Face to Face
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11/23/07 | |
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Face to Face
-by Ven Parthsarthy Wednesday, July 04, 2007
This story has been read 304 times.
Face to Face…
By Vengrai Parthasarathy
I am not a male chauvinist. I have always believed that while men are superior to
women in some respects, women are in others. Simply stated they can never be equal.
This is disputed.by, none else than the wife, mine and others. She clings to a meaning
-less phrase ‘Better-half” being bandied about.. ..I am convinced that it is a facetious
phrase and does not mean anything being an omnibus expression. I prefer ‘the other
half’.. Anyway that is not the subject of this piece but I may come to it later.
I have three heroes, men whom I admire. There are others but these three top the list
Swamy Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The first two . .
I have only heard about or read about. But admire their personalities and what they have
achieved or stood for. .Vivekananda stirred my imagination, for his modern ideas and the
speech which he delivered in Chicago by beginning to address the assemblage as “Brothers
and sisters of America”. While in school I had learnt by heart Tagore’s poem
“Where the Mind is Without Fear”, an inspirational classic.
Nehru, as someone said is not just a man but a procession of men.: Patriot, Statesman,
Author, Freedom fighter, Barrister and above all a Humanist. It was in the late fifties that I
had gone to Delhi in the month of October and happened to visit Gandhiji’s Samadhi on
his birthday. There was a lot of police bandobust, and there he was followed by a bunch of
political cronies and some members of the public. I joined the crowd and inched forward
to a few feet of Panditji, when a police Inspector took me firmly by the hand and told me
in nouncertain voice ‘Go back”. I did.. I had to but happy anyway, having had a glimpse of the
great man.
Shortly afterwards, I met in Delhi a LawCollege classmate of mine, one Mr.Karta who was
connected with the Indian Institute of Parliamentary Studies. “Why don’t youcome ? Panditji is
addressing an invited audience”. I jumped at the offer. And he took out an
invitation from his brief case. I went.. Panditji spoke with great sincerity and passion about the
Legislative wing and its importance. After the speeches were over, we moved over for buffet at
an adjacent area, I was trying to reach out for a samosa when another hand too was extended
in the direction of the potato chips plate nearby.. It had freckles on top of the palm and wrist.
I looked up and there he was..: Nehruji.. He gave one of his charming smiles and before I could
recover from it all, he was gone.. He .sort of pranced away and on his way he gave, with a
rolled up paper which he had, a pat on the butt f a lady who was bent over picking up something.
A senior woman of the Congress party she was. Recovering quickly from the shock and a bit red
in the face, and realizing who had played the prank she quickly gave him a paternal look and smile..
Nehruji had gone.
In. the late fifties, I was working for Indian Airlines , and was on duty at the Delhi Palam airport.
The usual crowd of party leaders, politicians and others were there with garlands and bouquets.
Nehruji was retirning from a foreign trip and being in my uniform I could see him from very close
quarters. He was gone. The next day a photographer who covers the comings and goings of digni
-taries handed me a photo. There I was next to Panditji who was in a smiling mood.. I could not
believe it. The photo is still one of my treasured keep-sakes
Soon after my marriage I took out this photo from my album and she (my wife) gave a look
which I thought was one of admiration. “Hey, that’s great”,. she said somewhat lukewarmly.. But I saw something morein her eyes. “Oh, nothing”, she said. After a little more persuasive talk she said ”Wait”. .
She rumm-aged an old suitcase and produced from it a photo of Nehru visiting the Ramakrishna Mission in Bangalore. A slender girl was handing over a bouquet to a smiling Panditji..”Who is it” ? I asked.
“ Thats me, I was wearing glasses in those days”, said my better-half who had done one
better than me. !