Fables and Parables

FABLES AND PARABLES

MORAL ENTERTAINERS

From time immemorial men and women everywhere have been fascinated by stories narrated to them in their childhood by their grannies or other elders. To cater to children’s inquisitive faculty these stories presented life-like situations sprinkled with fantasy, adventure and the heroics of the main protagonists. In addition, they carried explicit or implicit lessons in wisdom and morality.

Besides some supernatural characters like fairies, demons, gnomes and elves, the stories included animals and birds behaving like human beings with their typical as well as peculiar fads and foibles and actions and reactions.

Various interesting tales, mostly mystical or mythological in form and content, culled from ancient Indian epics and other literature, especially the famous Sanskrit classics, the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesha have entertained umpteen generations of children as well as adults since their inception. Such stories in which the main actors were beasts and birds and which also imparted some valuable moral lessons were classified as fables and parables.

The Panchatantra, meaning five systems or parts, was authored by the renowned sage Pandit Vishnu Sharma around 200 B.C., while the Hitopadesha (good instructions) was written by the astute scholar, Narayan Pandit in about 1300 A.D. The Hitopadesha drew heavily from the Panchatantra.

The Panchatantra comprised five books: on loss of friends; the winning of friends; crows and owls; loss of gains; and ill-conceived actions, whereas the Hitopdesha had four chapters dealing with acquisition of friends and cognate matters. Both the books had beasts and birds as the main characters in their fables, which were written in the story-within-a-story format.

Garbled and spiced versions of these tales went to many foreign countries, at first orally through itinerant mendicants, gypsies and other travellers and later through translations into different languages via Iran, where a Persian version of the Panchatantra first reached. But, thereby hangs a tale.

In about 570 A.D., Emperor Naushervan of Iran (formerly Persia) heard of an Indian “elixir” made from certain rare roots, herbs and leaves, which ensured for human beings a holistically healthy longevity and which could even delude death and revive the dead. He, therefore, sent his chief physician, Borzuy to India to obtain at any cost this magic potion as also its ingredients and the recipe used for its preparation. He gave him enormous funds and gifts and other help.

The Iranian physician scouted for the “elixir” extensively and intensively in India, but failed to find it and was therefore sorely dejected at the sad prospect of returning to his Emperor empty handed. Coincidentally, however, he was led to a saint who explained to him that the “elixir” had been described metaphorically as it was the distinguished book, the Panchatantra and its tales as roots, herbs and leaves, the juices and essence of which, if absorbed intelligently, acted like a veritable elixir for living a long, healthy and successful life. It also put life of crucial knowledge and profound wisdom into those who were almost dead being devoid of sparkling intellectual faculties.

After obtaining the necessary permission, the physician had the book translated into Persian and gave it the title, “Kalia- O- Damna”.When he presented it to his Emperor, the latter was charmed and delighted with its wise and witty contents. The book then reached many other countries through translations of translations with the addition of some twists and turns, both intended and unintended. The book has already been translated and commented upon in more than fifty non-Indian languages.

There is also another interesting story about the origin of the Panchatantra. An Indian king needed to train his three simple-minded sons as competent future rulers. He, therefore, entrusted them to the highly learned octogenarian sage, Vishnu Sharma, who succeeded in equipping them within six months with the requisite knowledge and wisdom. At the very outset, as the princes were apathetic to studies, the ingenious teacher employed the medium of the absorbing Panchatantra tales invested with useful instruction, which makes a man’s life richer, happier and fuller.

The Panchatantra and the Hitopadesha parables as also the Jataka Tales, which relate to the life of Lord Buddha and his previous incarnations, led to adoptions and adaptations or inspired creations of fables in the same mould in several other countries in their own languages with the legendary Aesop emerging as the most prolific fabulist in the West.

Many religious preachers take support of the fables and parables referred to above to keep the audience interest riveted to their discourses.

Interestingly, the idea of stories with animals as central players led to the creation, in the twentieth century, of cartoons and animation films, particularly by Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with Tom and Jerry. Now, of course there is a plethora of animated cartoon films with a variety of animals as the lead players. With vastly improved technology, some movies even show artificially created animals speaking their dialogues like human beings with their lip movements in sync with the dubbed sound. Such contrived characters now also act along with real human actors as in films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the Stuart Little series.

The story-within-a- story format was also adopted in the book, “The Arabian Nights” aka “The Thousand and One Nights”, which inter alia describes the well-known tales of  Sindbad the Sailor, Alladin’s Lamp and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. This world- famous book also has a story about its origin.

A women-hater Sultan used to marry a girl one day and had her killed the next day. When Shehrzad aka Scheherazade, an intelligent young girl married him, she narrated to him deeply interesting stories so skillfully that she would stop at a crucial suspenseful juncture, as the tele-serials do, to arouse his curiosity and continue the story the next night. The Sultan was duly beguiled and thus listened to more stories for nearly a thousand nights. Pleased, he let Shehrzad live as his queen and never again harmed any woman. The stories in this entrancing book too are studded with both direct and indirect lessons.

The time-tested instructions contained in the above- mentioned Indian classics and their foreign counterparts are also valid in our present troubled times, in which trickery, roguery and thuggery are spreading their tentacles, while virtuous and humane conduct is shrinking and withdrawing its limbs like the proverbial tortoise. In such a vicious

environment is it not wise to be on one’s guard against enemies in the guise of friends, just to cite one example?

Mythology in Hindi Cinema

When Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, now better known as Dadasaheb Phalke (1890-1944), the father of Indian cinema, made his and India’s first silent feature film, Raja Harishchandra (1913), he thereby introduced the genre of mythological cinema in our country. Having been inspired by the English movie, The Life of Christ, which he keenly watched, he decided to bring to the silver screen Indian gods and goddesses and the stories associated with them.
Mythology has been a popular source of entertainment and instruction for Indian masses for millennia as besides the Ramlila and the Krishnalila which have been enacted year after year are numerous religious functions, festivals and rituals rooted in mythology. This keeps the interest of people in mythology interminably alive so that even today many films and teleserials continue to be based on it.
Drama incorporating interesting episodes has repeatedly been drawn from not only great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the Puranas, but also world’s other literature including the popular Arabic and Persian classics, which too embody magic, supernatural elements or miracles and instances of divine intervention.
The cardinal premise of all such stories, which promote virtuous conduct, has been the triumph of good over evil.
The multi-talented Phalke, who was an artist, architect, photographer, playwright, printer and magician, followed his above mentioned first film with more mythological silent movies like Mohini Bhasmasur (1913), Satyavan Savitri (1914), Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janma (1919), Kalia Mardan (1922) and Bhakta Prahlad (1926) and the only talkie, Gangavataran (1937).
All these movies were replete with awesome spectacular and magical scenes supported by impressive special effects, which Phalke created successfully and which tickled the fancy of his audiences and readily won their enthusiastic approbation.
Following Phalke’s example many other Indian film producing companies also came up with a host of more mythological movies, sourced from the epics, as also many devotional films predicated on the lives of certain God-realised saints. Such movies also depicted surprising preternatural and magical elements-in both the eras of the silent movies and the talkies. Films like Hatim Tai, Sindabad the Sailor, Alladin’s Lamp and Thief of Baghdad too were made showing flying carpets, ‘Sulemani topis’ or vanishing caps, by wearing which a person became invisible and other magical innovations.
Outstanding Hollywood filmmakers who acted as role models for Indian producers and directors too had a tradition of creating films based on epics and Biblical themes right from the start of cinema. They even remade several landmark movies in the 1950s and the 1960s when their guiding axiom was that ‘’A good epic never dies, it just gets remade’’.
In India also many of our successful mythologicals were remade several times. The most popular teleserials- Ramanand Sagar’s 74- episode Ramayana and B R Chopra’s 94-episode Mahabharata, both of which retold anew the stories contained in the eponymous epics and which millions of people watched irresistibly in the late 1980s, are sterling examples of this trend.
In the 1940s when Hindi cinema was at its peak, films depicting with finesse certain episodes from the Ramayana were made. Vijay Bhatt’s Bharat Milap (1942) and Ram Rajya (1943), in both of which Prem Adib and Shobhana Samarth (Kajol’s maternal grandmother) featured as Ram and Sita, were great hits of this type.
In Ram Rajya a group of people celebrating Rama’s return to Ayodhya sing the chorus, ‘’Aaya Ram Rajya’’ with a veiled allusion tol ‘Ram Rajya’’, the term used by Gandhiji for re-establishment of a rightful rule. Incidentally, this was the only film a good part of which Gandhiji saw when he was convalescing in 1945.
Some of the other milestone mythological movies turned out by the Hindi cinema in its nearly a century long journey were Seeta (1934), Gopal Krishna (1938), Sampoorna Ramayan (1961), Jai Santoshi Maa (1975) and Har Har Mahadev (1983). In many mythologicals the former wrestler and muscleman, Dara Singh played the role of Hanuman to the amusement particularly of children as an entertaining and comically inclined superhero. The late character actor, Jeevan too appeared in a large number of films as a ‘’Narayan, Narayan’- chanting Devrishi Narad, who would appear suddenly on a scene and equally speedily disappear.
Miracles extended to films of some other genres such as Tansen (1943), a historical-musical in which leaves sprout and flowers blossom on plants in a garden as Tansen (K L Saigal) sings raga Bahar and again musical instruments in Akbar’s court start playing by themselves as the legendary singer renders a dhrupad. In Amar, Akbar, Anthony (1977) two beams of light travel from the eyes of the statue of Sai Baba in the Shirdi Temple to the blinded eyes of a woman (played by Nirupa Rai) and instantly restore her vision.
Audiences anticipate and accept miraculous happenings like restoration of good health of someone terminally ill or return of vision in sightless eyes like in the example cited above. They also wish the virtuous protagonist to receive divine help in a tortuous situation and feel relaved when this actually happens.
The long - prevalent belief of various communities in our country has been that a man’s fate is predetermined by some inscrutable law of the supreme power or God who has created and is running this universe.
The Hindus and followers of other faiths of Indian origin believe in rebirth, and the casting of destiny on the basis of a man’s Karma or good and bad actions done in his previous life or lives. In his new incarnation he is again supposed to be granted some freedom and discretion to act and thereby get either credit or discredit added to his past account, as it were.
Miracles happen and prayers are answered in cinema as in life. Recall the case of Babar, who prayerfully offered to surrender his own life in exchange for his critically ill son, Humayun’s good health.
The scheme, by which such things actually take place, is ineffable and defies analysis. It is, however, generally believed that the all-merciful God relents in exceptional circumstances and bestows a grace or concession on the deserving affected or afflicted person.
While some persons may interpret this by the logic of cause and effect, the believers will devoutly regard it as a gracious grant of a divine boon.

S.H. Manto: Master Story Writer

Widely reputed as one of the best Urdu short story writers of the Indian subcontinent, Saadat Hasan Manto has evoked both admiration and denunciation – admiration for his skilfully weaving interesting though conscious-grazing brief yarns and denunciation for his uninhibited exposure of baser instincts and actions of human beings in their stark nakedness.
Besides twenty-two anthologies of short stories for which he is famous, he authored a novel (Baghair Unwan Ke), a play (Teen Auratein), essays (Manto Ke Mazameen) and the first-hand biographical anecdotes (Meena Bazaar) concerning a number of persons associated with the Hindi film industry, of which he too was a part as a script writer and a scenarist.
During a literary and journalistic career spanning two decades from the mid-1930s to the mid 1950s he also wrote a few open letters to Uncle Sam and the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru on political issues as well as a letter to his readers about his art and experiences as an author.
Born on May 11, 1912 at Sambrala in district Ludhiana (India), Saadat was initially educated at Amritsar, where his ancestors of Kashmiri origin had settled a couple of generations ago. Lacking in the right enthusiasm for education, he failed in his matriculation examination with a poor showing, surprisingly in Urdu, which was later to become his principal medium for production of prolific writings. He subsequently dropped out of a college where  also he did not do well as a student.
In the 1920s and the early 1930s Amritsar, where the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre had been perpetrated on peaceful unarmed Indian civilians in 1919, continued to be politically astir and the young Manto as a restless patriot found the nationalistically charged atmosphere acutely exciting.
He was at that time guided by Bari Alig, an erudite historian and a revolutionary who, among other things, introduced him to the Russian and the French literatures and made him successfully translate into Urdu a Victor Hugo classic. Manto also wrote a couple of short stories which were published in a Lahore magazine. In 1934 he studied for a few months at the Aligarh Muslim University and produced a few more stories.
In 1936 Manto arrived in Mumbai where he edited the Urdu film weekly, “Mussawar”. He liked Mumbai immensely as he flourished there enormously until the beginning of 1948 when he migrated to Lahore. Throughout the seven years that he spent in that important city of Pakistan till his death on January 18, 1955, he felt entirely forlorn, suffocated and unhappy.
In that last phase of his life, despite his continued prolific creativity, he experienced extreme poverty and a sharp deterioration in his health triggered by heavy intake of country liquor. He deeply regretted having moved away from his beloved Mumbai to indifferent Lahore. Indeed, for him while Mumbai was sweet, Lahore was bitter.
In Mumbai he scripted films including Kisan Kanya (1937), Apni Nagariya (1940), Naukar (1943), Ghar Ki Shobha (1944) and Eight Days (1946) and wrote stories of Jhumke (1946) and Mirza Ghalib (1954) and dialogues of Chal Chal Re Naujawan (1944) and Shikari (both 1944). In Eight Days, which was directed by the thespian Ashok Kumar himself, though credit for the direction was given to Dattaram Pai, Manto even played a role – that of a Flight Lieutenant Kripa Ram. Controversy persistently pursued and surrounded some of Manto’s writings. The three short stories titled, The Gift”, “A Wet Afternoon” and “Odour” written by him before India’s partition and two captioned “Colder Than Ice” and “The Return” scripted by him afterwards were alleged to be obscene and harmful for public morality for which reason he had to face court trials and the concomitant public censure, but he was eventually acquitted except in one case. These stories, many thought, were indecent with their too explicit scenes and descriptions.
The canvas of his stories mainly covered the intense suffering caused by the partition and in the horrific turmoil following it, the bestiality of the perpetrators of violence and sexual excesses on hapless innocent victims. His Hindu, Sikh and Muslim villains and their victims were men and women without being identified by their respective religions as the writer’s focus was on exposing the immoral, ignoble and inhuman sides of religiously unlabelled human beings.
It has been said that a novel tells a lie to tell a truth. This aphorism is equally true about all the other genres of fiction as well. Manto’s short stories, though using assumed characters and situations, do point to certain harsh truths and realities as they prevail in the world in different circumstances.
From among Manto’s partition-related short stories Toba Tek Singh has been acclaimed as the best. It takes the reader to the lunatic asylum in Lahore where the idea of transfer of its non-Muslim inmates to India and of Muslim lunatics to Pakistan, like the religion-based transfer of other mentally normal population between the two countries, is implemented.
One old lunatic, named Bishan Singh, however, refuses to be moved away and insists upon being retained in his home town Toba Tek Singh. The guards leave this harmless man alone but he later screams once and falls down dead. The story ends with the ironic comment that between the barbedwired borders of India and Pakistan is an unnamed piece of land on which lies Toba Tek Singh! Selected writings of Manto, whom Salman Rushdie described as the “master of modern Indian short story”, have been translated into English and several other languages of the world. He is the most written about Urdu prose writer. In 1987 the British T.V. made a film called Partition, which was based on his works.
Manto composed a prayer addressed to God seeking to be recalled from this world of the mortals. In a confessional vein in the course of thatprayer, he blamed himself for running away from fragrance but chasing filth , for hating the bright sun but preferring dark labyrinths, for evading modesty but being fascinated by the naked and the shameless and for abhorring sweetness but loving bitter fruit.
He also wrote his own epitaph in the words,” In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful here lies Saadat Hasan Manto and with him lie buried all the secrets and mysteries of the art of short story writing . . .Under tons of earth he lies, still wondering who between the two is the greater short-story writer: God or he”. He was evidently proud of his wit and the art of creating evocative and impact making short stories.
Manto’s surviving family, however, after due reflection, instead used the following verse of Ghalib, his most favourite Indian poet, as the epitaph on his grave:
“Ya Rab, zamaana mujhko mitaata hai kis liye? / Loh-e-jahaan pe harf-e-mukarar nahin hoon main” ( God, why does time erase my name from the tablet of the living? / I’m not one of the words that is mistakenly written twice and, on detection, removed).

ARDESHIR IRANI 
 THE FATHER OF INDIAN TALKIES 
BY B.M. MALHOTRA

Just as the sobriquet, “The Father of Indian cinema” embellished the name of Dadasaheb D.G. Phalke for the creation of his and India’s first feature film, Raja Harishchandra (1913), a similar honorific, “The Father of Indian Talkies” was bestowed upon Ardeshir M. Irani after he successfully made his and India’s first taking feature film, Alam Ara (1931).

During the nearly two-decade-long span intervening the releases of these two path-breaking and trail-blazing films, hundreds of other silent movies were made by several Indian companies, but the novelty of sound constituting dialogues, songs and background music added a new fascinating dimension to moving pictures, which people started watching with increased enthusiasm and pleasure.

Songs, which formed an integral part of talkies as in the erstwhile Parsee Theatre and other Indian regional stage plays, became very popular for both their wordings and melodious rendition by singing actors and actresses, some of whom were quite talented and well trained besides being guided by expert music composers.

The idea for creation of a talking feature film germinated from the screening in 1930 in Mumbai’s Krishna Theatre of a short talkie programme showing a Khadi Exhibition with voices and sounds and a dubbed dance by that era’s top heroine, Sulochana (real name: Ruby Meyers) from her popular silent movie, Madhuri (1928).

The idea dominated the fancy of several film making companies, which announced launching of a number of films with synchronized dialogues and songs but their particularly coveted aim and hidden agenda was to achieve the pioneering distinction of creating India’s first talking feature film

Three well-ensconced and flourishing filmmaking institutions, Madan Theatres, Krishna Film Company and Imperial Film Company too entered the arena of competition to realize the same ambition.

Imperial Film Company, guided by its owner, producer and director, Ardeshir Irani (born at Pune in December, 1886) promptly drew up a plan meticulously and went ahead in right earnest to execute it speedily and stealthily. Eventually, it succeeded in racing ahead of its two main as well as all other rivals when it released its and India’s first talkie feature film, Alam Ara at Mumbai’s Majestic Cinema on March 14, 1931.

Irani, who initially exhibited foreign films in tents and later also Indian movies in regular cinema halls, was propelled to make films by the extraordinarily successful runs, at his own theatre, Majestic, of Phalke’s silent classics, Krishna Janam (1918) and Kalia Mardan (1919).
He first set up Star Films Limited with his photographer partner, Bhogilal K.M.Dave and produced Veer Abhimanyu (1922) featuring the popular stage actress, Fatima Begum, who later became India’s first woman producer-director and whose daughter, Zubeida blossomed into a glamorous actress. Later, when the partnership broke, Irani launched his Majestic Films, followed by Royal art Studio and finally in 1926, the Imperial Film Company and churned out a surfeit of diverse movies.

While watching intently Universal’s film Showboat, Irani resolved to adapt for his first talkie the popular stage play, Alam Ara, which was written by Joseph David, the playwright of the former Parsee Theater. Naming his film also Alam Ara, he studded it with seven songs, the first of them being the well known and oft-cited W.M. Khan-rendered, “De de Khuda ke naam par pyaare, taaqat ho gar dene ki” (Give alms in the name of God, dear Sir, if you have the power to give) to the music scored by Ferozshah M. Mistri.

The other songs, which too were typical of the then prevalent Urdu-Hindi language and the style of stage vocal music, were: “Badla dilwaayega ya Rab, tu sitamgaaron se” (God! You’ll have avenged the tyrants’ cruelty), “Rootha hai aasmaan, gum ho gaya mehtab” (The sky is angry and the moon has vanished), “Teri kateeli nigaahon ne maara” (Your angular eyes have shot darts at me), “De dil ko aaram ai saaqi-e gulfaam” ( Provide relief to my heart O beautiful server of wine), “ Bhar bhar ke jam pilaaye ja” ( Give me more and more cupfuls of liquor) and “Daras bina more tarse hain nain, pyaare” (My eyes thirst for a sight of yours, my dear!).
The songs and dialogues were recorded on a single-system Tanar recorder, which necessitated a clever concealment of the sensitive apparatus away from the noise of the whirring cine-camera and sundry other sounds, including those created by running railway trains close to where the recording studio was situated. The recording was, therefore, done in the quiet hours of the night after each day’s last train had passed by. This arrangement brought a two-fold advantage to the company, which besides achieving qualitative recording could keep the progress of the project under wraps especially from its competitors.
The lead players of the film were Zubeida, the glamorous upcoming heroine and Master Vithal, the popular action star of the Marathi silent movies. They were supported by the future thespian, Prithviraj Kapoor, Jagdish Sethi, Yakub, W.M. Khan, Zillubai and L.V. Prasad, who later became a successful producer and director. Completed in five months, this 10500 feet long talkie cost rupees 40,000 and it was such a sparkling success that its tickets, officially priced at a quarter rupee, were sold for Rs five each leading thereby to the sprouting of an instant black market.

The film’s hero, Master Vithal, with his imposing physique and athletic prowess was known as India’s Douglas Fairbanks but he could not deliver his dialogues correctly and fluently because of his lack of adequate knowledge of Urdu which was the predominant language of the stage and cinema of that time. Appropriately, therefore, he was cast as a prince, who for a considerable length of the film, remained in a trance with his lips virtually sealed. Interestingly, Sharda Studio, the former employer of Master Vithal, sued him for his shifting loyalty to the Imperial Film Company for this film. He was, however, successfully defended by none other than Mohammed Ali Jinah, who was then a well known lawyer of Mumbai and later the founder of Pakistan.

In the film’s story there is a king with his two queens but without an issue. After one queen gives birth to a son, the other out of jealousy plots his death. The army chief, who refuses to join her in her nefarious scheme, is jailed and his family exiled. His daughter, Alam Ara is brought up by nomads, who years later successfully invade the kingdom, release the army chief and have the guilty queen punished. These developments end happily when Alam Ara and the prince, who had fallen in love with each other, are married.

Alam Ara was quickly followed by Krishna Film Company’s Ghar Ki Lakshmi and Madan Theatre’s Shirin Farhad, but despite their technical superiority with excellent sound recording it was Alam Ara which won greater glory and popularity mainly for its being more a novelty package than a product of technical finesse.

Irani won further laurels by making India’s first talkie in English, Noorjahan (1932), as also the country’s first Persian film, Dukhtar-E-Lur (1933), which he followed with two more pictures, Firdousi and Shirin Farhad in the same language.

He also achieved another pair of firsts by setting up India’s earliest colour laboratory and producing the country’s first colour picture, Kisan Kanya (1937).
After a long creative innings marked by a cluster of ‘firsts’, as explained above, and around 200 films on diverse themes in various languages, including German, this ‘grand old man” and “The Father of Indian Talkies” passed away on October 14, 1969 after, of course, securing a special place for himself in the annals of Indian cinema.

Posted by B.M Malhotra at 23:50 No comments:

CARPE DIEM (SEIZE THE DAY)

BY B.M. MALHOTRA

Carpe Diem: These two Latin words, adopted in the English language, contain a valuable practical advice in that they say, “enjoy the present” or “make the most of everything today”. “Seize the day” is another equivalent expression which is commonly used.

The philosophy contained in these axiomatic words was expressed sixteen centuries ago by the great Indian epic poet and dramatist, Kalidasa, who while calling yesterday a dream and tomorrow a vision, recommended a well-lived today as a sure way to happiness. He emphasized that in today lie the bliss of growth, the glory of action and the splendour of achievement.

The same idea found an echo when the eleventh-twelfth century Iranian poet and astronomer, Omar Khayyam wrote: “Unborn tomorrow and dead yesterday/ Why fret about them if today be sweet”.This verse constitutes the famous free translation by Edward Fitzgerald of the following original rubai or quatrain as written in Persian by Khayyam: “Deeroz keh guzashta ast azu yaad makun,/ Farda keh na aamda ast faryaad makun./ Bar guzashta w na aamda buniyaad makun,/ Haale khush baash, umar barbaad makun”.

The following literal rendering of this quatrain into English will further clarify the purport of Khayyam’s words: Remember not yesterday, which has passed,/ Complain not of tomorrow, which has not arrived./ Lay no foundation on that which has passed/  Or that which has not arrived;/ Be happy at present (today) and don’t ruin your life.

It is said that the most important time is the present moment, the most important work is that in which you are engaged now, the most important person is the one in whose company you are at this moment and the most important place is the one where you are at this particular time. Apart from its emphasis on the significance of the present instant, this perception suggests that the work we are doing should be done well with our full enthusiasm and utmost attention.

Consciousness of the mystery and potential inherent in the present moment will, in fact, inspire us to a creative mood and transmute even our hum-drum routine jobs into pleasurable activities. An important job will of course demand a more intense application of one’s mind to it. If nothing else, the sheer thrill and joy of having accomplished any challenging and worthwhile job excellently would by itself be tantamount to an apt reward for one’s effort.

This thinking, incidentally, is in consonance with the idealistic teaching of the Bhagvad Gita that our right is to work only and never to its fruit. We are also advised by the same scripture against regarding fruit of action as our object or our being attached to inaction.

The Scottish author, Thomas Carlyle said: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand”. Jesus Christ exhorted, “Have no anxiety for tomorrow”, which wise words by implication do not oppose any careful planning and preparation, but enjoin eschewing of anxiety about anything in the time to come

The American poet H.W. Longfellow propounded:“Trust no future however pleasant/ Let the dead past bury its dead!/ Act, act in the living present!/ Heart within and God overhead!”.

Eckhart Tolle in his currently popular book, “The Power of Now - A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment” too proffers living in the now as a sure recipe for happiness and enlightenment. 

Adopting “Carpe Diem”, as a motto and acting upon it will bring us pleasure and profit. Implicit in this maxim is also a plea against procrastination. It is well said indeed that procrastination is the waste of time. Putting off of any work, which needs to be done now, brings in its trail failure and frustration. Ravana, just before his death is said to have sorely regretted postponing the use of the golden ladder that had been granted to him as a boon for ascending to Heaven.

During the period he was pursuing the profession of a lawyer, the former American President, Abraham Lincoln, while once traveling by a stage-coach, did not lose the opportunity of extricating a squealing little pig from the mud in which it had got deeply stuck, though Lincoln’s own clothes and shoes got badly soiled in the process After rejoining his waiting and wondering fellow-passengers, Lincoln explained that had he not freed the poor animal from its predicament, he would have perennially repented having missed the chance of doing the little good deed.

We should also not let go any opportunity of doing good and thereby reducing someone’s misery apart from adding to our own happiness. If most people followed this precept, ours would be a better world to live in.