Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination,
but Sancho Panza.
but Sancho Panza.
~ Franz Kafka
Don Quixote: Do my eyes deceive me? The giant white dragon has come to do battle with the great Don Quixote de la Mancha!
Sancho Panza: Pray look again, Master. Yon be not a dragon, but a machine.
Don Quixote: I tell thee it is a giant white dragon. And I shall slay it. Charge, great Rosinante! Charge!
***
Sancho Panza: Many a man has gone to bed feeling well, only to wake up the next morning and find himself dead.
Don Quixote: That's a proverb.
Sancho Panza: Yes, Your Grace.
Don Quixote: But I don't approve of them.
***
Sancho: They say one madman makes a hundred and love makes a thousand.
Aldonza: What does that mean?
Sancho: I'm not sure.
***
My Dear Kiran,
ReplyDeleteAm writing this with a very heavy heart. Couldn’t bear to see you in this avatar. You’ve really stooped to a deplorable level..
Since childhood I’ve always looked up to you. You were a Hero (not Heroine) for many of us and a source of inspiration too. We almost worshipped you for :
1.Setting the trend for women to join Police force
2.Working without “fear or favour”
3.Having the guts to give the PM a parking ticket for parking in the no-parking zone
4.Changing the face of Tihar jail by introducing meditation and educating the criminals in the jail
5.For being a clean officer
and so on..
Many students, especially girls, wanted to join the civil services because they were inspired by you. You showed that people in the services can make a positive difference, wherever posted. You converted your punishment posting into an unbelievable human experiment that showed that Policing is not just about catching criminals.
Having said all this, today it is saddening to see your public performances, be it on TV or on the stage at Ramlila maidan. All your fans have been shattered by this insane behaviour of yours.
Getting into this self-righteous mode is highly dangerous. Please take a break, do some meditation and introspection, and come back as a sane individual. Its not sufficient to espouse important causes, it is also necessary to be on ground level.
Hope you will not betray the hopes of your admirers..
Yours faithfully,
Oh my my!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see "Mr./Ms. Anonymous" had 'almost' worshipped a person like Kiran Bedi for the number of reasons enumerated by him/her. Hope this Anonymous had not entered into the Indian upper clericaldom with such lofty self-righteous ideals and made yet another fool of him/her-self.
Kiran Bedi and many such Macaulay's clerks of the Indian bureaucracy have only made a caricature of themselves and the system they work with. Many of my friends who had entered into the civil services have ended up as clowns like Kiran Bedi or have become tragically sad ghosts of their murdered selves and keep on basking in delusions of grandeur. The moot point lies in understanding the system than getting elated in piecemeal tinkering with it.
Hope Kiran Bedi takes the advice of her adoring admirer seriously and attends a meditation camp to introspect along with this Anonymous to cleanse herself and get back into the NGO-sector entrepreneurship with renewed zeal and zest!
There can be no better comparison than Don Quixote and Sancho Panza to mock at the current circus happening in India! The classic first modern novel by Miguel de Cervantes still rings as one of the best works of literature ever written. The contemporary relevance of such classics had always been eternal. Your Blog has urged me to re-read 'Don Quixote' after almost a decade and I relished every bit of it with mirthful joy and profound contemplation. It reminded me of what my beloved Professor used to stress about the importance of revisiting Classics every now and then in order to live life with magnificent splendour!
Debate around the fast by Anna was getting too serious. It must have been playing on the nerves of Anna also, as it was on the nerves of many others. In the circumstances, Kiran Bedi's buffoonery came as a welcome break. Think about the health of poor Anna. At least he would have got some energy seeing Kiran in pallu. The old man has given 10 full days of entertainment to the nation. He also should have his share of the same. Let us not grudge if a poor old man is given some healthy snack, even by way of buffoonery.
ReplyDeleteI remember a prediction about Dr. S. radhakrishannan in his young age that he will rise to the highest position in India but also that he will loose his mind in the last years of his life.Both the predictions came true.His philosophy provides a good plank for young learners even today unaffected by his last days.The contribution of Kiran Bedi as a civil servant who dared bring reforms like Vipassana meditation in Tihar jail when Pallavi's so called yoga trainers like sri sri Ravi Shanker(in my opinion,one of the spritually advanced souls who has chosen his own way to spread light and peace -remember- J. Krishnamurthy says that Truth is a pathless land) had not gained prominence cannot be undermined. And then, a system consists of individuals and individual contribution is what makes the difference.Still,I do agree with my anonymous friend that we expect more decorum from an ex-civil servant keeping with the lofty Traditions of the service.
ReplyDelete