THE STORY OF AN INDIAN

Mohandas was born in Chennai, India. When he was a baby he found lot of faces around him smiling and trying to please him. He used to be carried in so many hands that he felt like a little kangaroo. By the time he learnt to walk, he found his mother trying to teach him alphabets, identify fruits, flowers, vegetables and animals though he wondered what he was going to do with that in that age. Sometime later he learnt to speak a few words. Soon after that, to his surprise, he was taken to a place away from his familiar surroundings to a large house, later to be called as school, to meet an elderly lady. He was just 2-1/2 at that time. The lady asked him his name, which he was himself not able to pronounce properly, some names of fruits,vegetables and things which his mother had already taught him. Then the lady’s attention turned towards his parents to whom she was asking a lot of questions. This happened at 5 to 6 times at other places too. Then finally his parents seemed to sigh with relief when he was admitted to something called as a school. He later learnt that his parents had undergone terrible physical and mental stress to get him admitted to school. The first day he was separated from mother, Mohandas cried a lot that his tears would not dry up for a long time. However, there were lots of things to play, lot of children of his age and some adults who went about their work unmindful of any of the children present. Gradually he came to understand that for sometime every day he has to spend in that place, which he got used to ultimately. Slowly and steadily he grew up and he began to realize that he has to learn a lot of weird looking images called alphabets each of which had a separate sound and some songs called as rhymes. Back home from school, he was given food, a nap after which he could play with some children from the neighborhood. He became familiar with all of them. He found that each of them had different things; one had a tricycle which could horn; another had an instrument on which he could play a few rhymes and another had a wrist watch which showed some numbers. His own parents had bought him some toys which he would share with others. He asked his parents for one or more things which the others possessed. His father and mother would tell him to play with what he had, sometimes softly, sometimes kindly and sometimes sternly. Mohandas would get adamant at times and throw tantrums. Beyond school and such play he found that television was on at home. He got attracted to it as it showed a lot of variety in various colours. Sometimes he found animated characters, sometimes real animals, other times real humans performing various actions. In fact the actions were so many and varied that he used to get confused. Many times he found something called as a cinema on televisions where humans behaved like animals and danced like lights.

As years rolled by he found that his school bag was getting heavier and heavier year after year. The amount of materials he needed to study also went on increasing. He had in school, every year, three big examinations and many tests in which he was expected to write as many papers what he learned in the classes. He was coming to school in a school-bus and he saw some of his classmates come in cars. He also found some classmates come walking but nobody seemed to pay any attention to them. Those who came in cars were always popular among other students, teachers and officials. They also bought some gadgets, such as mobile phones, i-pods, to school to show. In addition to that they would tell Mohandas that they possessed this and that at home which he believed. He failed to understand why his parents would not buy him those things. Even if they would it would be one of those things in a very long time, by which time those boys had something superior. He was taught that our country is not rich and that all Indian are equal. But he found things contrary to that. He realized that money is worshiped and the moneyed people are accorded special treatment. He found that his father went to his office in the morning and returned late in the evening and his mother worked all through the day, but they could not get him what he wanted. He also saw that his neighbour uncle who did not work so hard and skipped office on some days, but had lot of things he could buy for his family. On his query, his mother told him that the uncle works for a Government Department where not only he is paid handsomely, but gets lots of money other that salary. He was not able to understand why.

The school also offered him nothing other than studies for they had no playground, no after-school activities. Some students had lucky breaks and succeeded in sports, some in games, some in quiz and debate contests. The school, however, claimed credit for their achievements. As he came to higher classes he realized that the marks he scored in the examinations mattered a lot. It was immaterial whether one was gaining knowledge or not. There was competition between schools in the number of students they were able to pass out with highest marks.

Thus far continued, Mohandas could, somehow, fare well in his Xth Std. board examinations. Then the field of study branched out as Science, commerce and arts. He was told that bright students always chose science. If he missed out he could select commerce. Weak students were left to take arts stream. He was one among the few fortunate to get into science stream. But he did not realize that he has just got into lions jaws. The next two years he was told that he needed to do nothing other than study because he needed to secure a seat in a premier Institute. He was told that his future is Insured if he could get admission into one of the premier Institutes that would make him financially very well-off, that formed the basis of his status and marriage. He was well and truly into the rat race. Some of his fellow students were fortunate enough to enroll into tutorial classes that made a roaring business. Mohandas was less fortunate as his family could not afford that. He finally landed a seat in an engineering college that, though was not a premier institute, was a consolatory choice. He learnt that his parents who continued to struggle during his school days to pay the school fees, had to borrow to see through his college education. When he was nearing the end of his engineering degree, he was told that an MBA degree would increase his value manyfold. So the race continued. Here again he missed premier institute as the number of seats available is a fraction of the total number of candidates attempted. The amount of money earned by these institutes as prospectus cost and registration fees is stupendous. Mohandas joined a secondary institute that increased his family burden for two more years.

After studies Mohandas could land a job immediately in a private firm, one of the few fortunate ones though. Though the starting pay was decent he was made to work very hard, 12 hours a day, all of 6 days in the week. Mohandas found his parents a relived lot though exhausted physically, morally and mentally.

Mohandas was an officer by then, but he found life a struggle. He had an option to migrate to USA or to some other Western Country or to stay put in India and work his way up. Since he could not burden his family more, he chose the latter. He found, however, life very hard in this Country. There were pressures in the office due to prejudices and favoritism within. He was told to be ambitious but that had a price to pay. He found he was on an obstacle course and there was nothing he could do other than continue running. He found that the Government took away a large part of his salary in the form of Income-tax, professional tax, property tax, road tax, vehicle tax, service tax, sales tax, excise duty and electricity charges. All these, he was supposed to pay to the Government in advance. But the government took its own time to pay back the excess collected, sometimes years. He learnt that he has to pay bribe to some persons in the Government in order to get his own money back. Having paid for all these government taxes he has not got its worth. The roads are bad, full of holes and craters. There were no pavements on the roads. Due to the bad condition of the roads, he incurred heavy losses in the maintenance of his vehicle but that is not considered by the authorities. Every day there were power shutdowns for long hours and worse he cannot question the concerned departments. Every day he found one or more of the agencies striking work that put the common men to untold miseries and personal losses, but not a word of protest raised. On employment, most of the Private sector took advantage of its employees and extracted work by hanging a ‘Democles sword’ over them whereas the Government sector bred inefficiency due to the job security cover given to its employees. Farmers and poor people were appeased and pampered as vote banks by unscrupulous politicians.

He found that all around him there was filth, stench but people carried on. People were polluting the environment, contrary to what they studied in schools, but had no regard for it. They had no road sense and no regard for others life and property except their own. Corruption affected the common man. There were riches and poverty co-existing everywhere in the form of mansions, high rise buildings neighbouring slums but nothing wrong was felt in that disparity. Caste & regional clashes were common but politicians reveled in propagating ‘Unity in Diversity’ theory. It seemed that people were waiting for a spark to ignite to spread violence and mayhem. Courts existed, so were the laws, but people could not get justice. In any case, the courts had so much of backlog of cases that justice took a lifetime. Trains, buses, shopping malls, roads, airports and all the public places were teeming with millions of people. He found long and serpentine queues at bus stations, train booking counters, at Govt. bill counters, at banks, at schools during admissions, at embassies, and there seemed to be no escape for its people. Government scarcely addressed the problems facing this country. There were scores of reasons such as variety of languages, castes, creeds, religions, dialects etc. inflaming hatred among the people. The Country seemed to be perennially at war with its neighbours like Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka that left its citizens with no peace. With all these the country had to cope up with terrorist strikes at frequent intervals.

And then when Mohandas gets married and becomes a father the cycle of life starts once again.

Why is life a constant struggle in this Country?. If not for the spiritual philosophy and the spiritual path, life in this country is not worth living. Is all these suffering a pre-requisite to launch into a spiritual path?. Is this a ‘hell on earth” region.