A PARABLE FOR CHILDREN

Once upon a time, there was a school principal who was the parish priest as well. He used to feel that it was his bounden duty to herd his flock, including the unruly school children on to the path to salvation. He was very patient but also very strict in administering justice.

The principal lived next to the school compound. In his backyard was a mango tree full of delicious mangoes. Some were ripe, but the unripe ones were more attractive to the school children. The principal had issued strict edicts regarding trespassing. But despite his frequent sermons every day to the children regarding coveting thy neighbour’s mangoes, the pious father found to his amazement, the number of mangoes on the tree dwindling day by day. In exasperation he asked his peon to keep a close watch over the tree during recess hours and if possible to nab the culprits.

Unaware of the set up, the children, a set led by the group captain, lets say, Ashok, decided to pluck the delicious fruits during recess. Ashok clambered up the tree faster than a squirrel and started plucking the forbidden fruit and delivering some to his associates. The peon promptly pounced on the group. Some ran away but the dedicated ones pretended that no one was up the tree. But that could not fool the peon and he ordered them to come down. The group simply refused to obey and when the peon left to report the crime to the principal, they returned to their respective classrooms, crestfallen, thinking of the dire consequences awaiting their leader.

In the evening, the principal sent word through the peon and the group lined up in his office room as though awaiting their turn towards the gallows.

The leader had assured them that at the maximum, he would only be dismissed and no one need expect a beheading for this crime. Still apprehensions were writ large on their gloomy faces and they, like the true apostles of Jesus, were even prepared to vow that their leader had not even touched the forbidden mango tree.

The principal started the proceedings. There was pin drop silence in the office room.

“Ashok, did you climb up the tree and pluck the mangoes?”

Expectant faces of the conspirators prepared themselves to vouch for their leader’s innocence. The leader hesitated to answer the question. The principal again put forth the very same question in a more serious tone as if to emphasise the gravity of the offence. Ashok had no choice but to answer. Ending the suspense, he said,

“I did, sir”

There was consternation writ large on the conspirators. But the peon did not hide his evil smile as he had earlier felt belittled by the way Ashok had ignored him when the crime was detected.

“Don’t you know that the mangoes do not belong to you?”

“I do, sir”

“Then why did you pluck the fruits?”

“I am sorry, sir. Please forgive me” Ashok replied, rather to end the ordeal as early as he can.

“Sure, Ashok, I will pardon you, but peon, bring me the cane”

Those were the days when corporeal punishment was the accepted norm, not only in the school, but in the household too. The peon with a vicarious smile, presented the long menacing cane to the principal immediately, He very much wanted the leader to be awarded the maximum sentence and hence had come prepared with the cane, to the court room.

“Show me your hand, Ashok” said the principal, rising from his chair.

“Forgive me, father”, repeated Ashok, faintly hoping that his mercy petition would yield some result.

“Sure, Ashok, I will, but show me your hand”, said the principal.

Ashok stoically held out his left hand. The principal with the usual rhythm and force administered six whacks on his hand, bringing wincing grimaces on the conspirators’ fallen faces.

“Now Ashok, show me the other hand” said the principal,

Ashok held out his right hand as well and promptly received another six cuts, making the total number to twelve. The principal laid the cane on the table, resumed his seat and called out to Ashok.

”Come here, my child. I have pardoned you.”

One could see the expressions of weariness in the eyes of the leader and of relief on the faces of the conspirators. The peon wore a sadistic smile.

The principal said, “Ashok, the principal has punished the naughty boy for his mischief, but the priest has pardoned him. If you are naughty once again, the principal would again punish you, but I will still pardon you. OK? Now be a good boy and go home”

The court adjourned, and it is the end of the parable.

Now children, let us reflect for a while on the whole episode.

Who is the sinner in this affair?

Ashok is not the sinner since he has admitted to his crime and begged forgiveness. The conspirators are not the sinners since they offered to give false evidence only to save their leader without any other malafide intentions. The principal had not sinned because he has only administered justice and have even pardoned the culprit.

Here, it is none other than the peon who is the true sinner. His duty was just to apprehend the culprit and report to the principal. He, as we have seen has harbored hatred towards Ashok and he had a sadistic intention to see him awarded the maximum punishment and thus also had the instrument of punishment ready even before the trial began.

There are quite a few things to learn from this parable

When you sit in judgement be very impersonal. It is an onerous task. Whatever be the situation, approach each and every case with detachment. If it is in the household, or in your office, or in a society, whenever you award a punishment let it not bear any sort of malice towards the offence or the offender.

This is what Bhagavad Gita teaches you. Arjuna during the Mahabharata war had to kill so many of his teachers and close relatives and acquaintances. This he performed without any trace of malice in his mind, after he imbibed the divine knowledge from Lord Krishna. You will probably learn more of it in due course as you get older and wiser. Remember the old adage? “To err is human; to forgive is divine”

That brings me to the social relevance of the story

You hear quite a lot of debate regarding abolishment of Capital Punishment. Remember what the principal did in the story. He awarded the punishment promptly and then he FORGAVE the offender. The learned judges after studying every aspect of the case award punishments based on the penal code: imprisonment of 10 yrs or 14 yrs or as in the United States, 145 yrs sometimes. After the period of detention, the society should pardon the offender. Once you award capital punishment, there is no chance for forgiveness .Even in the case of the most heinous crimes, you cannot absolutely say that the offender may not seek pardon. Once you finish him off, how can the society pardon him? Our modern times should not go back to eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth system. As Mahatma Gandhi rightly spake, “An eye for an eye will end up making the whole world blind.”

In this context, it is also important to note that our media, of late, has been donning the role of prosecutor, judge and the executioner. Their duty is to report the news in as unbiased a manner as possible. Instead, the moment a crime takes place they point out the culprits with scant evidence and with ulterior motives and then form the public opinion and bay for the blood. The society has similarly entrusted certain limited duties to the Police. Whenever a crime happens, the police is asked to investigate it and report the details to the Court of Law. They can employ legitimate methods to nab the culprits. They are in no way expected to sit in judgement or to mete out punishments. If they do it, they are as culpable as the Peon in our story. It is nauseating. It is time we realize how gullible we are and how ill equipped we are to sit in judgement. For that we have a separate agency: The Court of Law. Let none trespass on sacred territory not even the media.

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A for Apple... and something more..

Trade mark of APPLE COMPUTERS

Ever wondered what a Single bite on an apple signifies on the trade mark? It is an interesting story. Story of the genius who invented the basic computer and his tragic end at the hands of British Government whom he served during after the Great War.

As I started writing this piece, news came on the twitter that the British Government has apologised to Alan Turing for all the wrong done to him posthumously and that too after a gap of about 5o years.

So who was this great personality?

Alan Turing was a great British Mathematician who laid the groundwork for the Computer revolution. He was also the great visionary in the field of artificial intelligence. He proposed a simple machine having three basic units: an input tape, an output tape and a central processor which would perform a precise set of operations. From this developed the modern day computer

During world war II he helpled the British and the Allied Army in their fight against powerful Germany. The Allies were unable to decode secret German messages which were encrypted using a machine called ENIGMA. To break the code, Turing and his associates developed a machine called BOMBE through which the Allies could easily decipher German messages about their invasion plans leading ultimately to the defeat of the Nazis.

Instead of being hailed as war hero, who helped to turn the tide of world war II, Turing was hounded to death. One day his home was burglarized, and he called the Police. Unfortunately,the police found evidence of homosexuality and arrested him. Turing was then ordered by the British court to be injected with sex hormones, which had a disastrous effect, causing him to grow breasts and causing him great mental agony. He committed suicide in 1954 by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

It is rumoured that the logo of Apple Corporation pays homage to the great Alan Turing.

We might also recall the case of the great astronomer Galileo, to whom the Pope and the Catholic church apologized centuries later, acknowledging his theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the other way round as the the Church would have us believe then.

This piece has an important relevance too.

Not too long ago the honourable Delhi High Court made a landmark judgement making homosexuality/lesbianism etc legitimate. While it has been generally welcomed by the enlightened public, there are still people crying hoarse demanding a review of the case and they have approached the Supreme Court.

The honourable Judges of the High Court relied on scientific evidence available currently for their pronouncement and not on social mores or religious tenets. This is refreshing and thus, The Government of India need not apologise may be after half a century later, like Mr.Gordon Brown of Gr.Britain or the Pope at Vatican.

PS :

The material for the above write up on the Apple Trademark was largely gathered from a very good book, PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE by Prof.Michio Kaku, published by Penguin under Popular Science series. Great reading!

Mrignayani

About the Blogspot address.

It has been an arduous task to find a suitable name for the Blog. All the exciting, striking and meaningful titles had already been taken. Through all the frustration, one day, one of my friends, Mr.Vellody suggested, why I don’t select Soumini as the title. That happens to be my mothers name and it suited me fine. It was most likely to be available too. But then I had an inspiration. Why not go one or two generations backwards? And the story read: Soumini’s mother is Rugmini and Rugmini’s mother is Mrignayani. Well, there it ended. No further data available.

I feel that we all owe something to our great ancestors for our present. Be it for good or for bad, isn’t it nice to know our roots? And there are plenty of people spread far and wide on this planet who are progenies of this great lady and who knows, any one of them or their parents might have information about Mriganayani’s mother and her mother’s mother as well. I am sure some one would surely throw some light on our antiquity.

So the blog domain stands at MRIGNAYANI 2 JP . I had to add 2jp because as usual the name already been taken and secondly, I thought my great ancestor would now talk to the present generation through me. Or atleast keep the flame of her memory alight for generations to come.

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About the Blog:

Due to reforms being practiced by successive governments,the quality of education has suffered irrepairable loss. Now students, that is the future citizens, are least bothered about their social obligations, thanks to the negligence shown to the study of Social Studies as a subject right from school days to UG level.

This blog intends to bring up topics that are relevant to modern times so that my readers who spend very little time for serious reading are exposed to ideas that inspire them to THINK.

Also, this blog would try to pass on random pieces of usable knowledge in philosophy, science, religion, literature etc, which I glean from my resources . This I think would prompt my readers to explore further into their respective areas of interest to further their knowledge.

I expect valuable feedbacks from my readers which would further help in disseminating knowledge.

Expectations are utopian. But no harm in trying, right?