Apathy

*************************************************************************************************************

 

 coimbatore.olx.in

Goat is reputed to be the epitome of apathy. 

I haven't seen it since I grew up as a strict vegetarian South Indian brahmin, but my friend told me of a goat browse contentedly while his mate is slaughtered beside him with he awaiting his turn next. Thus are goats known for their sublime cool and are used as becalming companions to fidgety racehorses in their stables. 

Dogs are not like that...I have seen stray dogs bay and run for their lives at the sight of the dog-catcher with his lasso in his silent hand and his dog-trap with a couple of dogs caged behind him...too many pronouns there, sorry...

Crows crowd around their dead friend and caw caw caw in a cacophonous farewell...it is a rare sight though. Crows seem to live forever unless stoned by naughty catapults or caught straddling live wires. 

Human beings run the gamut of apathy from the goat to the clever crow.  

The last question in the viva that Yudhistir had to face with Yaksha was:

"What is the greatest mystery on earth?"

And he rightly answers:

"Men see all their companions, relatives and friends die but try to run away from death in utter futility"

 

 rexburgyoga.com

Lord Buddha was camping under a tree on the outskirts of a village when a woman approaches him with her dead baby and says:

"Lord! You are the supreme soul...kindly bring my child back to life"

Buddha tells her that he would gladly do it as soon as she fetches a handful of mustard from a house in the village in which none of their loved ones ever died.

I saw in my childhood in our village many summer fires in which huts used to get burned down in a row. And the chaps living at one end of the row take it cool till the hut next but one to theirs catches fire, when they would hurriedly throw their couple of bags of food stuff and a few utensils out. And wait for the fire to consume their huts...which would come up back in a couple of weeks with government money (half of which suffered transmission losses).

This reminds me of the First and Second World Wars. The Allied victory in the prolonged WWI was Pyrrhic.  Germany started rearming herself to the teeth under Hitler within a couple of decades. And as Hitler started nibbling and gobbling his neighbors, first the Sudetenland, next Austria, next Czechoslovakia...Britain under Chamberlain acted like that hut-dweller hoping the fire would douse itself. Ultimately when Poland was attacked, Chamberlain had to step down making place for Churchill.

I award myself 50% in social apathy. I was a sleeping member of the Teachers Association at IIT KGP paying my subscription regularly and attending GBMs for tea and biscuits but otherwise not participating in the jindabad-murdabad-gherao-boycott-stuff. 

But reaping their benefits alright.

But while we were living in Qrs C1-97 in the Dandakaranya area of the campus, our Qrs shared an electric pole with three others...Prof DKA on our right, Prof AB on our left and Prof RKM in front of us. This damn pole had a rather loose connection with the transmission line from which it drew power. So, whenever a wind blew which happened once a month on the average, the connection got snapped and all our four houses would go dark.

I was a demon for power and used to drag my scooter and fly to the Electrical Complaints Section and wake up the chaps. They would linger and take their time but would arrive on two pushbikes conjoined by a ladder. My three neighbors would not even peep out when the power outages but would emerge in their pajamas as soon as the ladder arrived and start participating in the pep-talk. And get back into their homes when the repair was done.

Everyone was happy.

But when we moved to the apartment block (B-140), my wife would get telephone calls from Mrs RKM that they miss gps badly whenever power blows out.

And my wife would retort that the eight blockmates of B-140 are very happy now...they don't have to take turns and fight for power and water...gps will do it like Bill the Lizard in Alice:

************************************************************************************************************