Humanist
Whats the time by your watch sir? The voice was a faint but filled with confidence. I turned around, and expecting to see a some well dressed man in the corridors of my hostel. Instead I found him, the bookseller, dressed in an old 'lungi' and a crumpled shirt. His routine was almost exact. Every sunday by 10.00am he would set up his books for display outside our common room. He would chat with students from various disciplines about the books he had and even show some of the contents. It was not an uncommon sight to see him show the individual chapters in different books and talk intelligently about them. He would promptly close the shop by 12.00 and leave to be back the next week. He always sold only books by then out of print Mir publishers from USSR. His frail looking body, thick eye glasses, stubble, grey hair and crumpled clothes could not hide the aura of a mystic around him. There were many legends about him...that he was a former PhD student at IITK. He was always there promptly on every sunday to sell his books which I always suspected could not help him earn his living. One day I joined the usual chat on the sidelines of his business. It was a time when Mayawati had just constituted a jumbo ministry of 150 ministers a day ago. I was surprised at his political awareness when he made fun of her ministry saying every tree, rock and stray dog had a minister.
He would very nonchalantly say he had no family. No mother. No father. No wife. No brother or sister. No son. He was alone he would say. I wondered often how he would feel..afterall whatever stoic exterior we may display, we all are vulnerable at some point and seek comfort in trusting arms. He would proudly show us that the lungi he wore was only 10 Rs and he bought it in Vijayawada(in AP). He refused to be carried in a rickshaw; would always put his books in them and walk beside it. Another day, he, me and another friend discussed about the philosophy of learning. I was amazed at his depth when he told us that learning was a gift. It had to be given to anyone willing to recieve it. Therefore the books, the storehouse of knowledge had to be freely availiable and to make that happen Govt. must subsidise them if neccessary. He spoke of good old days when USSR was still around and the Mir publishers would publish books. He would criticize capitalist way of learning, where essentially it is the rich who have access to best books. At this point, my friend made asked him if he was a communist. His answer was plain and simple...Sir,Iam not a communist or a capitalist. All I care for is the welfare of everyone. All I want is a misery free life with two square meals for everyone. Iam a humanist.
At that time I saw in him a wisdom of a vedic sage who had declared long back,
sarve santu sukhinah;sarve santu niramaya,
sarve bhadrani pashyantu, maa kaschid dhukhabhagbhavet.
[May everyone be happy, may everyone be free of worries;
May everyone see security in their lives, may none be unhappy]
In this age of political correctness and contrivied vocabularies, need a few more people like him who are the change they want to see in the world. The lasting image I have of this humanist is his frail figure on the KGP railway platform, dressed in his blue checkered lungi he bought in vijayawada for 10 Rs, reading a newspaper through his thick glasses with the three bags overflowing with books lay beside him.
I never asked his name. To me he is always a humanist.
@
He would very nonchalantly say he had no family. No mother. No father. No wife. No brother or sister. No son. He was alone he would say. I wondered often how he would feel..afterall whatever stoic exterior we may display, we all are vulnerable at some point and seek comfort in trusting arms. He would proudly show us that the lungi he wore was only 10 Rs and he bought it in Vijayawada(in AP). He refused to be carried in a rickshaw; would always put his books in them and walk beside it. Another day, he, me and another friend discussed about the philosophy of learning. I was amazed at his depth when he told us that learning was a gift. It had to be given to anyone willing to recieve it. Therefore the books, the storehouse of knowledge had to be freely availiable and to make that happen Govt. must subsidise them if neccessary. He spoke of good old days when USSR was still around and the Mir publishers would publish books. He would criticize capitalist way of learning, where essentially it is the rich who have access to best books. At this point, my friend made asked him if he was a communist. His answer was plain and simple...Sir,Iam not a communist or a capitalist. All I care for is the welfare of everyone. All I want is a misery free life with two square meals for everyone. Iam a humanist.
At that time I saw in him a wisdom of a vedic sage who had declared long back,
sarve santu sukhinah;sarve santu niramaya,
sarve bhadrani pashyantu, maa kaschid dhukhabhagbhavet.
[May everyone be happy, may everyone be free of worries;
May everyone see security in their lives, may none be unhappy]
In this age of political correctness and contrivied vocabularies, need a few more people like him who are the change they want to see in the world. The lasting image I have of this humanist is his frail figure on the KGP railway platform, dressed in his blue checkered lungi he bought in vijayawada for 10 Rs, reading a newspaper through his thick glasses with the three bags overflowing with books lay beside him.
I never asked his name. To me he is always a humanist.
@
posted by atma_tripta at 3:28 PM
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