10/13/2023 0 Comments Bloon beacon mistakeSuch men and women with poetic sensibility – mere versifiers they were – had little understanding of the resilient civilization that we are when electrical failures occur we use a borrowed newspaper to fan ourselves for comfort.Īnd thus we did our duty, gave expression to our collective need for patricide and hoped that his conscience – that thing which like a bad sofa-spring came up at the most inopportune times to jab us at the most uncomfortable of places – would die with him. Though, some spoke of his passing in terms of load shedding, of electrical failure in a major grid, as the light having gone out of our lives. So to cut a long story short we found a young man, appropriately Chitpavan, to pull the trigger and when the deed was done we heaved a sigh of relief. Someone sitting in Dewas might sing Ud Jayega Hans Akela but we were certain that we could chant “Goli Maro …” even louder. We were clear that he was never to be called “Shahid”, and we also knew that soon enough the nationwide siren would become dysfunctional and the need to remember him on that day by observing a forced silence on a busy working day would end. But Martyrdom we could aid in because this was to be a temporary arrangement. At that point our relations with Ram Lalla were not so firm that we could make such promises on His behalf, and in any case, the man claimed to have found a lodgement for Rama in his heart. (It would be too much to suggest that he could foretell that his brilliant philosopher grandson would one day speak movingly and most insightfully of this and that this was all done to further the Ota Bapa No Vadlo 1 ). But he wanted a final proof, a final demonstration of his brahamacharya, of his devotion to Rama, of his capacity to urge us to ahimsa, of obtaining both Moksha and Martyrdom. The Aga Khan Palace in Poona was grand enough to accommodate three samadhis instead of two. It would have been most convenient if he had followed them. Ba and Mahadev Desai both decided to leave him. He had become somewhat slow to take hints. The reason why some of us still felt the need to have him was not clear then and the passage of time has not made that any less obscure. We had kept him alive for 168 long days in Independent India, almost against his wish the man had fasted at least twice – unto death – in this period and instead of letting go of him, some of us had made public pledges of ‘brotherhood’, of ‘collective non-violence’ and kept him amidst us. The Foreign Hand – not just any foreign but Italian hand – had unmistakably and unfailing come to our aid. We had used a Beretta M 1934 Semi- Automatic pistol to lodge three bullets into his body almost at the very same place he would point to his heart, to his Antaryami, the dweller within, to say that the seat of authority lay within him. S he walked hastily – he hated being late – across the lawns, we were quick to seize the opportunity and assassinated him.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |