SOME EXCEPTIONAL HUMAN BEINGS
last modified 20100410
If the “intelligentsia” in Thiruvananthapuram had their way I was to have been buried alive way back in the mid seventies; and that was more than thirty-five years back. Then how come I survived ?
No; I alone could never have done it. It was all kind courtesy some exceptional human beings - the milk of human kindness has not dried up completely .
There is one incident I remember vividly I would want to mention here in the above connection – just to take the weight off my heart for I may not get another chance to express my deep sense of gratitude.
It happened some time in the mid seventies. I was branded a demented imbecile. I became notorious, almost every one knew about me and my “qualifications” - word of mouth propaganda, identical to what is going on now, but with more sinister connotations for in those days I was a callow youth and not the viceman of today with a hide thicker that of a rhino!
I do not think any one in my then situation could have successfully carried on any intellectual pursuits even if that person is an intellectual giant – and I never had any such illusions about my intellectual caliber myself ( but i am afraid some of my teachers of the pre-medical school era had, and that was what gave me confidence - for example if chinnan mash flatters you, of course in his own special way, there has to be something in you! ). I was not able to clear my exams and was going through the ordeal time and again, insulted and jeered at. It was then that I met this person A ( no names for I dont want to embarrass anyone ) as the examiner at a university examination.
I had attended the classes of A and lazy bums like me used to keep as low a profile as possible in A's classes in an effort to avoid being the next target of the questions being shot at the students. A was supposed to be a very stern task master - in sharp contrast to a colleague B who was all smiles. During the practical examinations as long as A is any where in the vicinity I would make an unbreakable sort of connection between my eye and the microscope till the area was clear there by ensuring that it is B who assesses my work. And B, all smiles, will give you twelve and a half marks, the minimum required for a pass; no more, no less. One of those days during a so called average examination when A almost physically removed me from the microscope and said “let me have a look” my heart fell. But the next moment i was finding it difficult to believe my ears when i heard the comment “ that is a beautiful hanging drop preparation” and I was suitably rewarded - my jaw dropped a few centimeters.
That was during the regular classes and times had changed drastically since then. I was in for a bigger and even greater surprise later on at the university examination.
At the viva voce A asked me a few rather tricky questions and could be I probably had given satisfactory answers. Out came the very audible comment, a sort of soliloquy, “what nonsense are these people talking” and I was awarded good marks. That was a real revolutionary way of treating me, some one who since those student days has been branded “intellectually impaired” by the powers that be, the self styled “intelligentsia” of medical college thiruvananthapuram.
I was so touched that just the memory of that incident brings tears into my eyes even today, after all those long eventful years and i simply cannot help it – I think that gives an indirect indication of the mental torment or rather torture that I was going through during those days and how much those kind words mattered to me.
It is not the physical pain that is most difficult to put up with; it is the mental torment, the agony inside you that you suffer and that none other than you can visualise.
Some souls, it looks, can peep deep into your heart! Otherwise there was no need for A to have vocalized those soothing words - i later on found out that for once I was getting good marks as well!
And this was happening when many of the members of the faculty were finding pleasure battering me, crude comments and gestures and what not; others were non-committal and did not want to have any thing to do with me if possible. But this person stood out, discarded the prevalent theory strenuously built up by cunning professional colleagues and boldly acted in contravention!
Going all out and being kind to a nobody like me; but why?
Incidentally A happens to belong to an all together different race; Could that be the reason why ?
By the way I was in ernakulam a number of times during February 2010 about my writ appeal and on one of those days it was once I got out of the train in ernakulam that I realised that there was a strike and no vehicles were plying on the road. I did not have any alternative and started hopping on my crutches towards the high court about three or four kms from the railway station. It was then that an airconditioned limousine pulled up close to me and offered me a lift.
I am very fussy about getting into some one else's vehicle; but this time it was a khalsa who was asking me and so without any hesitation I hopped in and the gentleman dropped me at the high court.
I just do not know what would have happened if he had not extended a helping hand. I was new to the crutches and had already developed blisters on my palms. when he picked me up I had hardly covered one km and was finding the hopping very taxing; and I had at least another two kms to go! Incidentally it was not that this gentleman was passing by; he had seen me from far off, changed course, turned round and came back and picked me up to drop me at my destination!
I feel bad about one thing - It is possible that the sardarji could have misunderstood my motives. I was fumbling with my crutches knowing not where to put it and it was he who placed them in the back seat; I was hesitating to get in, worried if it will offend him if I open the door. And in deed when I got out at the high court he had to come over to the opposite side to close the door for I was bothered I might offend him by banging the door too loudly.
The fact of the matter is that my experience, strictly limited to that with keralites, is that people are very fussy when it comes to their motor vehicle. They can take offence at your even touching it accidentally. The noveau riche here see their vehicle as a status symbol and not as a contraption that is supposed to be moving on the public road. I think many of these characters here, given a chance, would have carried their limousines on their heads rather than drive it – you see, they have paid so much money for it!
Coming back to the old question why was it that it was a sikh, of all people, and not one of the many keralites who offered me a lift ?
You know something ? ( that is from a movie I watched on the national channel last friday – I like ajay devgan and he is my favourite actor, now a days at least ) The current thinking amongst the neuroscientists is that we are what we are and we cannot help ourselves – it is all pre-programmed! And could be, unknown to us as yet, there is a way our life experiences and the lessons learnt get imprinted in the genes and get transmitted! ( of course, mine will never get transmitted, rest assured; i am most particular about that one aspect.)
Incidentally evolutionary anthropologists have recently unearthed skeletal remains that they say proves that in the not so very remote past humans used to butcher and eat specifically the children of their enemy tribes - the way the bones were chopped clearly indicated that the meat was meant to be cooked and eaten. Could it be possible that eating the meat of children by their forefathers is the reason for the high “newtonian IQ” of some of the “intelligentsia” like the ones I have to deal with almost daily over here in thiruvananthapuram?
By the way another fact I have learnt from the neuroscientists recently is that convenitonal IQ ( as it is assessed presently) has hardly anything to do with academic success ! That is good news - there is still hope for those who are not the direct descendants of real cannibals.
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