The Little Knowledge

Yesterday night,I watched a movie "Saaransh" ..it was a touchy movie with Anupam Kher's awesome portrayal of a berieved father and Rohini Hattangadi's role of a believing religious mother. All the highs and lows of living, of searching a purpose for life and of redefining it.....It wz a complex movie and the interplay of emotions...of a big bad world and dying without hope or dying for hope......Perturbed I slept and woke up with a heavy head in the morning..

But then Mornings are always morning..... I moved ahead with living.


As I walked in the midday sun across the campus,wandering about for some odd routinework....I happened to cross the School in our campus(I don't even remember its name, its a primary school I guess...) The school had just got over and the area was swarming with little kids and grown up daddies and Mommies of all kinds....!!


The world around was busy packing bags, taking rides to home,parents screaming at the little ones,the little ones looking for frendz and the routine exchange of glances on way back home.....

Amidst all the routine excitement of reaching home and spirited anticipation of the upcoming summer holidays as I moved forward, slightly oblivious of the world which I was a part of....
I saw two little kiddies sitting on a raised platform on the other side of the road..The platform overlooked the trees and thicket which formed a part of a church campus on the other side.
The young man was about 6 years old and the lady must have been about 5.....or smthing close. Utterly oblivious of the buzz and excitement around ,the two of them sat right there in the middle of this big bad world and dangled their little feet lustily as the narrow sunbeams from the thicket played on their legs,unknowingly becoming a part of their game, tym out or call it kiddy rumination...Their composure amazed me a little and I decided to spy on them for a while...I lit up a cigarette and just stood close by caring not to disturb them with my grown up presence.

The rickshaw wala screamed at them from a distance, asking them to board their way back home but the duo had planned a little private time out, maybe for some thoughtful consideration or maybe they were just so keen to watch the world around them....They did not pay any attention to the disturbing, taking-home element..!!

As they watched the trees and the little flowers in the bushes, a cat lunged forward from the thicket at a distance little knowing that it was going to be a part of this little big world.Little knowing that it had caused a stir in curious little heads not far away and that its identity was to be debated by two little grown up mortals....
It all began there, it so happened that by some quirk it was a striped cat, a yellow with some faded brown stripes...just yellow and striped enough to create a conviction in a manly little head.
The little man stood up and announced....."There goes a little Tiger Cub.." and turned around to watch the lady acknowledge his little wisdom, for she was the only one around...
The lady was definitely curious about the creature but appeared unimpressed by the proclamation. But how could it be...!!

The cat had already vanished in the bushes...p'haps alarmed by the little controversy.....

The little man sat down patiently beside the lady and in a manly voice said again..."Ya, I tell you it was a little Tiger Cub...." but yet again the doubting female tried to put up her point just managing....."No, it was quite small and how can a Tiger be around and unnoticed...?". The little lady's Ignorance was too much to handle and the man decided to take up the moral responsibility of clearing her of her mean little doubt.After all he was there to represent his clan and the bounden duty of his clan to "educate" women whatever it may take..... He said again patiently... quite patient for now they were a man and a lady......"See, you never have seen no Tiger Cub so you dont know ......but I Knoweth the truth for I hv seen it all...". The man was hard pressed to drive the point into a little feminine head.....and after all once you have a "good" teacher, certainly the truth can't elude you for long.

His arguements began to sound convincing, his knowledge began to take giant leaps..and the hapless cat began to turn into a tiger cub and the little lady into a woman....!!!
After some tym the lady looked at the man mesmerized.....his eyes and the animated gestures already casting a spell on her.
Not 10 minutes had passed and her disbelief at his conjecture had introverted into a self pity at her own ignorance...As she watched him expound on the Tigers, their cubs...difference between cats and Tigers...and how a tiger could wander in the environs unnoticed.....she was obviously getting deeper into the folds of his immense knowledge.A vast bog of sublime knowledge from which recovery or redemption was impossible..That knowledge would be her life and that knowledge her belief. I could look into her hazel eyes,the utter admiration for a superior knowledge...The reverence of incomprehension.....!!

The man turned more and more animated and lively as he watched the hypnotising effect of his knowledge and the lady turned all the more calm,still and composed..She had just a hint of smile that comes with acknowledging something revered and the feeling of pleasant submission ...p'haps into LOVE......
The man,finally convinced of his achievement sat there to have a look at his subject and the knowledge was all over her body language...she was so calm,she was already a woman..

As he sat beside her, she snuggled close to him....She had known the Little knowledge(of a cat being a Tiger...err....of a Tiger being Tiger..!!), She had known Love and there she sat to acknowledge it in front of the whole divine creation...the trees..the little-flower bushes...the striped cat..the bustling surroundings. The summer Holidays would begin and she would have a hope, a pleasant wait, a little Knowledge......!!!!


Epilogue: As the rickshaw wala screamed at them for the last time and as the dreamy lady snuggled close,the responsible man stood up, took his bag, hit the dreamy little feminine head with his bag and asked her to come along..The lady in obvious pain stood up gracefully without an iota of complaint and watched his man yearningly as he moved ahead..She followed to the rickshaw as the sweating rickshaw wala hollered at her. The Ignorant rickshaw wala,hardly did he know the power of love...she walked at her dreamy pace...innocent little feminine steps........!!

:)
;)