I'm dwelling on a subject that has asked more questions to myself and for which answers are yet to be forthcoming and there's a turbulence in my mind. Am I getting a clearer idea of the flaws in my personality? Are those connected thoughts the reason for the turbulence?
I presume them to be so. Let me take the case of the 'water diviner' and my classmate, Ramanujan with whom I'd a wonderful evening a couple of days back. A simple soul and a thorough gentleman, who'd admitted sometime in the course of that evening that he was thrilled to be at my house and even though I was in good spirits by then(?), I was humbled by the earnestness in his voice. I mean what was in me that called for such unbridled emotions?
The perspective would be set right when I say that Ramanujan and I weren't the best of friends in school, simply because each of us moved in a different circle of friends. We must have hardly exchanged a few sentences - as conversation - during our five and a half years of stay at school(He'd actually joined the school a year ahead of me). The difference between us - as I see it now with a remarkable clarity - was that while I was brash and reckoned that everything around was happening because of me, he was calm and quiet, who went about his stuff in a dignified manner. And since I came from a family, known to the school authorities was a factor that helped, I must hasten to add that I never ever took advantage of it.
Probably, yet another opportunity has come our way to interact more closely after having frittered it away while at school!
Tailpiece.
I'm reminded of an incident that had happened quite a while back. Subbu Iyer, another class mate of mine and I'd spent an afternoon together on board my ship. Sometime in the course of that afternoon, Subbu said and I quote, "Hey, Rajeev I'd always thought of you to be a different guy" and went on to narrate an incident that had happened when we're in class VIII. The Maths teacher had all of us standing for not having done the homework that he'd given us the previous day and he moved around the class with his offensive looking cane, trying to find out the reasons as to why we'd done the unthinkable. As he reached me, he'd asked me, "Rajeev, what happened? Don't repeat it or I'll tell your grandfather" and let me off. Subbu Iyer, was among the others who were devastated by sir's cane that day. To his impressionable mind, it was blasphemous that I was let off for the same crime that he'd committed simply because of the accident of my birth. And he was validating my persona years later!?
Subbu is no more amid us and must be reading this yarn as I punch them in.
I presume them to be so. Let me take the case of the 'water diviner' and my classmate, Ramanujan with whom I'd a wonderful evening a couple of days back. A simple soul and a thorough gentleman, who'd admitted sometime in the course of that evening that he was thrilled to be at my house and even though I was in good spirits by then(?), I was humbled by the earnestness in his voice. I mean what was in me that called for such unbridled emotions?
The perspective would be set right when I say that Ramanujan and I weren't the best of friends in school, simply because each of us moved in a different circle of friends. We must have hardly exchanged a few sentences - as conversation - during our five and a half years of stay at school(He'd actually joined the school a year ahead of me). The difference between us - as I see it now with a remarkable clarity - was that while I was brash and reckoned that everything around was happening because of me, he was calm and quiet, who went about his stuff in a dignified manner. And since I came from a family, known to the school authorities was a factor that helped, I must hasten to add that I never ever took advantage of it.
Probably, yet another opportunity has come our way to interact more closely after having frittered it away while at school!
Tailpiece.
I'm reminded of an incident that had happened quite a while back. Subbu Iyer, another class mate of mine and I'd spent an afternoon together on board my ship. Sometime in the course of that afternoon, Subbu said and I quote, "Hey, Rajeev I'd always thought of you to be a different guy" and went on to narrate an incident that had happened when we're in class VIII. The Maths teacher had all of us standing for not having done the homework that he'd given us the previous day and he moved around the class with his offensive looking cane, trying to find out the reasons as to why we'd done the unthinkable. As he reached me, he'd asked me, "Rajeev, what happened? Don't repeat it or I'll tell your grandfather" and let me off. Subbu Iyer, was among the others who were devastated by sir's cane that day. To his impressionable mind, it was blasphemous that I was let off for the same crime that he'd committed simply because of the accident of my birth. And he was validating my persona years later!?
Subbu is no more amid us and must be reading this yarn as I punch them in.
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