Thursday 22 May 2008

The Joker's Journeys........

Once upon a time, at some place you know, there was a young school boy learning the initial lessons of life. Taller than his peers he was condemned to the back benches and had to come out with something extraordinary to catch the attention of the Teachers and convince them that he doesn't belong there! In the thickly populated spaces of the Government run Schools even the ones who shout loudest might have gone unnoticed. But some Teachers did relish the prospect of picking up an argument or two with the 'over-informed' little ones...........The lady who taught 'Wren & Martin' was particularly harsh with her teasers on silly errors. And so to get even, our tall, over informed back bencher once came up with a one-liner once when he was asked to write a sentence based on some grammatical rule.

'I don't mind laughing at me'!........ it went thus, nothing special in that.

But the lady stared at the backbencher for some time and then said in a low voice; "you surprise me often, one day you may go onto become a good writer"!

The Joker has a wonderful vocation. One do have the gratification of seeing the laughter on the faces of all those kids in the front rows in appreciation of one's performance.

When you walk in, the people smile; when you fall down people laugh; when you do something silly, they laugh it off......and when you cry.....the people laugh again!

People come in with a truckload of troubles unload them in your backyard and return with cheerful smiles and full of laughter. Being the Joker is being the social healer..............but as the popularity rises and fame spreads and the demands grow, you find your private moments diminishing fast....your idealism fades.....you find yourself working all the while, for the sake of others, like some Mechanical device .........you will be exhausted unlike the device and when you try to sleep, your mind will still be running ......the troubles accumulate in your backyard.....the backlogs to be cleared....your basic instincts lead you to trouble....for the exhausted mind will seldom be alert....

And who wouldn't wish to shake oneself free off the shackles of Cyrano's ghost? Even Prandtl had managed to do it at 34!