Contentment Author : Dr. K.S. Kang

 

Contentment

Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

I had to go to a village a few kilometres away from my home town for a few days in my job. My vehicle scooter helped in daily commuting to that place. As I used to reach my home late in the afternoon so I used to take snacks in a tiffin that I used to take during the break. One day there was some religious festivals and villagers were observing it with a feast in the village. During the break while I was having snacks with my colleagues a group of villagers came with a large vessel containing edibles. An old man of the village place a Laddo1 and a Gulabjamun 2 in my plate saying that sometimes you should taste our food too and don’t worry you will not have to take lunch today in your house. I was quite pleased with the sweets that the villagers offered me. Along with the villagers came a little angelic girl with an innocent and sweet face picked up my plate. Suddenly her uncle said, “ Don’t eat too much. You had taken already a lot for your little stomach”. To it this girl replied by turning around and facing her uncle “ I am not taking it for myself, I am taking it to give it to the beggar child sitting outside in the scorching sun. Don’t worry I will not take anything from it and I will give only half of the sweets to the child and bring the rest to the Babuji” pointing towards me. However, She was lost in her play and perhaps she had forgotten to give instruction to that child only to eat half of the sweets too. I also did not expect the plate to come back. Strange are the ways of God a little ago I was going to have sweets in addition to my snacks of the tiffin and now I will have to go without any food till afternoon but that day even after reaching my home I was not feeling intolerably hungry, even though I did not have a single morsel except morning tea, because my hear was full of contentment as I gave my food to a destitute child and appeased his hunger at least for a day.

Banwari Bania Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

Banwari Bania

Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

Banwari Lal owned a shop in the village. Perhaps his grandfather or great grandfather came to this village and saw how villagers struggled to get provisions from the town. He saw the opportunity of earning his livelihood easily here and decided to open the shop though he declared that he is opening the shop for the convenience of the villagers and he wants to help the people of the village. Earlier he saw his grand father bringing goods in a bullock cart from the nearby town then he saw his father bringing things on his bicycle and trolley and now he just gave orders to the wholesalers sitting in the town and their mini truck or loading tempo delivers the things to his shop in the village. With time Banwari’s family not only settled easily in the village but they had created property by diversifying their business and his father constructed the only completely pucca house in the village just behind his shop. Though his name was Banwari Lal Mittal but he was so much used to be called Banwari Bania by the villagers that he had nearly forgotten his surname nor anybody in the village seemed to remember that he had a surname too.

It was not that Banwari carried on his business in an honest and upright manner as he believed that it is not possible even to survive on honesty let alone thrive. Nor was it that he gor pure and original things from the wholesalers sitting in the town. So whenever villagers complained of Papaya seeds in black pepper, small white stone in rice or mashed boiled potato in Desi Ghee, he used to fairly put blame on the wholesalers of the town and used to tell the villagers that he does not own a Papaya orchard or a potato farm to do these thing he is giving the villagers whatever he is receiving from the wholesalers of the town. Besides him, only his faithful assistant Lakha knew that how Banwari Lal instructs him at night to mix white small stones in rice and other cereals like pulses and papaya seeds in Black Pepper.

However it is the benefit of rural environment that conscience does not die. Banwari had made arrangements for that too. He had an image of a holy and pious person in the village as he was away from every vice like booze, smoking, gambling and the like. It was not that he was a really pious person at heart but his lifestyle and the tradition of his family taught him to lead the life economically even to the extent of the miserliness and these things cost money and his ancestors have never taught to squander his hard earned profit even on his personal comforts. He actively participated in the religious festivals and activities of the village and used to donate things quite liberally according to his standard as he considered these donations to be investment as they gave him publicity and help in maintaining his image of a religious and pious man. As Banwari had to tell lies and commit other small sins in his daily business so he took the help of the local priest of the temple, who was also actually a business man in the garb of a priest as he had also inherited the priesthood from his ancestors. Priest was getting richer day by day by playing on the superstitious nature of the villagers, including Banwari while Banwari was thriving by playing on the ignorance of the villagers. So on one hand while these two were thriving day by day by visibly doing nothing while on the other had the peasants, even after sweating, toiling, labouring whole day in their fields were finding it hard even to procure two meals a day for their family.

 

Balu Blackia is Dead Author : Dr. K.S. Kang

 

Balu Blackia is Dead

Author; Dr. K.S. Kang

The news Balu blackia is dead spread throughout the town like a wild fire. Blackia was not his surname as people in smaller towns are rarely called by their surnames nor he acquired that name due to the colour of his skin as he was quite fair. He got this suffix after his name due to his involvement in black marketing of goods on every available opportunity throughout his life. There was no dearth of opportunities for black marketing in this country be it famine, drought, epidemic, pandemic, earthquake, floods and war. So he was popularly or notoriously known as Blackia even to the children of the neighbouring towns also. As it was a profitable activity, though illegal, so he made a good property in the form of land and a nice house in the town. Though these people followed one way of worship or the other as prescribed by the society in which they were born but to most of them Money was their only God and wealth their only religion. This was a similarity in almost every black marketer that united them. It was strange and even miraculous that even children of the town knew he was a black marketer, which is a criminal offence under law yet people do not remember him going to jail, police station or even court for a single day of his life. Though everybody well knew about his illegal activities yet Police and other Law Enforcing Authorities were short sighted so much that he was invisible to them perhaps due to his regular and punctual habit of greasing the palms of the authorities. As he was a member of human society so everybody came to meet his son to his house to condole his death. Daily there was a continuous stream of people going in and coming out of his house, the only people who did not come to condole his death were people of his own trade who were perhaps rejoicing his demise in their dens and secondly they could not take risk of coming into public place for the fear of being spotted by the police authorities.

Struggle for Safety Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

 

Struggle for Safety

Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

Moni and Soni could not forget that day through out their life when they encountered their first danger in life. They reached an area of the town when due to some occurrence or event or misunderstanding some people turned against them and decided to teach them a lesson. Both of them became aware of impending danger in time so they took off before the affronted party could send their men to teach them a lesson. Moni and Soni had not hoped to outwit or outdistance their rivals as they were local people well versed with the local terrain. But a procession celebrating some religious festival came to their rescue as they joined it and covered some distance when crossing the road they saw a bus that they boarded. As the bus was crowded so they could only get place on the roof of the bus. After the bus moved a couple of kilometres they came across Raja Saheb, with his black stiff upright moustache, coming from the opposite side in his vintage 1968 model Mercedes car. Recognizing each other Raja Saheb waved his hand at Moni and Soni sitting on the bus top and they also replied in glee. But then it occurred to them that they might be spotted so they left the bus and took a jungle path.

After walking on the jungle path for a kilometre they came across a graveyard. All the time they were keeping an eye behind to ensure that they are not followed. Now they had to cross the graveyard and as the darkness of the evening was setting in they decided to cross the yard. As they entered Soni advised Moni to walk around the graves and not over it as they would get blessings and wishes of the dead people that might help them in this escape though it would take them longer time. However they succeeded in crossing the graveyard and they came to the river bank that was covered by dense trees. Here they took a branch of a tree and pounded it on the ground before taking next step as they had been told that there could be snakes or scorpion near the river bank. Soon they reached a culvert that helped them to cross the river as the water in the river that day was only knee deep. After crossing the river and walking for another kilometre on the Jungle Path they reached the highway. After walking for another kilometre as they took the left turn the lights of the colony where they lived filled them with hope of success. Perhaps the wishes and blessings of dead people have helped them in this escape as the people after them came upto the bus and even after that for some distance but they returned back when they could not find Soni and Moni as they had taken longer time than expected in the grave yard by walking around the graved rather than over them. They heaved a sigh of relief as they entered the gates of the colony and jumped with joy as if they have won some battle.

My Interests Author Dr. K.S. Kang

 

My Interests

Author: Dr. K.S.Kang

I was quite impressed by people having balanced personality, having an ideal blend of physical, intellectual, and spiritual strength. They followed the dictum of Right Time, Right Dress for Right Occasion. Their life was systematically divided into well compartmentalized slots of reading, listening and playing music, physical exercise and playing games. A man gets a human life after a lot of waiting, turbulence and troubles so he should utilize it for the general benefit of humanity by rising above the narrow confines of me, myself and my family. Being educated at a military biased educational institution I comprehended the significance of a good turn out and well dressed in appropriate clothes quite early in life. Dress code was prescribed for every occasion in the school whether it was PT time, or games time or the studies. There were three dresses that were to be changed daily for PT, Games, Classes and Evening dress if the night suit was not included. In the morning and evening the dress prescribed was white half sleeves shirt or T-shirt, white shorts or pants with white socks and white canvas shoes in Summers and a grey pull over was added during the winters.

As it was a military biased institution whose primary aim was to provide officer material to Armed Forces by preparing young boys for admission into National Defence Academy so the school uniform prescribed for classes the uniform of Desert Combat Corps consisting of Half sleeves Khakhi Shirt with shoulder flaps and pocket caps, Khakhi Shorts in Summers and Khakhi Pants in Winters with provision of wearing belt, and black leather Oxford type shoes with blue stockings that covered almost whole of your shins. Added to it was a olive Green beret cap or Pugree for sikh students with School logo in steel and an orange Heckle.

There was also dress code for evening too that comprised of White full sleeves shirt, Pants with black leather shoes and school tie and added to it was a navy blue Tweed coat in winters and grey worsted pant in winters. Besides there was different dress code for Wednesdays and Saturdays that comprised of Blue Shirt full sleeves, Khakhi Pants, Black leather shoes, school tie in Summers and navy blue Tweed coat and worsted pants in the winters.

As a student of literature I developed the habit of reading classics in the long summer vacations after the Tenth class and Twelfth Class exams. As the summers were intense and scorching in the part of the country where I lived so it was nearly impossible to go out in the summer vacations during the day. As I was son of faculty member so I had an additional benefit and privilege of getting books from the school library that was quite well stocked with English classics atleast. So taking benefit of this privilege I read authors ranging from Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens to Arthur Mclean, Harold Robbins, James Hadley Chase, Carlolyn O’Keene’s Nancy Drew Series, Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven Society and of course Hardy boys series. Habit of reading has become by life long habit and I hope I will retain it till the last phase of my life. During school days I not only read English classics but I went through Russian classics as well like Tolstoys’s War and Peace, Dostovesky’s Crime and Punishment, Maxm Gorky’s Autobiography in three volumes and his great work The Mother and the short stories of Anton Chekhov. Here I would like to mention that I was not interested in reading newspapers and magazines as much as in reading classics mostly stories and novels.

My other interest, besides literature is music. Those were the days of Gramophone and circular black records. The credit of drawing me towards Ghazals and serious film music goes to my sister who used to get good marks as she was quite studious so she prevailed over her parents to buy a HMV stereo music system with a few records of Ghazals and classic film music. As a result of this I grew interested in reading some of the finest poetry of Hindi and Urdu classic authors like Harivansh Rai Bachhan, Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi and Amrita Preetam. As I was born in a Sikh family whose holy book Guru Granth Sahib was composed in Indian classical music system of Ragas. So I wanted to get a glimpse of right forms of different Ragas. As I was trying to find somebody who can take me to the world of Indian classical music I came into contact with my Head of Department and Vice Principal of M.P. Government P.G.College Chittorgarh Dr. S.S.Shrotriya who drew me into an organization named SPIC-MACAY whose aim was to preserve and introduce classical music and culture among the youth of this nation by organizing concerts of artists in the campus of educational institutions. As a result of which I had soul elevating life time experience of listening to stalwarts of classical music both vocal as well as instrumental like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Dagar Brothers, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Shiv Sharma and Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and many more. As I wanted to go through scriptures of Sikhism so I learnt Punjabi or Gurumukhi script, though I do not have any official and formal qualification in it. But this gave me opportunity to come across the stalwarts of Punjabi Literature like Waris Shah, Nanak Singh, Jaswant Singh Kanwal, Bhupendra whose poems I have translated into English and many more.

Studying in a residential public school, though I was a Day Scholar as my father was a staff member of the school, I got immense opportunities of playing many modern games both indoor as well as outdoor. I learnt playing games like Cricket, Football, Hockey, Basketball, Badminton, Baseball, and Tennis in outdoor activities and Table-Tennis, Chess, Billiards, Carom, Chinese Checkers and the like in the indoor activities. Still I regret that I could not learn playing Volley ball though it is a quite popular game in Indian scenario. In fact the facilities for games were so ample in the school that it spoiled me like a person who cannot decide what to take and what to leave at a sumptuous feast. The facilities for games were so many that I was unable to concentrate on any one game. The result was that I could not excel in any one. My experience and my advise to the youngsters is to concentrate on one game only as the competition has increased manifold if they want to achieve anything in this field in their life. I would also like to suggest that choose individual games as it is easier and more convenient to plan your training and schedule in individual games than in team games as it is nearly impossible to find ten equally motivated and like minded individuals, who are equally committed to make a team. With age I do not claim to be as active on the playfield as during the young age but I enjoy watching live games on Television a lot and now my workout is nearly reduced to walk and play minor indoor games only meant to maintain my fitness as much as I can and as long as I can. So these were a few interests that led me to enjoy my life in the same way as the spices lead a person to eat a dish