Skip to main content

Dhruva and Davis: Poles apart



“There’s a story behind Pole Star which is known as Dhruva Nakshatram in our language,” I said to Davis (not his real name), a 14-year-old who thought a bit too much of himself like most youngsters of today. He was with me next to the driver’s seat in my car and I was his driver in his view. “Are you interested in the story?”

Davis’s silence told me clearly that he wasn’t. He wasn’t interested in anything except himself and that was the problem which his mother had brought to me. I told him the story, in spite of his indifference.

“Dhruva was the son of King Uttanapada and Queen Suniti. His father favoured his other wife, Suruchi, and her son.”

“Lucky guys they were, weren’t they?” Davis interrupted.

“Who?”

“Those kings of olden days. They could have a lot of wives.”

“You want a lot of wives?”

“Nah,” he was contemptuous. “I want only girlfriends, not wives.”

“You don’t want to take up responsibilities, right?”

“Who wants to? Would you take up responsibilities if you had a choice?”

“Responsibility is a choice.”

Davis became silent. Was he chewing on that? I wished he was because he was one of the most irresponsible youngsters I had ever come across.

“Shall I continue the story of Dhruva?”

“Okay.” He said listlessly. Probably he wanted to tell me that I was a big bore, silly old man with antique stories.

“Dhruva longed to sit on his father’s lap. Suruchi would never let him, however. Sitting on the father’s lap was solely the privilege of her son. She told Dhruva that if he wanted such a privilege, he would have to earn the favour of Lord Vishnu.”

“How old was this Dhruva guy?” Davis asked.

“Five years.” Since there was no further query, I continued the story. “Dhruva left for the forest with the blessings of his mother who advised him to meditate on Lord Vishnu. In the forest, the sage Narada became his guru and eventually Dhruva got Lord Vishnu to appear before him and bless him with eternal glory. Vishnu made Dhruva the Dhruva Nakshatra, the Pole Star.”

“But he didn’t get what he wanted!” Davis was indignant.

“He got more than what he wanted.” I asserted. “He became a star, a major star…”

“When you want to sit in the lap of your father, they make you a star in the sky!” Davis thinks that the adult world is rather bizarre.

“Have you ever looked for the Pole Star?” I ask.

“I’ll google it tonight,” he says.





 Illustration by Copilot Designer

 

 

 

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    Ah, so "Davis" is living the example of tamasic nature, desirous of preyas (the easy way) as opposed to shreyas (the responsible way). Perhaps this lad might appreciate that the "stardom" is a reward for sattvic behaviour... an object of tamasic output is a mushroom. Still useful, still has its place in the universe... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find an increasing number of youngsters of this 'tamasic' nature. I try my best to be empathic and avoid looking too avuncular.

      Delete
  2. You might be surprised at how the story effected him. He just can't show that now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope so. Sometimes, students have years later saying how small things I did changed them significantly.

      Delete
  3. Can you seed more such gurus in this world, Sir? wondering what would be a gurus will be in the next generation with AI and social media !!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Veiled Women

One of the controversies that has been raging in Kerala for quite some time now is about a girl student’s decision to wear the hijab to school. The school run by Christian nuns did not appreciate the girl’s choice of religious identity over the school uniform and punished her by making her stand outside the classroom. The matter was taken up immediately by a fundamentalist Muslim organisation (SDPI) which created the usual sound and fury on the campus as well as outside. Kerala is a liberal state in which Hindus (55%), Muslims (27%), and Christians (18%) have been living in fair though superficial harmony even after Modi’s BJP with its cantankerous exclusivism assumed power in Delhi. Maybe, Modi created much insecurity feeling among the Muslims in Kerala too resulting in some reactionary moves like the hijab mentioned above. The school could have handled it diplomatically given the general nature of Muslims which is not quite amenable to sense and sensibility. From the time I shi...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...

Nazneen’s Fate

N azneen is the protagonist of Monica Ali’s debut novel Brick Lane (2003). Born in Bangla Desh, Nazneen is married at the age of 18 to 40-year-old Chanu Ahmed who lives in London. Fate plays a big role in Nazneen’s life. Rather, she allows fate to play a big role. What is the role of fate in our life? Let us examine the question with Nazneen as our example. Nazneen was born two months before time. Later on she will tell her daughters that she was “stillborn.” Her mother refused to seek medical help though the infant’s condition was critical. “We must not stand in the way of Fate,” the mother said. “Whatever happens, I accept it. And my child must not waste any energy fighting against Fate.” The child does survive as if Fate had a plan for her. And she becomes as much a fatalist as her mother. She too leaves everything to Fate which is not quite different from God if you’re a believer like Nazneen and her mother. When a man from another continent, who is more than double her age,...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...