"O Master Chetan Bhagat"

O master Chetan Bhagat

o keeper of the herds,

you wizard of many wonders

pray, not English words

for classics made them cry

you ended their plight,

they cheered that night at call center

even mistakes of your life

from northern southern quarters

you brought us two states,

let them say what they may

devil showed some grace

their palms to the heaven

plates were dripping plenty,

possessed by selling spirits

you tossed a revolution twenty

those pictures make you grin

you hit the golden spoon,

now columns and half girlfriends

we swoon swoon swoon…..

Varun Mayaram Sihag

Ha Ha Ha

The deputy Prime Minister of Turkey says that it is not right of women to laugh aloud in public. The Women of Turkey protested by posting their grinning pictures on social media sites. Let’s come out of Turkey. Laughter clubs are all around. Laughing Buddhas in every house with their hands uplifted, grinning at the main doors. There have been hardly any comedy shows which failed to make money, even those stereotypical satires on the sub TV keeps our family members busy from Monday to Friday. When almost everybody is trying to have an American (not Latin) sense of humor, stand up comedians are increasingly giving a good time in dinning bars. Jokes on Arvind Kejriwal, santa-banta and wives do the rounds on wassup with replies in form of hahaha or hehehe. Rajneesh’s discourses are full of anecdotes of Mulla Nasruddin. Hearty laughter is good for blood pressure the doctors say and that is why the green patches of our housing societies are full of sad looking middle age men and women trying very hard to throw their guts out laughing when in fact they have nothing funny early in the morning.

                                                    Indian Mythological Demons (Rakshasas) who have the focus and ability to meditate for long years before Shiva appears to empower them as they desire, go mad laughing once they are empowered and there is no one to appreciate them or their sense of humor. On the other hand the seriousness of lord Rama is celebrated. I wonder why did the earliest writers and directors of television Ramayana thought that the Rakshashas would laugh all the time. It is absurd to see a scholar like Raavan (not RA 1) laughing because some arrow he shot has done some magic when all his sons and brothers lie dead and his army is on the verge of extinction. May be the television Directors picked it from our folklores where Ramayana is religiously played in every village and town mostly by the people from the margins of society. So, even the earliest actors, writers and directors of these dramatized versions thought that there was something sinister about laughter and this the reason every demon would be in fits of laughter right in the middle of a battle when there are dead bodies all around. May be the poor actor just forgot his lines and could not come up with something else or there is something really profound they are trying to convey when our attempts are more demonic in defense of our Gods and prophets. Let’s not take offense at everything, lets have a sense of humor.