Take turns to be the fool

Ashima Sehajpal Batish

Every day should be Women’s Day. Like all days should be Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day.... The ‘every day’ argument helps score an easy point, making us escape our honest assessment. And while we are at it, we tend to celebrate Fool’s Day throughout the calendar year. This one, funnily, seems the most apt. Each one of us contributes towards its celebration, ensuring the scale doesn’t quite tip. In the process, only the roles keep switching — often, the one who fools ends up being one. 

There is a natural inclination towards playing the part of a ‘crooked fool’ — it is meatier and, therefore, more alluring. They talk big, make bigger promises; work less, brag more. They are the loudest. And sweet — like a saccharine Facebook update about love and the lover; like the ‘likes’ and comments, all bereft of sincerity. They are like mann ki baat, only more baat and less heart.

I wonder if crooked fools are happier than good, old fools. I wonder how jubilant they feel about being the nasty crab that pulls the other down in the bucket, forgetting the other one will switch role whenever the chance presents itself. For how long can one escape the reality that no one is ever immune to the fool’s syndrome? There are private hospitals to remind you that fat bills can be designed; private schools to teach you that lucky draws are meant not for just lucky, but rich too; private clubs to affirm that membership is strictly by recommendation and ‘building fund’.

The harmless April Fools’ Day tricks evolve into foul games with age. Games that are dangerous, that spare none, not even the most powerful countries of the world, ruled by the smartest fools. They have the maximum risk-taking ability. They can be reckless, threatening to shoot off a missile, without pausing to think of the consequences their words may trigger. While some use weaponry, some use words, inventing terms. They gave us ‘pseudo-liberals’ and ‘libtards’. And all this while, some countries beamed with confidence about their secular status. While fools raved and ranted about nationalism, some others sat glued to their television sets in confirmation.

As fools, amidst all this, we forget to laugh at ourselves — at how each day, someone is successfully pulling a prank on us. Instead, we crib. We crib about fraudsters fleeing the country; about 26 lakh students being forced to take a nerve-wracking exam again;    the mowing down of a journalist; farmers taking to the streets; a film’s release stalled.... By this time, we should have got used to it. Like the fancy filters of Snapchat, we should develop our own to click pictures that are pretty. 

We should make peace with being a fool, and being fooled; happily believing that besides Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, many others have a broad, broad chest.