The many Ravanas on our back

Hari Krishan Chaudhary

HORDES of children of the society knocked on my door. A leader among them came forward, ‘Uncleji, Dasehra donation please!’ Feigning ignorance, I asked them what for. ‘Dasehra is celebrated in the Ramlila grounds. How come you are here?’ I asked. ‘We are making our own Ravana in the society. Perhaps Meghnad and Kumbhkarna too, if funds are sufficient. We can have the celebrations in our park. There is no need to go to the rush and dust of the Dasehra grounds.’ 

 The boy’s arguments could not be more logical. I gave them some money.  They went away to knock on another door.

In the evening I saw Ravana-in-the-making in the society park. Many children were busy making arms, heads, moustache and swords. A bigger boy was making a wooden structure on which these were to be mounted. Another boy was neatly arranging crackers of different varieties for stuffing the effigy. Ropes and pegs were being made to erect and fasten it. 

Children’s creativity was at work, and also their team spirit, vision and collective effort in making a Ramayana character come alive. In our days, we just had gaddas — Hanuman’s mace — and bows, arrows and swords to play till evening when we went on our father’s bicycle and stood on the carrier to have a better view of the burning Ravana.

 As I watched the children at work, I asked one of them; ‘Why do you set Ravana aflame?’ ‘For fun and crackers,’ he said, another boy correcting him, ‘No, uncle, to burn the evil Ravana is good for all of us.’

I thought about it. We all are carrying Ravanas on our back, so heavy that we can’t even move freely. We see it burn and rejoice, but we come to our homes without the burden on our back any lighter. Where is the Rama who will fire his arrow at the Ravana perched on our back?

No one will help us lighten our burden, but our own convictions and beliefs and the faith that we can overcome it. We have to cut the many heads of our prejudices. These may be our callousness, our self-centred attitude, our outlook towards women or poor children working when they should study, or our indifference to the condition of our streets and backyards, or our tolerance of corruption, filth and crime.  

 They have a potential to destroy our present and future. They are more dangerous than Ravana’s heads. 

This Dasehra let us unlearn, let us destroy our selfishness and be more proactive and compassionate. Let us foster love and harmony. Let us live our dreams and let our inertia and prejudices be set on fire. 

If not, we will start dying slowly. Like Pablo Neruda observed, ‘If you do not change your life, if you do not risk what is safe for uncertain, if you do not go after a dream, you start dying slowly.’