Too many thoughts all at once

In the blink of an eye, the truth seemed to dawn on me. The variegated nature of
a life led so far in perfect harmony with the external world. I speak, ofcourse,
about myself. But where do I start? Let me see now....let me start at the
beginning.

I always thought that Indians have an uncontrolable urge to be in front.
Figuratively and literally as well, if you might have observed while waiting at
a traffic signal, every single driver endeavours to squeeze in the small space,
just a few feet ahead, and in doing so, satisfies his/her urge to get ahead. Of
what you may ask? The perfect beauty of it lies in the fact that he/she is
inching forward for the sake of being in front of the person behind. Penny wise
and pound foolish is all I can say.

My mind races. And I am faced by my mother who gives me my first lesson in
getting ahead. "Make sure you sit in the first row in class. Otherwise, you will
not be able to hear what the teacher says and she will not be able to see you."
And sitting right in front was an honour that our teacher used to confer on the
bright alecs of the class.

We also have an urge to defy. The way historians have glorified the concept of
civil disobedience in our struggle for independence has had a profound impact on
our society. It has become a norm rather than a last resort and the last time I
defied anything, it felt really good. But that also brings me to the problem of
concensus-building in a democracy where every individual has a mind of his own.
It is a marvel that we manage to agree on anything at all! And to lead such a
diverse group of people is in itself an achievement, one that I give due credit
for, to the leaders of our country.

On the question of beliefs, I just realised how tied-down we are in our own
superstitions. It is a paranoia that has been handed to us as a legacy. I blame
it on our lack of education. How else can one explain the importance of Thursday
over Monday or Tuesday? And what is it with Tuesdays and Saturdays anyway? I was
born on a Saturday, have always enjoyed my Saturdays, have never been jinxed,
cursed, hexed because I cut my nails or hair or shaved on a Tuesday. The
dividing line between the literate and the educated is becoming clearer now. And
why can't we defy this legacy of ours?

We also have an urge to revere. From making temples for film stars to honouring
PhDs. with the highest office of our country, we do it all. From blind faith in
the multitude of gurus to heinous massacre of hundreds on the basis of religion,
we have seen it all. I have always wondered if I could make a Hindu angry by
saying that I mistook him for a Muslim. I wonder if, even a small statement
like, "you look so much like a muslim friend of mine" to a Hindu would offend
him. Deep inside, it probably would because if we look closely, there is a look
that many of us endeavour to maintain that identifies us with the flock. It is a
basic instinct that makes us form communities. And whether it be the vermilion
on our foreheads or the goatees or even modification in our bodies, all of it
seeks to provide identity and allegience to a community. We are probably too
afraid to be just as we are.

We also lack discipline. That is probably, without doubt, the greatest regret of
this country. We can never follow lanes while driving. We can never keep our
trains running on time. We always take the other person's time for granted. No
wall in the city is spared from dogs and men alike.

But what we do not realise is that discipline is so strongly related to our
freedom. Once we lose discipline, we lose a bit of freedom as well. Because we
are not disciplined in our adherence to traffic rules, we lose the freedom of
managing our time and angrily condemn the government for not making wider roads
and enforcing traffic rules. Because we seek to make every erect wall in the
city a urinal, we lose the freedom of taking a stroll in the city on foot
without drinking in draughts of ammonia.

Finally, though our Prime Minister has said that we are the largest democracy
and a responsible nuclear power we are also one of the slowest and most
lethargic nations and all for our own idiosyncracies. Again, I must say, it is a
marvel that we have reached thus far at all. Hats off to Hind!

Touched by an Angel

Truthfully speaking, I do not know when he came and went. It was almost as if it was destined to be. I became firm friends with John Donald Hunlang Khongjee.

Standard V. Khongjee gets alphabetically sorted before Koch and so his roll number was one before mine. And in the term exams, he'd sit before me. And we'd check our answers. We had a weird method of communication which only he and I could practise. We did not devise a code or sign-language. It was as simple as, "Johnny! Question 5. Trick?". A nod and I'd know we both got it right otherwise we rechecked. I cannot even call it cogging just that we felt so powerful, almost supernatural at being able to check our answers in that way. We'd come out of the exam hall and feel so proud.

Johnny had two dots on his head. I do not know what you call them but they are the circular bald spots that everyone has and when you cut your hair real short, they stick out prominently. It is a Khasi saying that people with two dots are very naughty and one of his real childhood exploits was that he had kicked sister Aloitious when not allowed to meet his sister in St. Mary's Montessori school where he started his school life. He would break into a fit of laughter and note that he was wearing Naughtboy shoes from Bata.

Standard VI. Johnny and I could not sit together because we could not help giggling in class. But everything was so funny and every person seemed like a character out of Enid Blyton. Our favourite was Moon Face from The Magic Faraway Tree. I once said to him, "We suffer from imagination John". And he had said, "I hate the way you sum up things in one sentence like that".

Mrs. Jenneth Lyngdoh was our class teacher and John and I looked up to her a lot. Mrs. Lyngdoh was calm and composed and very-very good at explaining fractions and made us maintain a small book for gentlemen called "Little things that matter much". Johnny and I really took our notes very seriously and almost always found faults with others, specially Manav Sehgal.

Sandard VII. Anita Das' class and the influence of Synjuklang Rynjah, a real clown but one Johnny and I had to take in as a close friend because Synjuk was, without doubt, the only person who was mad enough to be taken in. And we did not have to accept him or initiate him or any such thing. It just happened and neither John's nor my Piscean intuition said anyting. Ofcourse, we had our own language that ranged from Mod-mod, mango ripe, Kong Dil and so many more phrases that defined a complete situation, person and place. Synjuk would start something like, "Rupert was being very mod-mod" to which John would say, "You are always persecuting poor Rupert" to which both Synjuk and I would say, "John, don't be a Kong Dil".

Johnny and I loved science class. Our teacher till we graduated out of school was Mrs. Gopalakrishnan. We called her Gopala, Gopu and what not but John and I competed fiercely to get the highest in science in class.

Standard VIII. Mrs. Neogi's class. John was verily the star of Chemistry and how I envied him because all the bonds and equations and concepts were just so easy for him. Mrs. Mowhead (we also called her Moronhead) would call on "John Donald" for every difficult question. I can never forget class 8 because Johnny and I discovered the love for computers at the same time. And so when the winter approached, we decided to take the CAT (Computer Awareness Test) and Miss. Passah, our computer teacher helped us along. That is when we decided that we wanted to be engineers.

Standard IX. Mrs. Krishnakali Sen's class. And she was our Chemistry teacher too. And Johnny outshone us all in Chemistry. Between Chemistry, Biology and Computers, Johnny and I did not have much time to fall in love with anyone else.

Standard X. Interschool quiz competition and Johnny outwits Radhika Naidu from Pine Mount. We were ecstatic and Johnny gets teased for the whole year with Nightmare Naidu. John also played the role of the father of the family in the play entitled 'Godmother'. National Science seminar and quiz competition. Johnny and I get selecetd to represent Meghalaya in quiz and extempore' and we also wanted very badly to take part in the software development competition.

We did not know when ICSE was over and when we found ourselves in college attending class XI and XII. Throughout school, Johnny and I shared roll numbers next to each other. Throughout school from V to X, I saw Johnny everyday and saw him off every evening when we walked down from Edmund's onto Don Bosco Square. We grew up, but felt just the same always...in Moon Face land!

Very soon, Johnny and I completed class XII and both started engineering school. He went to Fr. Agnel college of Eng. in Vashi in Navi Mumbai. From there he graduated. In the meantime, I went to BITS, Pilani and made a whole new group of friends. Johnny and I kept in touch. So did Synjuk. Very soon we graduated and I came down to Bangalore, Synjuk went to Delhi with his degree in Hotel Management. Johnny started working in Mumbai. Initially he had problems with finding a good job and we spoke quite often working out ways of getting him a better job.

And then one fine day, he left me to meet God.

Someday I shall catch up with you too Johnny. Till then I shall continue to serve here knowing that I have been touched by an angel. Thank you for being my guiding light.