Restless Minds and Imaginary Fears

Here is a funny story I heard on a TV channel recently. The story beautifully depicts how our restless minds work.
Two guys were travelling in a train – one is an elderly person and the other a young chap. Wanting to strike up a conversation, the young chap asked, ‘What is the time sir?’

The elderly man responded: “I know this is how it all starts. As the train chugs along, we will start talking on politics – then start discussions on some stupid films, share breakfast- which will result in more intimacy. That is not all, by the time we are ready to get off the train, we would become extremely close.Then naturally, I would invite you home for a cup of coffee – you would see my daughter……And propose to get married to her”.
After a little pause, there comes the final punch from the elderly person: “Let me tell you upfront that I am NOT going to give my consent to the marriage!”.
Young chap kept his cool all the while but was curious to know why he wouldn’t give his consent to marry his daughter.
Much to the chagrin of the young man, the elderly person replied : “Why should I give my daughter in marriage to a guy who doesn’t even possess a watch?”

Isn’t it a fact that very often our minds are full of imaginary fears based on mere suspicions and assumptions?

This is how you break a Tiger – Says the Ringmaster

“This is how you break a tiger”, said the ringmaster, having tamed a rebel tiger in captivity to carry out circus tricks. This is a line straight from a movie titled ‘Two Brothers’, which was telecast a few days back. Through physical and mental torture,the ringmaster virtually breaks all resistance offered by the tiger and ultimately the tiger starts obeying the commands and jumps through a flaming hoop.

I watched the movie with great interest as it depicted quite graphically how two tiger cubs(brothers) were captured by villagers – one of them was sold to a circus while the other cub ended up as a pet at the village officer’s home.The mother tiger, which escaped being captured had to go through a lot of mental agony,having lost her cubs. Finally,the cubs managed to make a great escape in the midst of an utter confusion that followed a ‘Great fight’ arranged between the two beasts by the local village prince. The movie was shot somewhere in Combodia (Indochina)in 1920′s setting in an ancient temple.

The main provocation for writing this post is that one line from the ringmaster – ‘This is how you break a tiger’. It occurred to me that we might as well say the same thing about human beings in general! Can’t we? The only difference is that while the tiger in the movie had just one ringmaster, we have several – starting with our religion, the education, the society, the institution of marriage, our jobs with 9 to 5 or worse still 9 to 9 routines etc. Each one of these ringmasters is ‘breaking’ us into submission through indoctrination,bigotry,harsh discipline and mindless compliance. Tamed thus, we lead lives which are completely devoid of freedom and creativity. Most of us go through our lives mechanically like the tamed tiger in the movie and before we realize what is happening it is time to retire. Then of course we have our role cut out for ‘shaping’ the next generation to follow our footsteps.