The Hindu Business Line : Celebrating love

The idea of a woman as a free-standing entity is alien to India and is an imported item from the West like many other ideas of freedom and liberation.

ON Valentine's Day, Lachman Singh bought his wife two fruit-and-nut Cadbury bars costing Rs 40 each, and Amul bars for Utsav, his granddaughter, who does not have a taste for either Cadbury or Nestle.

We were there at his renovated hut in the morning when Lachman asked Utsav to pass on the Cadbury bars to her grandmother. One cannot think of Lachman Singh directly handing over choco bars to his wife even on Valentine's Day as he was never brought up that way. His wife shared the choco bars as again she was brought up to share everything with a sampling for herself (if at all) and we ate more of Cadbury than her. He had told me to pick up a Valentine's Card from Archie's, which he requested Rama to hand over to his wife.

Lachman is for any celebration and was more than amused as young couples on motorcycles drove far into the rice fields to be alone the entire Valentine's Day, unlike Mumbai cops, who believe in driving them from parks and the rocks at Bandra. His friends at the teashop did not much like the modern gestures of Lachman and told him so. "Ye sab thum kya kar rahe ho. Ye kya apne gaon mein hoti hai? (What are you doing? Do these things happen in our village?)" they asked without getting any response. Lachman wipes off inconvenient questions thrown at him with something near to a smile or a Narasimha Rao-style puff.

One of his friends went further with a Hindutva taunt, "Ye apna sanskar nahin hai. (This is not our culture)," and that hit Lachman. "Hamare sanskar mein sthree naam ki kuch cheej nahin hai (Woman is absent in our culture)," he replied, and cited a few instances from the Hindu epics to back himself. In five minutes, he made the point that women alone pray for the well-being of their men and fall at their feet to receive blessings; that too because the status of a widow is lower than that of a woman. Men never reciprocate.

His few friends at the teashop were not as well-read as Lachman, gave up the debate and the tea sipping midway, climbed their bicycles and were off.

The idea of a woman being a free-standing entity is alien to ancient and modern India and is an imported item from the West like many other freedoms and liberating ideas. When everything is over and it is time to come up with the conclusions, the best of scholars will have to concede that Western ideas led India from kings and kingdoms to something called the democracy of today.

Lachman has a quarrel with Gandhiji when the Old Man strongly contends Indian culture is the best.

When Rama said there was something improper in the greetings card business making everyday important enough to buy a card, Lachman disagreed. There is a Father's Day, a Mother's Day and a card day for 365 days of the year. "It shrinks the family purse," added Rama, and one had to agree. Lachman stood up, unhinged a Kalnirnay calendar hanging on the wall and invited Rama to have a close look. "Sab din bhagwan ke din hain aur pujari ko paisa milta hai. (Every day is some God's day assuring funds for the priests)," said Lachman, and Rama nodded assent.

In modern times when everything is business, in some or many ways, card business is better or at least on a par with the business of priests as cards bring more cheer than priests and prayers. That was a well-made point, which Lachman Singh had noted down in Hindi in a log book, which he has started keeping recently. At least this writer is mighty pleased with the variety of cards though he rarely receives any.

On Valentine's Day, couriers delivered roses for Vidya and Ganesh while they were busy on their mobiles. Yet, Lachman Singh is preparing to fast on MahashivaratriDay. He plans to visit the Shivalinga below a fig tree on L.T. Road as it may not see the long queues like at established Shiva temples. The old fig tree stands near the stalls of scrap dealers, mainly Bangladeshis, who sell everything from old, broken furniture to almirahs. Some clever fellow thought up the idea of placing a small, black stone Shivalinga with a white bull on the stone platform at the foot of the tree. To add to the air of piety, he has strung a bell to a branch. A temple is born. Lachman has promised to take Rama to the temple, early morning on Mahashivaratri Day. For Rama, Lachman Singh at least is not a cliché.