March Moods

I suffer from this not very common and incurable disease of I have all the time and patience in the world syndrome. I am brainwashed. Don’t you use any advanced search options to find the culprits as I accept I am the only one. I am in such a state for past sometime now that it seems as time doesn’t exist inside my room. I have not moved out of this room for almost a week now and I am not tired of it at all. I am in meditative mood. Reading is my favourite time pass here in Ahmadabad. Clouds of pollution are not as thick as they were before two years still I prefer to stay inside.

For a change I read short stories for quite some time now. Few of them are very old and few even older. From Aristotle to Gogol and Panchtantras to Pushkin they try to preach me things. Funny. They say they know where the sheep are and who the wolves are. I don’t understand these words as I have not learned anything from those stories that had been taught to me during my initial stay on this planet. Since my childhood days, way back in 1007 B.C., I have seen government agencies bombarding this kind of advertisements on Indian Television. They say that mother’s milk and grand mother’s stories are most important for a child’s growth. Even my childish day dreaming can not allow me to imagine I can have either of them now. I don't read those stories for the reasons they describe. They just help me to kill time. That is all.

These stories never impressed me much though I understand their importance in a child’s psychological growth. These are not just fables or ancient stories. These are the initial steps to prepare a child for his first lessons in social and so called moral conditioning. For centuries they have successfully used this shrewd ways to corrupt beautiful minds. Cultures world over have tried this tactics down the centuries to organize and form more and more obedient societies. And for that they need obedient children. These stories just help them to prepare more hypocrites. But rebels have left their trace in all ages.

I have just finished one other not so short story – The Coffee-House of Surat by Leo Tolstoy. It is in no way related to whatever I just have written but the story was not very interesting. Neither the presentation was impressive. I have read and heard thousands of stories, especially of this kind of, since my childhood days (remember my age) and I knew from the very beginning that what could be the end of it or what the moral of the story is. India is the motherland of this kind of stories and may be that is why Leo chooses Surat - a small port city in western part of India as the location for his story.

The story begins with a conversation between a Persian theologian and his slave, and they discuss about existence of god. This one line description is enough for my very old and wise friends. By now you must have understood how the Chinaman, the student of Confucius, answered all the questions asked by visitors of the café including Italian priest that evening. Or if not than you can download this little short story with few other stories here. It is only less than a half MB and takes few seconds to finish download.

And now. First time in last year or so I have not smoked for the stretch of full ten days. My laziness and meditative reading mood prevented me to go anywhere outside. I have no cigarettes here and am in no mood to go out and purchase. Only once daily I go out of this room and my house and that is when I go for my early morning exercise. Thirty minutes from now I will be riding my bicycle on the shimmering roads of Ahmadabad. My main motive behind all this exercise is not the exercise actually. I am not very health conscious. I am not health conscious at all. I just enjoy dew, mist, fog and fresh air.

Here in Ahmadabad I miss them a lot, morning mist and fog of Phursatgunj, but I don’t miss my old companion. My cigarettes. I have decided not to smoke too regularly for sometime in near future. At least until colors of life celebration ends on the 20box. Unlike it happened in past visits to home my health has not improved this time even though I have quit smoking. I also exercise in the evening. May be I have consumed a lot of energy in reading late nights. My body is not that youthful and not jives anymore. May be I have consumed my body. After all I am not a Youngman any more. I am 3014.