Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Bet

This weekend has really been just “passing moments”. Life suddenly decided to play a prank on me and bang!! Surprise me!! And did I get surprised? Well, it really isn’t a million dollar question, I did. These days (as is quite evident in my blogs), I am into an introspection mood. Whenever, I sit to write for this space, I just love thinking “differently”. So today too, I am just going to do that.

When I school, I read a short story named “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov. The story was so brilliant that even today after so many years, I remember it distinctly. The story was about a silly bet between a banker and a young lawyer. While on an argument about the morality of life imprisonment and capital punishment, the lawyer says that he would choose life imprisonment over the other as to “live anyhow is better than not at all." This leads to a bet among the two wherein the lawyer stakes his freedom and the banker two million for a period of 15 years. What happens is how at the end of the term, the lawyer through his solitary confinement learns the real lessons of life and foregoes the money to proof to the banker what he learnt. The story talks about what imprisonment is all about and how people see it.

It may seem strange to be narrating this story but I couldn’t help but recollect it this weekend. The term “imprisonment” can bring horrors in one’s mind (it surely does to mine). I mean today living in an independent country (I’ll not get into the controversy of the statement) I enjoy many things which the history books tell me my ancestors probably didn’t. I live in a global village, in a unique blend of cultural roots and modernization. Even the rules that are set for me are okay by general standards and most of it is acceptable. But still there are many instances when I feel someone has breached into my independence and all is so wrong. The rules seem to be bad, authoritative and I just don’t want to abide with them. But hello! Ultimately I listen to those rules and abide by them too. There are very few of us who has the courage to stand up and tell that something displeases us.

I am alas not one of those who can stand up and say what displeases me. I hate many things around me and wish to change a lot of them but look at me. I am sitting here and penning my thoughts. Well, I don’t think doing this is just that bad; it has become my window to the world. I love doing this and love the fact that atleast somehow I vent out my feelings. Every time I blog, I say a silent thanks to the people of thought of this wonderful medium. Just love doing this.

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