Introduction: Animism is the belief that all the living beings, rocks, thunder, earthquake etc have spirits and influence human events. When one is left with inanimate objects for company, what will happen spurred this write up. Inanimate objects speak and the companion listens to beat loneliness. The companion could be animate or inanimate. Call it expanded (or) pseudo animism!
Rake in the yard
Even after a pleasant journey, the rolling stock – the rail bogies get no appreciation from the traveller, who might have spent a day and night, at least, inside a compartment. The bogie with its suspension system, wheels and brake shoes, has carried the heavy burden of overweight passengers and jumbo sized luggage pieces. The journey, as far as the bogie was concerned, called for sacrifice of physical comforts - jarring aches, wear and tear of scrapping and screeching to a halt.
The pilot of the train might have been angry, for some reason or the other, and I, the bogie as a whole, feel the heat.
When all these hungamas are going on, the traveller sleeps through the night lulled by the rhythmic ballad of agony - “clat” “clat” of the wheels on rails. May be it might have rekindled his memories of childhood lullabies, his m
As part of a rake, I feel very happy at the thought of the chance to visit changing terrains and experience different weather conditions and cultural ambience, along, a few thousand route kilometres. On the other hand the rails, laid bare, get to enjoy as much as a frog in the well is able to. The rails must be on their way to enlightenment - no worldly cares, burning sun or freezing cold and do not have to worry about what is happening a few meters away!
In spite of enduring so much suffering, I have the kindness and time to empathies with the rail. No matter to draw solace from. After all, the rail and my wheels share a common element and who knows - might have come from the same ingot!
At the end of the haul, I am happy to reach home, intact, get some attention in the marshalling yard – a little greasing, cursory washing and painting, once in a blue moon at least.
“In the yard, after refreshing myself a little, I lapse in to a reverie. At such times, I shudder to think of the mangling, tearing and collateral damages caused by an accident. Yet, I refrain from airing them aloud, on duty, so as not to disturb the traveller. Don’t I have time enough in the yard to relive the nightmare?
The Currency note
We, the 500 and 1000 rupee notes experienced the shock of our lives, not withstanding the infectious smile of the father of the nation, every one of us carried. This recent announcement was the last straw on our backs, already enduring untold miseries, at the hands of the public.
Our path from mint to shredding machine is not that smooth or glossy but wrinkled and grimy. In the hands of cupid-stricken Romeos, we are merely stationery papers. The public, including the banking staff, use us as a handy note pad to jot down sum total, address and phone numbers. Thank God, they have not started using us in place of tissue papers!
The manhandling in the form of wetting, riffling and hard pinching –all in the name of counting, is equal to a sexual assault. This molestation and physical violence is covered by “***abhaya” or any other penal code is what we want to know. If the Law of the land is not yet seized of this matter, we demand an early justice.
The human behaviour is hard to fathom – some go to the extent of imprisoning us like hard core criminals– in lockers, and underground vaults. This is for their keeps. There is another form of ill treatment and torture – gagging us in gunny bags.
With guaranteed legal tender status, how come we are locked up for years in the vaults of the tax evader or a smuggler? How can we be referred to as “black money” – a tag attached to us for the crime committed by someone else? What hurts us the most is forcing the father of the nation to remain smiling, and suffocate at the thought of the stigma sullying his image?
Unmindful of all these things, the sons of this soil do not show a bit of care or sympathy towards us. They go ahead happily folding the press fresh currency note; making us to carry kilograms of soil and stain. They stuff us in sweat drenched wallets under human anatomy to initiate the process mutilation and torture. We appeal for protection in the similar lines as dowry harassment cases are dealt with.
At least for those of us who are not carrying our year of birth, this announcement gives us a parole and a change of environment but the catch is - those with the birth certificate will have to fill that space vacated by us. What solace is there for us in this announcement?
Our silent prayers have not gone unheeded. Now we have an extended “limited” period offer of general amnesty. Many of us with out the printed year of birth will have an opportunity to get in to the main stream circulation, including the ones in vault custody. Yet we hope for a lasing solution rather than this type of first aid treatments.
After deeply mulling over this issue, we have decided to appeal to the research scholars – Will any one of you come up with an ink, at least for printing our year of birth, that vanishes if we are held captive for more than 72 hours or not allowed to breath the normally polluted air and bask in the natural sun light for more than 48 hours, whichever is earlier!
Being smart and intelligent, we the currency notes hope, you people will understand our desire to be in circulation and in good condition.
Till then, we the currency notes with out year of birth will come out of hiding and circulate like illegal immigrants. At the appointed day, all of us, without YOB (year of birth), will end up in detention centres, declared D.O.A (dead on arrival) and shredded. If this is not, ‘the karma of a currency note’- what else it is?
Hoping that some of you might have sympathy for us, we appeal for urgent measures to:
1. Eradicate the tendency to evade tax and hoarding of currency notes.
2. Bring the culprits to justice & liberate us from the vaults.
P.S: Since the public at large are still using us as scribbling pads, why can’t we leave all of you with our message – orally!
The Murmuring Mouse
The most prominent features of mine – the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, legs and tail have suffered the most under your care. I lost my eyes as you gouged them out as unwanted, flattened my ears with mouth to happily click away, amputated my tail and substituted it with a USB cable. The supreme insult was the removal of my little thinking brain and handing over its functions to the control of a CPU.
Only by looking at the cursor on the monitor I reassure myself that I am still alive and will be able to be so as long as I obeyed your clicks. The moment I cease to do so, it will be the last day of my life.
With all my humility, I fail to understand your need to tweak my ears impatiently – clicking, double clicking or clicking away till my teeth are ground to a powder.
A little patience, instead of your tearing hurry might have allowed you to look for the reasons. The CPU’s ROM & RAM is heavily laden with umpteen soft wares, many of them you got installed just for the sake of it, and most of them as free download.
It started struggling to recollect and retrieve your files - with little or nil free memory space to think and act. Not knowing how to come out of the maze, it blinks like an idiot and ‘hangs up’ on you. The simple logic that any matter - physical or bytes occupy space and need manoeuvrability always escapes your mind.
Another doubt that daunts me is why my left ear is preferentially tweaked more than the right ear? I am not being partial or envious about who is getting tweaked more; intention is to know why? Still no harm will come to you in thinking about the agony suffered by my ears – please curb your impatience.
I never imagined, your palming over my spine was not out of affection but of vengeance. Later I understood that this gesture was conveying your fear that one day or other I will try to escape from your clutches. Is this why you are keeping my tail tied to the CPU?
As usual, you were not thinking straight; how could I do so with out my legs? You have already shrunk them to wafer thin appendages, under your electronic mouse, to serve as its resting points. To be doubly sure, you have opted for a cordless (tailless) mouse, now.
What pained me the most at that time was - you have flushed out my loyalty down the drain. As is your wont, you forgot to appreciate the fact that loyalty is unilaterally extended and not purchased!
I have obeyed your click and double click commands, to complete all transactions right from your desk top or lap top, and with in seconds. Can you not spare one of those comfortable seconds, you have enjoyed my company and show a little compassion to me!
Please... please, do not try to down load “Mou-sympathy ver.1.0” mimicking Tom & Jerry act, for this purpose. Even to empathize with me, you will click my ears anyway!
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