Cartoon courtesy Ramki of Chennai
‘With so much load on your head, you are able to laugh and laugh so loud?’, commented Dr.Rao, , who stays a few houses away, when we met last evening. I was sad to see the man who had repaired the legs of several patients had to use a stick to walk a few yards!
‘What else can I do?’, I asked, ‘laughing gives more support than weeping’
I had observed the power of laughing as a boy. There was a Rama Iyer, who worked as water carrier at the Olavakkode Railway junction. He was tall, seen bare chested mostly.
‘Mama, chiriyinkol – please laugh’. We, children used to request and instantly he used to produce a powerful, happy laugh for a few seconds. Probably, he had a minor nervous disorder but whatever it be, his action used to make us happy. Since then, I have never seen a man who produces laugh on request, instantly, happily.
Invariably, I don’t laugh, except while alone, without a reason. I cut a joke at a lady who passed by, raising her sari much above her ankles, on seeing a small patch of water on her way. Her action reminded me another lady who pulled her sari -end away from me to ensure that it didn’t touch me if moved by the wind. There was no need for that as she was a meter away and unless there was a storm, the possibility of what she feared was not there! Over cautious was she, I thought.
Had the present ‘madi’ lady asked me the reason for my laugh, I would have told her, ‘that much height is not required. A few centimeters above the feet would have been sufficient!’
‘You come back from America to observe the distance of the sari-hike of women passing through your front?’
She would have certainly asked. As I had more valid reasons for coming back to my country, I would have explained those to her and by that time, the wet patch on the road would have gone dry and she could have gone back home without disturbing her sari.
Dr. Reddy was perhaps right in using the word, ‘so loud’ . The
lady’ s action didn’t merit a big laugh, perhaps. Yes, I feel now that I should not have laughed loud.
once the laugh breaks out, it doesn’t go by any scale.
That is the advantage of laughing. But, alas, all can’t laugh.
Laughing is good for all, especially old people. The Lord of death will hesitate to come near. He wants people to weep. It hurts his ego, if his prospective victims laugh instead of weeping!
‘Are, Shivudu, navuthunAvA, naeanu evaru thelusa? You know who I’m, laughing useless fellow?’ He will ask me and also answer himself his query, while I continue laughing at him. ‘Yemadharma Raju- I’m Yemadharma raja!’
‘if you are a raja, you should come in a chariot or riding a horse!’
He will have no reply. But while, going back home, he will muse and wonder why he was provided a dirty looking dark buffaloe and not a majestic bull or a smart bird like Garuda.
My words will ring in his years for quite sometime. That is how we should be. Point out the poverty of the Lord of Death.
Death is not everything. It is something, that is all.
Im not interested in ‘something’.