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Workshop #
10
Happiness
“This is quite an odd place
to take my lovely bride to, isn’t it, darling?”
“Are hills and vales alone the haven of happiness, dear?”
“Snow-capped mountains and verdant slopes, perhaps, provide a better
background, honey.”
“ Undulating, golden sands are not less attractive, dear. What matters is
our proximity, not the backdrop.”
“My little sweetheart! People do think the exotic woods with fragrant
flowers, silver cascades, warbling songbirds and whispering breeze are the
best setting for love. And look! Here we are, put up in the least romantic
spot on earth, I bet!”
“Who knows? Gusty desert storms might well be a more stirring symphony
than the breezy winds whispering through the woods. Rhapsodies of passion
shall gush out of our souls right in the midst of all this dust and heat.”
“Oh! My darling! Is it OK
with you to settle down here?”
“No regrets at all, my dear.”
“Are you sure you’ll be happy to live with me here?”
“Definitely. You see, in the heart of the desert, you have no chance of
forming a harem.”
“Yes, it’s true. And I too need not spend sleepless nights imagining every
adult male other than me as a potential wife-snatcher.”
“So that’s a bargain indeed. Both of us stand to gain.”
“Darling, are you sure you
don’t want to live in a bungalow with bay windows?”
“I care not for windows. Let Bill Gates and the like be obsessed with
windows.”
“A deluxe suite in a skyscraper building will be delightful, wont it be?”
“It wont be. I’ll have to live in constant fear of fiery jet planes
crashing into me.”
“Cushioned furniture and electric gadgets do make a pretty home, don’t
they?”
“You and I to lean on each other is far more cosy, I think.”
“We have no air-conditioned bedrooms to sleep in.”
“Under the canopy of starlit sky, clasping each other, this simple carpet
is sufficient enough to snore on in complete comfort.”
“We are really landless,
homeless wanderers.”
“No. The entire expanse of land before us is ours practically, isn’t it?”
“Aren’t we a pair of pathetic nomads?”
“No, the contrary. We are a prince and princess on the earth.”
“We have neither company nor community life here, let me warn you, honey.”
“We both are enough company to each other. Cent percent privacy, to boot.
No community means no pressures of peer competition and false codes of
demoralizing activities.”
“Don’t you feel the absence
of kith and kin?”
“Do I miss the nasty in-law bickerings? Ha, ha, ha!”
“Perhaps, we shall get bored with each other after sometime.”
“Not with our gushing spring of tales to entertain each other with, tales
steeped in memories of our bond continuing through all our previous
births.”
“Yet, isn’t this vast
emptiness around us rather unsettling?”
“Not at all. No nuisance of nosy neighbors prying into our private
affairs. We wont have anyone here to overhear our love speeches or hate
screeches. No embarrassment whatsoever!”
“Aren’t you sorry to miss
the modern amenities?”
“No. I am glad to live close to Nature. When our needs are less, the need
for conveniences is also less. In fact, I enjoy lazing away like this – no
cooking, no washing, no running about on thousand and odd household
errands.”
“Still, wouldn’t you have
preferred a comfortable, suburban life?”
“That cloistered life, completely dependent on gas, electricity and other
energy gadgets keeps man as a slave of his own inventions, making him less
ingenious, less adaptable to circumstances.”
“Honey, I cant get you those nice iced coke cans.”
“Doesn’t matter. We can do well without those empty, harmful drinks. The
oases you shall take me to will quench my thirst far better with sweet
water which will resemble divine nectar.”
“Remember, the mouth-watering pizzas and popcorns are beyond our reach.”
“The delicious nuts, dates and raisins we have at hand are surely good for
our health. They don’t, also, bring unwanted problems and ailments.”
“No chance of listening to
jazz bands or pop music.”
“ Our words to each other shall thrill our hearts better than those
so-called entertainments.”
“Don’t you really miss those
wonderful machines called phones, TV’s and computers?”
“Absolutely not. We have each other available always, free to share, free
from distractions. No distance between us-virtual or real. No differences
and hence little chance of divorce between us! Also, aren’t we safe from
blatant assaults of utter violence, obscenity and avarice shown in the TV
24 hours a day?”
“Luxury cars gliding fast on
perfect highways could be real joys, you know.”
“Not more than our faithful beast here. Jostling against each other,
bumping up and down on this humped animal is far more exciting!”
“Oh! Queen of my heart! Wont
you be proud if I were the president of a mighty nation?”
“And you be pestered by lousy stenos? I prefer to possess you all for
myself.”
“Wont you be pleased to have
billions deposited in a Swiss Bank account?”
“I wonder what peace of mind barons and swindlers have.”
“We have little touch with
the fast-galloping scientific world.”
“I am not a wee bit interested in the inventions, be they bio-weapons or
genome charades. Nor do I care if they cloned lambs or pigs. Let us remain
untainted with any vicious research or technology.”
“We may be unaware of the
important events on earth.”
“Thousands and thousands of innocent lives perishing in both natural
catastrophes and man-made calamities cannot be heartening news. The fate
and the conjecture of the whereabouts of hunted fanatics fail to interest
me.”
“Darling, don’t you long for
some exciting sounds and sights around us?”
“No. I’m grateful to be far from the madding crowd. Rat race for survival,
treacherous politics for supremacy of power are all extremely sickening.”
“Shut out from the rest of
the world we shall starve for knowledge.”
“No, no. Gazing at the sun, sand and the sky we shall gain abundant
knowledge – both scientific and metaphysical.”
“There isn’t much to boast
about the flora and fauna of our place.”
“The riot of wild cactus flowers is not inferior to any renowned flower
garden elsewhere. The palm clusters laden with nutritious fruit bunches
are quite a feast- to the eye and the stomach. For fauna, the ship of the
desert, our dear camel, is unique. It is stoic and sturdy. More dependable
than any man-made vehicle. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Do you really like this
desert, honey?”
“Yes, dear. It is pure and unpolluted. It has not fallen prey to man’s
mindless exploitation like the seas, the forests, the rivers and the mines
of the earth.”
“Our eyes have no other pastime than chasing endless mirages.”
“Far better than all the futile chasing of worthless goals of the
materialistic world.”
“Scope for variety of
experience is almost nil here.”
“Also is scope for crime and remorse nil here.”
“Yet, this supreme solitude might make us feel forlorn.”
“Quite the contrary. This feels like snuggling in the intimacy of Nature,
like pampered, privileged pets of God. We bathe in the pristine streams of
pure love, faithful and devoted- feeling responsible for each other’s
happiness.”
“Are you not afraid this joy
might cloy?”
“No chance of our becoming the excited urbanites with weekend madness and
Monday blues or the disillusioned achievers and despotic bureaucrats
driving the world to a frenzy of restlessness and exhaustion.”
“Oh! My sweet angel! Blessed
am I to have a sane and contented woman as wife! This indeed is a paradise
regained on earth- be it a desert or Eden!”
–
Pavalamani Pragasam
January 17, 2002
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