Impressions

Case One:
Karthik is a movie freak. He has a collection of 200 VCD’s and DVD’s and the numbers are still growing. For him weekends are just spending time in those big malls or in Music shops, buying movies, movies and movies only. But there is something different about him. Even at the age of 30, he has a liking for cartoons. I have seen people who watch Tom and Jerry but it’s really difficult to find people who would watch, say, He-Man. Mr. Raman, Karthik’s father says, “My son loves watching He-Man in his free time. Should I be proud of this?”

Even I was curious to know about this He-Man episode. I once caught up with Karthik in a restaurant. He had come there to pick up a parcel and I was in the table, eating my dinner. As usual our conversation started on the technical front, then drifted to the political happenings and then to the movies. This was the right time for me to pluck the strings. I asked him as to what made him so interested in cartoons. Karthik said, “I have grown up watching these cartoons since childhood. I still remember the days when I was in my fourth standard and we were staying in a flat in Punjabi Bagh in New Delhi. A few days earlier, Appa had got us a nice little 14” Black and White Televista TV. Every Sunday between 3.30 to 4 PM, in the Doordarshan Channel, I used to watch the He-Man sequel. Due to power disruptions, I also missed watching some of them. I used to shout at Amma that someday I would buy the video tape of He-Man. Today I have the complete collection and I have watched every episode.”

Case Two:
On the first of every month, Mani Thatha goes to his bank and withdraws money from his pension account. This is his monthly routine. But, do you know what he does with the money? He goes shopping, buying pens. He is so fond of them that he has a wonderful collection – the Parker, the Mont Blanc, the calligraphic set, and his all-time special, the gold plated ink pen. He also loves filling up the ink cartridge with a syringe. He never had the flair for ball pens. He can talk about pens, nibs, inks, calligraphy and spirography for hours together. I once asked him innocently, “Do you have any books on pens? Have you read them a number of times?”

He laughed and said, “Prasad, when I was of your age, I didn’t have the money to buy pens and ink. My father was a peasant and his earnings were just enough for the daily activities. When you went to school, you enjoyed the luxury of traveling in a bus. But for me, everyday was a hard day. I used to travel in a bullock cart for one hour and from there I had to walk for thirty minutes to reach my school, since the road was narrow. There were no pens in those days with storage for ink. I used to carry an ink bottle always. The ink was made by dissolving the colour tablets in hot water and often the ink bottle would give way. Either they would break or the ink would harden. I was frustrated with all this. I used to pray that someday all this would go off and I will get a nice ink bottle that I can carry to my school, without the ink spilling on my bag. Today, God has answered all my prayers. There are wonderful pens, better ink bottles and what not!”

There is something definitely common to both of them – Mani Thatha and Karthik. We come across so many things in our lives, and there are a few that leave an impression in our mind. We are never aware of these. It could be things used on a daily basis or it could be things that are deprived of. These remain buried for quite sometime. When we see them again, all the thoughts and desires associated with them, sprout from the inner layers, and they force us to buy or use them. Isn’t human psyche a wonder?