Mi....Ek Vadval...

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Some days ago, when I came back to my desk after lunch, I found a messenger window popped up saying “Hi”. I looked at ID. Some Stranger…. Now, Generally I don’t incline to chatting requests from some one stranger unless there is a cross reference of a common friend.

But as with all rules… this one too has exception. This was that “Exceptional Case” because the ID was made up of name and surname and the surname was indication that the person might be a “Vadval”. Yeah… this is the exception….and I responded positively and continued with chat…

What is so special with being a vadval? Well, for me... it is… because “Vadval” is name of “My Community” the one I belong to (somehow I really hate to use the word “Caste”). I never find myself declining a chatting request if it is from a “Vadval”

In our daily life right from school we come across people from different layers of the society. We become close friends… all this does not involve community and all… it goes irrespective of... language… religion etc…etc…

But in all these relationships no matter how close we are, there is an invisible line that separates us at some social level. “Kahi Alikhit Niyam...” we all respects those rules knowingly or unknowingly.

The separation is at a very basic level if both are from entirely different regions or religions etc. And there are very minor differences or the separation is at a deeper level if both are belonging to different sub communities of same main community. These basically define the boundaries of interference (or rather Involvement) into each other’s social or family matters. Because after that “Rules of the Community” dominate and everyone try to adhere to the norms and rituals of “His Community”.

When we are part of same community, when it comes to interaction, the principle of “Home Centric Universe” of course comes into play.

When I ponder over this, I realize that I m missing no only my parents…close relatives and friends but I m missing community interaction too…. All those community gatherings, sports events, “Yuva Melave” so many things where we get to interact with people from our community. Since at least last three years I have not attended a community gathering…. Or yuva melava…There is a yahoo group for interaction but it is almost more than a year when I posted a mail on the group…. Mainly because there are either some serious discussions taking place about community or some job posts are put up…. There is no place for the time pass forwards that I am generally involved in.
But somehow I need to renew the ties…

Here I remember one story from “The Panchatantra”. There was one sage.
One day he sees a she mouse (bahutek kahi kaamdhandhe nasavet tyaala so...) he converts it into a girl child. Years pass by and time comes to get her married. The sage has such great divine powers even gods are not in position to refuse his requests.

He first goes to the sun with his daughter and ask her if she liked him. She says no… so the sage ask the sun to suggest someone. The sun says,"Despite of all my power this cloud can easily shadow me… so he is more powerful…".

So the sage go to the cloud… but the girl does not like him to…. Again the sage asks the cloud to suggest someone. Then the cloud said that despite of all his powers this mountain could stop him… so the mountain was more powerful…

When they go to the mountain, the girl does not like mountain too….
The mountain says,"Even though I m this big… a small mouse put me in lot of trouble by making holes in my body. So he is more powerful than me."

Eventually they end up meeting the mouse. The gal blushes when her eyes meet the mouse. She likes him and requests the sage to again convert her into a mouse. The sage smiles and agrees to it. Even when she could marry virtually anyone in the universe, she finally rejected all and chose someone from her own community… A mouse…