FELICITATION (by de’fault’)
There
was this 3–day festival organized by Prajapita ‘BRAHMAKUMARIS’ at the Besant
Nagar Community Hall on 27,28, & 29th of June. You surely know about the
movement spread over several cities of India and abroad. I really appreciate
the dedicated works being done by them for the past so many years. This
three-day program was aimed at self-realisation, acquiring better perception of
God, so also, creating awareness of noble deeds, feeling their effects etc.,
according to the organizers. The target audience were women, members belonging
to the Art fraternity, inmates of old age homes, destitutes, students, police
personnel etc. This blog is not intended to propagate the movement, anyway.
I
attended on the first day, primarily to listen to Gayatri Girish singing. I
never had any idea about what was in store for me that evening. At the entrance
were a few ladies offering rose flower, applying ‘tilak’ on your forehead, etc.
Typical. One of the organizers was verifying a big list of ‘special invitees’,
and wanted me to identify my name there. Politely I told her that I was a very
ordinary person and there was nothing special about me; and that she was not
likely to find my name in the list…. After passing thro’ the various stalls they
had put up, mainly on spiritual material (which, incidentally was Latin and
Hebrew to me), I settled on a comfortable chair close to the pedestal fan. The
evening was sultry, alright. I could see several music maestros among the
crowd, belonging to older as well as younger generation. Some faces were very
familiar, but I could not readily recollect the names. They were from all over
Tamil Nadu.
The
concert by GG, though for a brief 45 minutes, was a treat. Then the function
proper began. Owing to paucity of space on the dais, only the likes of the
Dhananjayans, Bombay sisters, Dr. Sirkazhi Sivachidambaram, and the chief of
BK’s Adyar wing could be accommodated on the stage. After the speeches, the
main artistes were ‘felicitated’ with mementos, ‘ponnadai’ and a sandal
garland. Thereafter, the BK volunteers went round the audience and started
offering ponnadais of different colours, and the garland. The lady seated next
to me, asked me to go the front row and receive the ponnadai. May be she had
recognized the ‘artistic’ glow on my face. But I told her, ‘Thank you Madam’ (I
too was a ‘performer’ anyway, though that can at best be categorized in the
‘Thenga Moodi’ genre – I am referring to the concerts (?) I had given at our
Pillayar temple on the occasion of the Pillayar Chathurthi, for two years.) For
the benefit of non-believers, you may search on the You Tube for ‘harshan47’
and can have the pleasure or pain of watching the three videos I had uploaded
years back.
I
was watching with keen interest the many artists being grabbed and garbed with
the silk shawl. Then, suddenly just like a bolt from the blue, the unexpected
happened. One of the organizer ladies thrust a shawl (ponnadai) on me, and
another, the sandal garland. Before I could say, ‘yeh kyaa ho rahaa hai’ it was
all over. The ladies had disappeared with mission completed. “Third
time lucky”– I told myself.
“Yaar
Anand bhai, tu tho bade bhagyavaan ho… shayad tere chehre pe likhaa hai kee tu
sach much ek mash hoor ‘kalaakar’ ho–abhee nahee tho, pichle janam mein…!
Lagthaa hai, tere liye vaakeyee acha din aa hee gayaa….”
Probably,
my ‘shakal’ matched with someone who was to be felicitated that day…. They say
there are 7 lookalikes in the world – may be two of them happen to be in Adyar
area.
So,
I silently put on the salve, and garland, as instructed by the compeer. But
what followed next was something which I had never bargained for. About 100
artists lined up before the stage to receive the memento from the chief guest.
So far, so good. But every time an artiste entered the stage, the compeer would
call out his / her name and announce their qualification, like “Kalai Maamani”,
“Aasthana Vidwan / Vidushi at such and such place, etc. etc., Everyone had some
title or other to their credit.
And
here I am, just a ‘nobody’ who was suddenly elevated to the status of ‘Somebody’.
‘Anybody’ could have raised an objection, but ‘Nobody’ did (or didn’t want
to?). If Somebody from the organizers saw me fleeing, he or she would have
wondered why Nobody realized the mistaken identity. Anybody could have
corrected the mistake, but Nobody did.
(Courtesy:
Story of 4 persons in an organization (or, in any organization, for that
matter). ‘Somebody’, the boss entrusts ‘Everybody’ with an important urgent
assignment, a quote or something. ‘Anybody’ could have done it, but ‘Nobody’ does
it. The job is not done, and the company loses a plump order from a prestigious
oversees client. ‘Somebody’ is furious, because it is ‘Everybody’s job, but
‘Nobody’ does it under some excuse or other. Finally, it ends up with Everybody
blaming Somebody, whereas actually Nobody takes any action against Anybody…)
அன்னையின் அருள் ஆடி பெருக்கு போல் ஓடி வருக .........
No ‘tail piece this time. But the next blog itself will be, well,
on a ‘Tale’. You have heard about the ‘Tale of two cities’, right? I have this
story about the ‘Tale of two toilets’ – I assure you, it won’t stink……
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