56. FORGOTTEN PLEASURES
WE city dwellers have to ask ourselves: when did we last see and enjoy the full moon light? When did we last see and count the stars in the sky? The city is so full of artificial light and tall buildings on all sides, neither the moon is visible, nor the stars. The artificial lights drown the moonlight. Fortunately, we are able to watch the rising moon on some days through our kitchen window, through the gap between two buildings. Fortunately, the gap is not yet built up, though there is a notice displaying the name of the owner, and announcing that it is not for sale! We do not know how long this fortune will last!
Seeing the moon is such an important part of our culture. Orthodox men still saying their mid-day Gayatri mantra may desire to see the sun for a hundred years-Pasyema Saradassatam, Jeevema saradassatam- jyokcha sooryam drushe! But people only celebrate seeing a thousand moons- the completion of 80 years- Sataabhishekam! Lord Krishna is famous for the Raslila enacted on the Sharad Purnima. We celebrate Vyasa Purnima and Buddha Purnima; yet most of us are actually unable to see the full moon in our cities! How then can we talk of enjoying a stroll in the moonlit night, holding hands of our beloved? May be, our unfortunate youngsters satisfy themselves by walking the endless space of the over-lit malls!
When we were in college, our Maths lecturer would ask us to assemble on the open terrace on some week ends after dinner, and show us the stars, pointing out the various constellations.Today, in the same town, stars could not be seen like that! In Nagpur in the 60s, we would sleep on the open terrace in summer, and the best way to court sound sleep would be to count the stars! Dame Sleep would never desert anyone who courts her by appealing to the stars!The clear summer sky was studded with such profusion of stars! I do not think we ever could count more than a hundred or so! By then we would be fast asleep! Those who complain of sleeplessness should try this- but then where will they find the real stars now? There are only cine stars in the cities!
Hindi poet Sahir Ludhianvi wrote that immortal poem for the film Jaal in 1952:
Ye raat ye chandni phir kahan
Sun ja dil ki daastaan
Pedon ki shaakon pe soyi soyi chandni....
Leheron ke hoton pe dhima dhima raag hai....
Where will we find this night and this moon light again?
Listen to the story of my heart.
The moonlight slumbers on the branches of the trees....
On the lips of the waves is a soft melody......
www.glenmarshall.org
Have you actually seen the moonlight playing on the branches of trees? Watch a coconut palm on a full moon night, and how the light dances on the leaves! Yes, the light does not just slumber but in the breeze it seems to dance as the gentle breeze shakes them! In the movie, they actually show the coconut palms, and the magical photography of genius V.K.Murthy brings out this wonder in delightful black and white! Colour would kill the beauty! Today, to witness such scene we have to get away far, far from the mad cities' ignoble strife!
www.wallpaperup.com
And about the waves! Only those near the sea shore can witness the waves. But how to listen to the soft melody on the lips of the waves? The beach is so crowded and noisy! And near the cities, the beach too is allowed to be encroached. Many resorts are occupying huge chunks on the sea shores! What was for common enjoyment is now marked for private profit! In the 18th century, Goldsmith sang of the rich fencing and privatising the village common:
The man of wealth and pride
Takes up space that many poor supplied;
Space for his lake, his park's extended bounds,
Space for his horses, equipage and hounds;.......
Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide,
And e'en the bare-worn common is denied.
Only, now it is not space for horses but horse-powered cars! See the cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and notice how private cars are merrily parked on public roads at night!
Leave alone watching the stars or basking in the moonlight. Can we at least walk? Newspapers and media are full of advice on walking- and advertisement selling equipment. While old philosophers always praised walking, our physicians now advise us to walk for at least half an hour a day.
The sovereign invigorator of the body
is exercise, and of all the exercises
walking is the best.
~Thomas Jefferson
But where in the cities can we walk now? In cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi, it has become difficult to walk in most neighbourhoods / suburbs. There is an unending stream of vehicles, the roads are often dug up, the so called walking platforms are uneven, unpaved and occupied by vendors- there is simply no place to walk. Delhi is at least blessed with many big and beautiful parks, but you have to get there first!
“Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret. Bill Bryson
Do we have space like this to walk in our cities and towns?
www.walkingforhealth.org.uk
The Hampshire County Council proudly announces that "there is something for everyone to enjoy". How many Indian cities and towns or districts can say this?
And see below how Bangalore's footpaths are and how they are used!
And can you spot the footpath below? Also, in Bangalore!
https://silkboard.wordpress.cm
Lack of space for walking hits the senior folk particularly hard. Walking is for them one of the least risky and least expensive pastimes and the best exercise. They need to walk daily, but cannot find a place to do it in!
from: sport.wales
Our new govt. which promised us "Achche din" may ask us not to worry. If you can't walk, ride a car or taxi! In fact one cannot walk even within housing colonies in Delhi because all space is occupied by cars!
from: india.blogs.nytimes.com 1 July 2013.
This is how, in the name of development, we the commoners have been deprived of our simple pleasures- be it gazing at the moon, counting the stars, or just walking on earth! Thank God, they cannot ask us not to dream! But there is the new Finance Minister, who has made it his business to deprive the middle class of their sleep! It was Sahir Ludhianvi again who wrote in Pyaasa:
He: Hum aap ki khwaabon mein la la ke satayenge
She: Hum aap ki aankhon se neende hi udaa dein tho?
He:What if I entice you in my dreams and tease you ?
She: What if I remove sleep from your eyes ?
So, this is how we have got our good days! One Minister would ask us to dream of achche din. The other would deprive us of sleep.What a perfect pair! Mehmood and Aruna Irani sang a song on screen in Aulad: "Jodi hamari jamega kaise jaani".(1968). (The voices were of Manna Dey and Asha Bhonsle.) Ab tho jodi jam gayi, sahab!
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