Most of the times, trying to do some good just ends with you getting kicked pretty hard on your backside for your troubles. My trick, to get past each day in life, is to display an unnatural level of indifference to the happenings around me.
My aversion to the ‘do-good nature’, hammered into so many of us, right from the start, is the probable result of me spending too much time watching crappy soaps along with my mom, dealing with back-stabbing best friends, villainous in-laws, cheating house-wives and the trials and tribulations of the one who chooses to walk the righteous path…..you get my drift. So I usually keep to myself in situations that, perhaps, could have gone better for the third party involved, with my timely intervention. I have lost a good number of friends this way, but yet I choose indifference over any other option that arises in such a situation.
Even offering condolences at the misfortunes of others, usually ends up me getting somehow into the thick of things. The trouble with doing good, is that pretty soon you end up regretting ever getting yourself into it.
I remember, a few years back I had attended my maternal grandfather’s funeral. Now let me tell you, there are only two emotions that I seem able to convey, convincingly; excitement and hunger (and I’m pretty sure, that’s not even an emotion), and either of ‘em don’t have much use in a funeral, my mom actually took me aside and gave me some money to grab a bite to eat, the look I tried to pass off as remorse probably resembled my dinner-time face a little too much.
The general scenario was that there were a lot of people weeping and others speaking in hushed tones. Now, I wasn’t that close to my granddad, crying because he passed away, for me, would seem downright fake; the guy was 97 years old for heaven’s sake.
I walked around, eavesdropping on everyone; mostly they seemed more concerned about getting back to their monotonous routine and seemed rather irked at my grandfather, as if holding him responsible for his untimely death disrupting their perfect lives.
“What a bunch of hypocrites” I though to myself as I made my way over to where the pyre was kept, my grandpa’s body, resting on it’s last earthly bed.
I stood by his head, and bowed slightly and searched his face.
He seemed so…..peaceful, a look of beautiful serenity etched on his face, his head had slightly angled off on the log and it seemed to me, that it was a very uncomfortable position to be lying in, I gently lifted his head and placed it back properly.
If it weren’t for the absence of a gentle rise and fall of his chest, he looked as though he were fast asleep.
A smile came to my lips; I at least had done something genuinely nice for him.
A sharp cry brought me back to the scene; someone was yelling at me, I looked around to see my uncle making his way towards me, looking furious.
“Did you touch the body?” he demanded, upon reaching me.
“Yeah, I just lifted him a bit………..” I started but my uncle cut me off with a loud swear and spun around to the crowd, announcing to the gathering in a loud cry, “Has this boy no manners, he has defiled the body”, if you have ever seen a wild-fire spreading it’s flames and liking up dry grass and consuming everything in it’s part, you’ll get an accurate idea of how this declaration of my supposed blasphemy, was taken up by the crowd.
A chant rose up, and repeated itself all around the somber occasion making it, if possible, even grimmer.
“He has defiled the body”
“He has defiled the body”
“He has defiled the body”
“Defiled the body??????” I thought to myself, “gimme a break, this is the 21st century”
A meeting was called amongst the heads of the family and the priests, and while they talked over what course of action to take to nullify my sin, I walked past the crowd, my head down, fully aware of the looks of disgust that I was subject to by those around me.
I managed to find a safe retreat from those glaring eyes, locking myself in my sister’s car.
Finally, after what seemed like eternity, the great ones had come to a conclusion. The rites would be performed on the body again to cleanse it of my touch.
This declaration brought an almost audible groan from the crowd, and everyone looked around trying to find me and give me an earful, but the car was a pretty neat hiding place.
Somehow I managed to get through the ceremony and back home, without anymore incidents.
That night before falling asleep, I looked out of the window and into the open sky, the moon resting among the clouds, a pearly orb in the ocean of mist.
“Thank you” I said and went back to sleep.
My grandfather had left me a parting wisdom.
It never pays to be good……..
My aversion to the ‘do-good nature’, hammered into so many of us, right from the start, is the probable result of me spending too much time watching crappy soaps along with my mom, dealing with back-stabbing best friends, villainous in-laws, cheating house-wives and the trials and tribulations of the one who chooses to walk the righteous path…..you get my drift. So I usually keep to myself in situations that, perhaps, could have gone better for the third party involved, with my timely intervention. I have lost a good number of friends this way, but yet I choose indifference over any other option that arises in such a situation.
Even offering condolences at the misfortunes of others, usually ends up me getting somehow into the thick of things. The trouble with doing good, is that pretty soon you end up regretting ever getting yourself into it.
I remember, a few years back I had attended my maternal grandfather’s funeral. Now let me tell you, there are only two emotions that I seem able to convey, convincingly; excitement and hunger (and I’m pretty sure, that’s not even an emotion), and either of ‘em don’t have much use in a funeral, my mom actually took me aside and gave me some money to grab a bite to eat, the look I tried to pass off as remorse probably resembled my dinner-time face a little too much.
The general scenario was that there were a lot of people weeping and others speaking in hushed tones. Now, I wasn’t that close to my granddad, crying because he passed away, for me, would seem downright fake; the guy was 97 years old for heaven’s sake.
I walked around, eavesdropping on everyone; mostly they seemed more concerned about getting back to their monotonous routine and seemed rather irked at my grandfather, as if holding him responsible for his untimely death disrupting their perfect lives.
“What a bunch of hypocrites” I though to myself as I made my way over to where the pyre was kept, my grandpa’s body, resting on it’s last earthly bed.
I stood by his head, and bowed slightly and searched his face.
He seemed so…..peaceful, a look of beautiful serenity etched on his face, his head had slightly angled off on the log and it seemed to me, that it was a very uncomfortable position to be lying in, I gently lifted his head and placed it back properly.
If it weren’t for the absence of a gentle rise and fall of his chest, he looked as though he were fast asleep.
A smile came to my lips; I at least had done something genuinely nice for him.
A sharp cry brought me back to the scene; someone was yelling at me, I looked around to see my uncle making his way towards me, looking furious.
“Did you touch the body?” he demanded, upon reaching me.
“Yeah, I just lifted him a bit………..” I started but my uncle cut me off with a loud swear and spun around to the crowd, announcing to the gathering in a loud cry, “Has this boy no manners, he has defiled the body”, if you have ever seen a wild-fire spreading it’s flames and liking up dry grass and consuming everything in it’s part, you’ll get an accurate idea of how this declaration of my supposed blasphemy, was taken up by the crowd.
A chant rose up, and repeated itself all around the somber occasion making it, if possible, even grimmer.
“He has defiled the body”
“He has defiled the body”
“He has defiled the body”
“Defiled the body??????” I thought to myself, “gimme a break, this is the 21st century”
A meeting was called amongst the heads of the family and the priests, and while they talked over what course of action to take to nullify my sin, I walked past the crowd, my head down, fully aware of the looks of disgust that I was subject to by those around me.
I managed to find a safe retreat from those glaring eyes, locking myself in my sister’s car.
Finally, after what seemed like eternity, the great ones had come to a conclusion. The rites would be performed on the body again to cleanse it of my touch.
This declaration brought an almost audible groan from the crowd, and everyone looked around trying to find me and give me an earful, but the car was a pretty neat hiding place.
Somehow I managed to get through the ceremony and back home, without anymore incidents.
That night before falling asleep, I looked out of the window and into the open sky, the moon resting among the clouds, a pearly orb in the ocean of mist.
“Thank you” I said and went back to sleep.
My grandfather had left me a parting wisdom.
It never pays to be good……..
No comments:
Post a Comment