My friend is a lawyer;
He is wealthy, and successful, as his parents,
As well as mine, would call him-
He deals with law and doles with justice-
He is a god in today’s world.
And sometime back, we two were at the same place;
Loving the same girl, watching the same film,
And getting the same marks we frolicked through our teens,
And then at crossroads we found each other
As our ways diverged.

No, it wasn’t chance that brought us apart,
Just that I was a dunce and he was smart,
Just that he listened when his parents barked
But deaf was I unlike my counterpart.
When the sight of lucre tempted my friend,
He ran like the hare without his share of rest;
I was the tortoise who slept, and indeed he came best.

I now look around and dwarfed am I
In the midst of strangers who seem so great-
Sages said time runs fast and they learnt how not to be late.
I, with beliefs antiquated, remain back from this horde
Which is forever seeking what’s beyond its reach.

Even as I walked upon tender feet, fraught was I with
The dreams and expectations of many that surrounded me-
I felt like the bound horse and I wished to flee,
I felt like the caged bird longing to be free-
And then I trampled the hopes built around me.
Freedom is great but it comes at a price,
To me it came cheap, or that’s my surmise.
-31\12\98,Calcutta-63

COMMENTS :

The modern world is very materialistic. Some years back I had the opportunity to visit the ashram of a sage who wondered why all parents were always wishing their children to become great men, in the sense of rich men, when they grow up, and why no parent wanted their children to become just good men. Thus when the parents themselves cannot be expected to wish a good future for their children, it is rash and foolish indeed to expect any enlightened belief on part of the children themselves. The education system is heavily charged to serve the materialist end. Literacy and not education is the stress of all governmental efforts.

And the real victim is the student, the child. He is pressed into pursuing studies, which does not suit his nature or aptitude, but instead which holds better financial prospects. He is aggrieved, he is angry, he is burdened, he is chained to the exigency of the age, but he is not free. Freedom comes at a price, which many are not prepared to pay.

See also Rancour.