NARAYANI BAI

In my mind's eye a Temple, like a cloud

Slowly surmounting some invidious hill,

Rose out of darkness:

-William Wordsworth

A dear friend's daughter is getting married in a few days' time.. Ever since the city and the venue were finalised, he has been unceasingly coaxing and cajoling me to attend the marriage. It is in a town in Rajasthan..

Rajasthan as we all know is  famous for its majestic forts, intricately carved temples and decorated havelis. These are part of the architectural heritage not only of Rajasthan but of India.  And then we have the Thar Desert, the world's 17th largest desert, and the world's 9th largest subtropical desert extending into Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana and also across into Pakistan

The idea of travelling to Rajasthan always triggers a flood of memories. I have spent my early childhood there.  Indeed nothing brings  more joy  to us than the  memories of our childhood. Of course one cannot remember everything of one's childhood but certain events and memories are stored in the sub-conscious mind and flash quite frequently  through mind's eye.

Free association is a technique used in psychoanalysis (and also in psychodynamic theory) which was originally devised by Sigmund Freud out of the hypnotic method of his mentor and colleague, Josef Breuer. It is the mental process by which one word or image may spontaneously suggest another without any necessary logical connection.

In a flash I am transported to a small remote town in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, now famous world over for its educational institutions including the institute of technology and science. I remember the hot dry climate, the vast stretches of sand, the sand dunes,  the thinly populated residential area in the middle and the sand storms blowing across very frequently turning the sky to a dismal gray. I remember the frequent invasion of locusts, painting the sky yellow and my mom warning me  to stay indoors till this vast swarm withdrew.

I remember the bungalow in which we lived, its high ceilings with fans hanging to very long iron pipes. I remember a huge painting of Chanakya and Chandragupt  mounted on one of the walls in the drawing room. (A replica of this painting can be seen in Birla Mandir, New Delhi even today). I remember some of the defaced walls of my house that I sketched and scribbled on, to discover a painter in me. I remember the huge Kikar  tree (Vachellia nilotica ,widely known by the taxonomic synonym Acacia nilotica) in our front yard. I remember the Shivganga, a manmade canal flowing through a vast manicured garden with an idol of Shiva in the midstream, a fountain perennially gushing from its thick swathe of hair in a parabola. In hind sight this vast water-body makes the meaning of oasis more clear to me now than ever. I remember the shrubs laden with juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet or sour wild berry along the vast stretches, in the neighborhood and across the sand mounds, everywhere.

And I remember Narayanibai.

In those languid summer afternoons when everyone was indoors, when the sun would show the fiercest, when my mother would go to sleep or rest, when the neighbourhood was all quiet, she would tip toe to my house and softly call me out to come out to play and to join her for picking the berry.

Narayanibai was the daughter of the chowkidar of the Club situated across the road. I recall his name was Tulsi. Of him I only remember his tall frame and huge shrub like moustache nearly covering his whole face. It was difficult to figure out if he was smiling or scowling. Narayanibai was thinly built , rather tall for all  her 5/6 years or so but I can't exactly recall how old she was. She was not so fair. She would sport two neatly woven braids in her richly oiled hair and wide kajal in her eyes. I was either a bit younger  or her age. But by her demeanour she appeared to have taken me in her wings as a junior and almost extend a mother-like care and nurturing. Once when I fell sick preventing me from our outdoor activity, she would regularly come quietly and enquire about me from my mother and go away disappointed.

Day after day we would wander on the warm sands unmindful of the sun fiercely beating us down. Some time we would go to the children's corner of the Club and play on the slide, the swing or see-saw or a small merry go-round. At another time we would  just walk on the somewhat moist sand on the bank of Shivganga. She taught me to make castle of sands on the banks of Shivganga where the sand was a bit moist, by piling sand on one of the foot, tapping it firmly in place to set and slowly withdrawing the foot to leave a hollow underneath. Soon we would collect some wild shrub or twigs to create a garden and roads for our castle. How many castles would we have built together!

'Come along. We go picking berry'. Many a time I would refuse to go with her. And then how she would cajole me when I spurned her offer!. She would lure me by the best offer she could conceive of:  'I will eat the raw ones and I will give you the ripe ones'. (kachhe kachhe ham khayenge, pakke pakke tum khana!). Where did this devotion come from?

No. She couldn’t have heard of the story of Shabari and her 'pre-tasted' berries.

In my  sunset years, as the fading light leaves  the softness of a diffused twilight when the sun is below the horizon, I still wander aimlessly  on the shores of life. I still dream and I still search for sweet berries of peace, of contentment and of fulfillment. I still make castles in the sand, only to be swept away every time by the fierce waves of mundane living….

And I still remember Narayanibai.

WAITING TO HAPPEN

International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies defines a disaster as a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins.

Reworking differently on the definition by IFRC it can be said that a disaster is a sudden calamitous event that can have career threatening consequences for a lead functionary, blunting his own discretion thereby rendering him incapable of using his own resources. It invariably has command and control origins.

The Principal of the College where I began my career as a lecturer had called a meeting. The college had just completed the construction of  a hostel for its students. It was a long standing demand and a genuine need for  the students who would come to this well reputed college from far and wide. The principal was very charged up. He began by impressing upon

all the members of the faculty present, the short and long term benefits of this acquisition and how he wanted to mark its inauguration by hosting a gala event. There will be the usual speeches by distinguished invitees, a cultural extravaganza by the students and the concluding speech by the chief guest. He looked in my direction and told me to conduct the proceedings of the programme.  I was taken aback as I was one of the newest inductees  to the college staff and in a manner of speaking had never been tested for any of my capabilities in anchoring any event in the college.  How could he shortlist me then? The stern imploring in his voice was inescapable. So I started preparing my script for the event in the right earnest.

The D day arrived.

 As I arrived at the venue I found it was already filled up with a very large number of people who either had passed out of the college or parents of those who were studying currently. And there were members of the society who came to witness the event. The entry was free except that selected people had been invited specially. The program went off very well and I

thought I did a fairly good job in anchoring the show. But then the disaster nearly happened.

While coming to the venue I had seen a separate enclosure where arrangement for tea and snacks had been made. I was not aware that there were invitations for special invitees to tea. As the function concluded and I was making my final and kind of dramatic remarks on the occasion full of my 'great performance' I thought I will extend the invitation to tea for all those five to six thousand people! Right then a girl performer, perhaps exhausted and dehydrated fainted. A few of the faculty and fellow students rushed to her. The principal came rushing and while overseeing her revival told me to conclude quickly. I accordingly announced the closure of the event.

Later when I told the principal that I was about to make a general announcement for  tea, extending invitation to everyone present, he looked aghast. They had made no such arrangements for such a huge gathering. What chaos would have followed if I had announced it! 

A very very high security VVIP of a friendly neighboring country was the guest of honour at one of the convocations of Vishwabharati at Shantiniketan. Besides the recipients of their degrees, this event attracts a very large number of ex-ashramites and many members of general public to this much awaited annual event.

The police and administrative arrangements during the visit of such VVIPs is the utmost priority for the State government. Maximum attention is paid to all aspects of security, logistics and other related arrangements. There are usually no deviations from the fixed drill which for such occasions has been tried, tested and laid on ground over years.  Senior most officers available are in attendance both for protocol as well as to oversee the arrangements.

As per schedule the VVIP would arrive around 11 or so from Kolkata by a chopper and will be taken to Uttarayan, the complex where Rabindranath Tagore lived and where arrangement for her brief stopover and meeting with the University officials and other dignitaries would be made. She would have light refreshments and would leave for Amra Kunj for the official function.

Everything was going as per schedule and as planned. At the appointed hour she emerged from the building to board her car for Amra Kunj. It was oppressively hot as the mid-day sun was beating us down.

And then this happened.

As the VVIP was about to board her car, to everyone’s  shock and horror and against all the rules of VVIP security,  I heard a voice suggesting to her that she walk the distance from Uttarayan to Amra Kunj and she will enjoy the walk! It was the senior most bureaucrat representing the Government who protocol-wise had the privilege of audience with the VVIP earlier.

And it would be quite some distance from Uttarayan to Amra Kunj.

Everyone present there was petrified at the prospect of the VVIP walking on the road in utter disregard to the principles of VVIP security. Such move had no clearance from anywhere. And district police had not catered for such eventuality in their police arrangements. Even before anyone could intervene or remonstrate, the VVIP started to walk leaving her car and convoy behind. Except for hurriedly providing a cover by a posse of uniformed policemen drawn from route lining, there was nothing much that could be done. While the VVIP was perspiring profusely on that hot and humid morning, the entire district administration had already broken in to a cold sweat.

At the end of what appeared to be an eternity, it turned out to be an uneventful walk but in total disregard to all the tenets of VVIP security. Later when we remonstrated with this senior officer, his only explanation was that he had no idea of distance between the two locations!

Daniel Kahneman is an Israeli-American psychologist, notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, as well as behavioral economics, for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel in Economic Sciences  In 2011, his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, which summarizes much of his research, was published and became a best seller.

Kahneman has demonstrated that ignorance increases confidence levels !