Sometime back, the members of our "Panjim Badminton Club" embarked on a picnic to the beautiful sands and shore of the Candolim beach. While we were engrossed in a game of Football, suddenly, out of virtually nowhere, a white Foreigner invaded into our game, practically uninvited.
He was quite pleasant looking, had German eyes and appeared to be of Canadian origin, but was a bit bad-mannered though, for it did not matter to him whose side he was playing on. Whichever way the ball was moving, he was running in that direction and ruining what was otherwise turning out to a good contest. Before he could disrupt the game any further, I cajoled and escorted him out of our playing area and he walked away after that. After the culmination of our game, we retired to our shack, but to our utter surprise, he turned out there too. Maybe the scent of the lovely fish that was being cooked got him there. Once again uninvited. But on the positive side, he proved to be quite an extrovert. Though an outsider, he successfully befriended each one of us, without bothering to know whether we were Christian, Hindu or Muslim, whether we were upper caste or lower caste, whether we were Goans or Non-Goans, whether we were black or white. Nothing mattered to him and by the end of the day, the uninvited guest - - with his positive attitude, his friendly behavior and his extrovert character - - became the cynosure of all eyes, virtually the star of our picnic. If only we could all be like him, wouldn't this world have been such a wonderful place to live in? No battles fought over caste, creed and religion, no divisions in the society, nothing to kill and die for. But he, I presume, would happen to be an atheist, whereas religion and ideological barriers have sown the seeds of hatred in almost each one of us. Where we see one another not as fellow humans but as different from ourselves, and we will go as far as to hate, injure, even kill, to protect our religion and identities. Last night, a bad throat woke me up. When medicines fail me, it is music that generally soothes me to sleep. I am a hardcore Mohammed Rafi Fan and as usual, it was Rafi's magic that did the trick. I switched on some favourite Rafi solos, including my eternal favorite from 'Dhool ka phool', the lyrics of which go thus: "Tu Hindu banega na Musalman banega, Insaan ki Aulaad hai Insaan banega Maalik ne har insane ko Insaan banaya, humne use Hindu ya musalman banaya Kudrat ne jo bakshi thi humein ek hi dharti, humne kahin Bharat kahin Iran banaya". http://www.esnips.com/doc/4d987581-ca83-411a-9ac2-92bbe576e218/Tu-Hindu-Banega-Na-Musalmaan-Banega If only we were all inspired by songs like these, or by songs like Jonn Lennon's "Imagine", rather than being inspired by the "God of the books" who has only managed to divide us in his name. If only we could all be like the White Foreigner whom we were destined to meet that day at our picnic, the heaven would have been here on planet earth. Indeed, there would have been no Orissa, no Gujarat, no Kashmir and no North-East either. But unfortunately, we can never be like the White Foreigner for he is, but just a Labrador – a dog of Canadian origin, while we are humans who prefer to call ourselves the "intelligent species". Ha! There are so many things that we can learn from nature. Can we learn lessons of humanism from our "white" picnic friend? Cheers Sandeep Heble Panjim-Goa Our picnic Labrador snapshots: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/sandeepheble/Sandeep#5241808901220004066 http://picasaweb.google.co.in/sandeepheble/Sandeep#5241809232383179138
