Enlightenment after retirement

IT was my first Diwali after retirement. My thoughts turned back to all the years I had spent in service, particularly on senior positions. A week before Diwali, people would start dropping in with all kinds of gifts. There would be so many of them that the room where we kept all the stuff would look like a gift shop. Some items received a disdainful glare and would be kept aside for presenting to our unsuspecting kin. The amount of dried fruit would be so large that even after distributing it among our relatives and friends, a lot would still be left.

This time, things were totally different. It was already 2 pm, but nobody had come to wish us Diwali. I was feeling downcast and depressed at this sudden reversal of fortune. To distract myself, I started reading the spirituality column of a newspaper. Fortunately, I came across an interesting fable. It was about a donkey who was carrying idols of gods on his back for a prayer ceremony. When it passed through villages on the way, people bowed before the idols. In every village, a crowd would gather to pay obeisance.

The donkey started thinking that villagers were bowing to it and was thrilled at this newfound respect and reverence. After leaving the idols at the site of the puja, the donkey’s master loaded vegetables on it and they started the return journey. This time, nobody paid attention to the donkey. The cold-shouldered animal felt so frustrated that it started braying to draw the attention of the villagers. The noise irritated them and they started beating the poor creature, who had no idea about what it had done to deserve such a cruel treatment.

All of a sudden, I felt enlightened. Indeed, I was like this donkey. All those gifts and overt gestures of respect and honour were not meant for me but for the positions I had held. I told my wife: ‘My dear, I was really a donkey. Now that the truth has dawned on me, I will join you in celebrating Diwali rather than waiting for visitors.’

But she was in no mood to spare me. Pat came her sharp reply: ‘When I kept saying all these years that you were nothing but a donkey, you did not admit that I was right. But today a story in a newspaper revealed the truth and you accepted it at once!