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Chetan and Simplicity


His was the most disarming smile I ever came across among the staff of Sawan school. Let’s call him Chetan. He always carried a small comb in the back pocket of his trousers though there was hardly any hair on his head. The few strands that grew on either side were combed over the glaring baldness in spite of their intractable rebellion against the attempt. Even while conversing with you, he would take out the comb and indulge in the mechanical act which could have been avoided because his smile would keep you so transfixed that you wouldn’t really notice his baldness.

In my very first conversation with him on the campus of Sawan, he mentioned that there were mountains not too far if I missed them. I had just told him that I was working in Shillong before landing in Delhi. “Meghalaya, the land of beautiful hills!” He exclaimed with childlike excitement. “The Aravalli here may not be a match but they aren’t bad either if you’re interested.”

“How far? Can I reach it by scooter?” My question put him off instantly. He thought I was making fun of him. I wasn’t. I had no idea how far the Aravalli Range was from where Sawan school was. I was new in the place and the road that carried me to Sawan gave me the feeling that I was going to some remote corner of the earth. The Mehrauli-Bhatti Mines Road, the only road from Delhi to Sawan, ended a few kilometres after Sawan in a village called Bhatti Mines. What lay beyond was a forest that separated the state of Haryana from Delhi. Standing on the vast campus of a school with hardly any other sign of civilisation around than the school and its own buildings, I presumed from Chetan’s remark that there were some hills nearby. When his face became clouded instantly on hearing my question, I realised that he was a highly sensitive man. I decided to be cautious in my future conversations with him.

Maggie and I had travelled quite a lot in Delhi by our scooter in those days. We were younger at heart than in our bodies and we enjoyed the freedom offered by the two-wheeler which carried us from Sawan to any end of Delhi when we felt like visiting some place such as the Red Fort or Humayun’s Tomb. My question to Chetan was nothing more than an innocuous query.

Chetan was one of the few men in Delhi with whom I longed to establish a close acquaintance. I was certain that he was the kind that would do no harm to anyone knowingly. But I learnt soon enough that he wasn’t much interested in getting close to me. He seemed to labour under some such bias as South Indians were too crooked or something like that. Maybe, he was shielding himself from the potential hazards of Dravidian cunning.

Sawan was never racist openly. The students never made me feel like an outsider. In fact, I enjoyed an enviable degree of cordiality with good many of them. Even the staff didn’t ever discriminate against the few South Indians overtly. But once I happened to hear a lady belonging to Chetan’s own department asking someone: Ab Madrasi ka bhi sunna padega? Should we now listen to a South Indian too? Until then I used to think of that lady as the most genial female colleague in Sawan.

Chetan wouldn’t have raised such a question, I think, though he must have found many of my opinions unacceptable. I wasn’t a conformist at any time though I tried my best to avoid confrontations with others. Shillong had convinced me rather perversely that I was nothing better than a gargoyle on the magnificent edifice that better people strove to construct and maintain. I knew I had to keep distance from people, especially sensitive ones like Chetan.

When the Radha Soami Satsang Beas [RSSB] cult stole into the school in 2012, troubles started on the campus. In spite of all his innate goodness Chetan was not spared either. He was told categorically that he could not keep his pet dog on the campus. Bozo, a cute little Pomeranian, was the beloved of the entire Chetan family. RSSB was a religious cult that preached love and generosity and the entire continuum of great human values. But their actual practices were the opposite of all they preached. They were a mammoth bundle of greed for land and lust for power.

Chetan chose to quit his job in Sawan and keep his Bozo. Chetan’s love for his dog was a world better than all the spirituality taught by RSSB in their quarterly gatherings for which they killed an entire school and ruined the happiness of hundreds of people.

What happened to people like Chetan reinforced my belief that the world actually belongs to the crooked and the wicked. Scratch people’s spirituality or nationalism or such ideals and you will find slyness grinning in their veins. 

PS. I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z 

Previous Personalities: Anand, Balram

 

 

 

 

Comments

  1. These stories are very sad. What has our world become?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably with a little less religion our world would have been a happier place!

      Delete
  2. I have felt lot of my life as an outsider.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many of us are condemned to feel that way... Almost all my life I lived in alien places and felt like an outsider. Now in my own village, i don't feel any better!

      Delete
  3. When I left sawan, my father asked me that what did i learn from my school. I replied proudly that my school made me 'street smart'.Though not everything was rosy in that school, Sawan had its own limitations like any other place but it offered you significant number of games to play(on & off the field). So, either you won or you learnt, any way it was a win-win situation.

    Greetings to you & Maggie ma'am 🙏.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you remember Sawan as a win-win bet. As a teacher, I learnt a lot too.

      Thanks for the greetings.

      Delete
  4. I so relate to this spirituality vs religion thing. I think the fanaticism hides greed and lust for power, cults are best avoided and their ideologies not even read. I just work on pure energy--what you sense and feel, rather than what is stuffed in your head by someone else. And casteism and racism are common references, I wouldn't pay much attention. Delhiite that I am, in other parts, I am also 'scary'! People ask me whether I have really been born and brought up in Delhi--no noise person that I am :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A lot of people are religious and not spiritual. What draws people to cults like RSSB is a mystery for me. But then isn't that true of religions too to a great extent? What good do they do?

      I have a lot of good memories about Delhi. People who provided them were not much religious!

      Delete
  5. The incident of the cult and their objection to the dog, is what all is wrong with the world today. We give more precedence to these so-called godmen etc than on values that make us human.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Harshita, our godmen are not even humane, let alone godly. They rake in a lot of wealth illegally and live in filthy affluence.

      Delete
  6. I truly hope Mr. Chetan was able to keep Bozo at his new school.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After leaving Sawan, he resided in his own private apartment where nobody separated him and Bozo.

      Delete
  7. Nostalgia..." Keep Alive the fire within 🔥"

    ReplyDelete

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