The Highway


The line separating faith from superstition is thin, to the extent of being ineffective! Speeding down the Jodhpur-Jaisalmer highway, towards the Temra temple, this is the one thought that keeps resonating across the consciousness. The rationality of thought acquired through modern education forever trying to dismiss faith as mere superstition & values fed by religion persistently trying to justify seeming superstitions as faith. The highway meanwhile, keeps you occupied. The vast expanse of the desert seems all encompassing, with the wind whistling past you fiercely. The emptiness of the landscape on both sides of the road stretches endlessly towards the horizon, punctuated only by small hamlets bodied of tiny straw huts scattered unevenly. And as the jeep you are driving tears through this imposing view, you can almost smell the rubber on the wheels burning against hot asphalt. The sun, meanwhile, continues to shine relentlessly, painting beautiful mirages on the road ahead; tempting you to stop by and soak in much-needed coolness.




A small dhaba appears on the left of the road with the words “Coca-Cola” screaming from a large red board, suddenly pulling you back into material existence, proof that globalization is a reality that is here to stay. It is time to pull over for a small break; tea, pakoras and a quick smoke, if you would. Vapours from the tea-kettle liquefy the space around them, blurring your vision. A couple of rabbits pop out of nowhere, flop their ears, and vanish as immediately as they had appeared, lighting up the dead landscape with this sparkling cameo. The dhabawallah meanwhile informs that the temple is just a few kilometers ahead. And the journey resumes with the din of the diesel engine and the smell of burning rubber keeping you company. 30 minutes and 25 kilometers later, something appears on the landscape, leaving you gaping with your eyes wide open- 17 tall windmills dotting the barren stretch of land that accommodates the small rock atop which the small temple sits. The jeep is pulled over to the side of the road, as you try to absorb this imposing dialogue between nature and technology. Moving towards the temple, you are not exactly delighted to discover that a total of 173 steps lie between you and the structure atop the rock that houses faith. 173 steps later, you finally get to enter the temple. The temple, it is informed, houses the clan deity of the Charans and Rajputs of Jaisalmer. The blood on the floor bears testimony to the numerous animal sacrifices that have taken place there. Faith or superstition? The view from the top, meanwhile, is enticing; the windmills stand tall, silhouetting the ever expanding desert that stretches lazily beyond the scope of your vision.


Mahim Singh

HABITS AND RABITS


Habits die hard. Yeah. Old saying. I know. But why do habits die hard? Well, let me first define what a habit is. A habit is any pattern of behavior or action tendency that is relatively stable and enduring, in the process becoming an almost inseparable part of an individual’s personality. It can also be called a relatively independent, enduring and self-perpetuating conditioned response. As a matter of pure coincidence, habit, the word, rhymes with rabbit, the word .but while habits die hard, rabbits die easy. This is a strange aberration, a very striking observation. What? Dumb comparison? Illogical connection? There’s no such thing as a connection between rabbits and habits? Hang on fellas. This is interesting. Why?? Let me explain. Well, cuz when everything that breathes or walks or lives (rabbits, for instance, and other animals) dies so cheap at the hands of us homo sapiens, why do habits form such an unrelenting exception? Hmm. That’s a tough question. Really difficult. Why don’t habits die? In the above mentioned comparative analysis between rabbits and habits, we can have an answer. But before attempting an answer, we should take note of the fact that out of the two, only one has fur, the other is thick skinned, like a rhino, but that doesn’t mean habits and rhinos are similar things, cuz rhinos have a horn, while habits have thorns which keep pricking you and never let go and never let you forget about them. Anyways, back to our very sincere attempt at answering a very grave problem. We humans have a penchant for killing things, but only those things that are “other”. I mean, things that are outside of us and in one way or another, don’t belong to us. There lies the sense of victory, which we derive from such acts. It is for this sense of victory & gaining control over others that we kill things, anything and everything, animals, people, property, emotions….everything. It makes us feel powerful, gives us the proverbial shot in the arm or wherever. This assumption also automatically implies that we can’t kill habits cuz they exist within us; they feed on us & thrive on our weaknesses. They are, if it can be put across thus, so “ours” that we are attached to them, they are our own & although we acquire them from the society, we gradually come to internalize them.

Smoking, my friend, is a habit. It is NOT, mind it, a rabbit. Well, yeah, agreed that both are generally white & have a soft & furry tail, but that’s the only possible similarity that can be drawn.



finish it up later guyz.....gottta ctch a quick...yeah...well...smoke.!!!