t cross his boundaries. He remains inside his limited, demarcated space as allocated by zoo authorities. Soon, he loses his predatory skills which in a jungle comes to him naturally. The same is the case with Indian teens. There natural talent is boxed up by not only parents but also the whole society. in the rat race of IIT the majority teens have become supercomputer just to fulfil  their parents unfulfilled accomplishments .The tendency to achieve success in IIT and to leave aside or postpone all the childhood or teenage activities has become the order of the day in each and every family.  To borrow a poetic line from the poem “Leisure”.

“Leisure” is a poem by Welsh poet William Henry Davies, appearing originally in his Songs Of Joy and Others, published in 1911 by A. C. Fifield and then in Davies’ first anthology Collected Poems, also published by Fifield in 1916.

 

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

In  this context I remember a dialogue from a Hindi Film   “ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA ” when the hero says that he wants to work hard and make lots of  money so that he can enjoy after forty. Upon this the Heroine says “who knows you will live after forty or not”. This is very appropriate remark and carries a message, all we Indians need to ponder over.

From the day we join our job and till the day we retire we always think “oh, what a great enjoyment it will be after retirement”. Right at the age of people start talking about VRS ( voluntary retirement scheme) but when the scheme actually comes on paper that time the same lot of people are scared of applying for VRS. What will happen if we take VRS, how we will survive with all the expenses of a household, children education. What we will do sitting at home. all these thoughts shake the person and he never applies. Life is a bundle of our own made contradictions. We all are rather escapist and avoid taking risky decisions in life therefore we live a mediocre life and we are happy with it or at least we are the first to justify that indecisiveness. Society is full of all such mediocre elements here and there.  First to blame circumstances and if that excuse is not good enough then we blame the system last but not the least we blame corruption and inefficiency of the government.

After settling down in the NCR Desai started thinking big about his unfulfilled dream part-2 ( part 1 was to become the education minister of his home state). He rented a shop in a market place and started his coaching centre of Maths for 9^th and 10^th class. Desai was a keen student of Maths and he started revising his maths so as to be able to teach students. The fate of his coaching class entrepreneurship is best described in the poem in Hindi as under:

“बड़ी उम्मीदों  से खोली थी maths की  कोचिंग क्लास ,

सोचा था बच्चों को पढ़ाएंगे ,होंगे वो अच्छे नंबरो से पास ।

पर धीरे धीरे टूटती दिखी  उनकी  आस ,

जब किसी भी बच्चे  ने नहीं डाली घास ।

दुकान का किराया देने के भी पड़ गए लाले ,

अपनी पेंशन से कब तक देते किराया , दुकान पर पड़ गए ताले।

शिक्षा मंत्री की तो बात छोड़ो , बन नहीं पाये शिक्षा मित्र,

घर पर खाली  है , कम्प्युटर पर बैठे बैठे बनाते है चित्र। “

Normally in office a few days before retirement colleagues ask: where you will settle down. what are your plans etc. And after retirement whenever you meet some body or talk on phone they will ask: so what do you do for time pass. Are you doing some job. Please keep yourself busy otherwise…………. I can bet no retiree gives the truthful answer to such questions. we wear a mask and give a reply which is more socially acceptable. Like ,Oh, I am keeping myself occupied. I have made a time table. I get up at 6.0am and go for a walk, in the evening also I go for a stroll and in the day time I am doing this or that social activity blah blah.

Between the above thought process Desai remembered an incident which happened in his home town around 15 years back. There was one Mr gupta in his neighbourhood, retired as a senior officer from a govt job. He was very social and helpful  but the people of the area used to avoid him. Whenever they  saw him coming they would change their  route to avoid him. They were scared that this old retired man will eat up their one hour in futile gossips as he has no other work to do but only to pass his time. Remembering that, Desai just decided that he will not allow this thing to happen with him. He will not let the society feel that he is a burden or he is unproductive , he will do something fruitful.

As long as you are working you have got a routine life, everything is time tabled, when to get up, get fresh , take your morning tea, shaving ,take  bath, breakfast and then go to office. You  remain , 9am to 7 pm in office come back late evening from office , have a cup of tea then talk about family and friends , dinner is ready. You take  your evening stroll and go to sleep. But after retirement everything goes hay wire. There is no office to go, no time bound itinerary , so laziness drops in. You are relegated to back ground and the priorities of other family members come to the fore. Your role gets limited day by day before finally converting into bringing milk , vegetables,  going to bank and post office, doing courier etc,.

Desai is not deterred by the unfateful examples of failed attempts. He is determined  now to give a message to the youth that there are plenty of opportunities dispersed around the atmospheric medium around us  and only thing is we have to pick them up with our telescope which is our natural flair or internal burning desire called deep passion. He has decided to take up his pen to spread his message as somebody said

“pen is mightier than sword”

The sentence was coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy
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