Animal
Instinct
His today’s
activity was not different from the other days so as usual he looks exhausted, but
happy and satisfied he wipes out sweats from his face from soily white cotton
towel, brings down the weighty dirty bag from his shoulder, keeps it in corner
of the room. He sits on mat lying in center of the room covered with red brown
cotton sheet over it. He brings out a big piece of neatly tied cloth from his
pocket of Kurta wherein he had tied coins after wrapping up his play. His hard
earned money. He arranges those coins which were in different denomination,
counts those coins and again ties them in that dirty piece of cloth. He keeps that bundle beside
his pillow and lays on bed, releasing all parts of body except his mind which always
teased him when he was on bed. Few questions rise in his mind but he is
illiterate, also a bit ostracized from the environment where he could get the
answer. Foremost question which had always visited him was “ Who I am ?. He sometimes
looked at the mirror in search of answer
he thought that his look perhaps could a bit define him, made him
satisfied. But he got morbid unsatisfied when he looked at his disheveled gray
hair, wrinkled face, untidy beard, tattered Kurta, and overall wilted body.
Suddenly his morbidity gets into liveliness to an extent when he remembers the noise
of small children calling joyfully ‘Magician Aaya, Madari Aaya, he is Jaaduger,
whenever they found him roaming in streets. That moment he had immense feeling of pride on this gesture. He feels
himself more happy when he looks at small children smiling ,laughing,
whispering to their friends on his every tricks, the tricks he had learnt from
his elders. When he was child he also wanted to go to school, live a happy
prosperous life but the profession which
was inborn in his blood could not convince him to quit the job of jugglery,
magic, a profession of bringing happiness, bringing joys in lives of others. He
gets happy when small children praise him, claps on his every performance, on
the other hand he also sometimes gets depressed when some in the audience interferes
in his performance, wanting to expose his trickery, accusing him of cheating
the audiences, making them fool. Some call him arrogant when they refuse to
share his arts with them, some call him beggar disguised in magician. Some of
his friends who made their name in this art call him stupid because he had
confined himself wandering in street. He despises this profession when some
call him a poor magician. He realized that his art of jugglery, magic is not poor
but the way audience tossed coins on piece of cloth lying in front of them
remind him his status and his profession. In childhood days he often
accompanied his elders wandering in street and now he is following the steps
all alone. He asks himself if he lacks something. Why does his colleague who
demonstrate art of magic on big stage scoff
at his traditional way of demonstrating his skill on street. Why didn’t he
compete with other magician who look different from him.
Yesterday
he was called in school to demonstrate his magic in front of students.
Demonstration of his skill in an organized and respected way he was not astonished
at this gesture rather happy that he will not have to spread that dirty cloth in
front of passerby in street for the sake of couple of coins.. Remuneration what
he got from school after finishing the show gave him immense satisfaction apart
from the clap of appreciation by small children on his art. Magic show had
finished off and he was walking away hanging his big dirty bag over her
shoulder just then he stopped a boy in front of classroom.
‘Son, May
I know what is written on that board, I am illiterate, I can not read ’ He asks
that boy looking inside the classroom.
Boy
looks at him smilingly he looks back on black board and said‘ Aristotle said ‘Man
is a social animal.’
He nods
and gives a smiles at him, does not ask further, and moves ahead.
And
today he was trying to find out the answers of some questions through the
lesson he had learnt from school as he
is also member of same society but he was undecided whether he is social animal
or not. Does he have required level of
animal instinct which is required to live in society in dignity? Does he have
that level of brutality which differentiate between stupid and wise ? How did his colleagues made their mark on
big stage and he was wandering on street ? Do they have something else or have
specific animal instinct ? He had forgotten who said ‘man is social animal’ but
he liked the sentence because he wants to know if he is really a social animal
then in which category of social animals
he should be enumerated.
Suddenly
he begins to feel pain in his head he turns over to his left, puts his hand on
bundle of coins, his physical exhaustion had gone to an extent but the
exhaustion he gave to his mind is not fruitless because pain was perhaps giving
him message that you are a simple, illiterate, small time magician who has no
right to think about the things, monopolized by the learned, educated social
animal.
End
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