Just look around!!! There’s so much to learn!!

Was returning home from office yesterday, when I stopped by at the key maker’s. There were a couple of other elederly men there, and were discussing current affairs, as usual. Because of the lack of options, I reluctantly started overhearing their conversation. Little did I know, that this would turn out to be the most sensible talk that I would heard in the entire day, or may be in the entire week too.

The key maker was kinda working late, so an elderly man there were asking him to hurry up. As an analogy, he said that “it is the law of nature, see, even birds go home when the sun sets. Only a few work late, like eagles, kites and vultures, but they too, only till a stipulated time.” This sentence kinda caught my attention. Then the conversation drifted to whether one can see such birds these days, and the same guy said that yes, you can easily find them at Parsi crematoriums, where the funeral rituals include laying up corpses of the deceased in empty wells, where they are preyed upon by kites and vultures, and eagles. “Strange are the ways of some”, he said. The other two people there laughed acknowledgingly. But then the man said, “There’s nothing wrong in that too….In some communities they burn, in some they bury; Parsis feed them to birds: So even after they are dead, they are used in feeding hungry birds. So what if it sounds odd, Parsis make difference to the world even as they leave it!”

Isn’t that insightful? I mean, being so much educated, and supposedly fitting into the ‘intellectual’ category of people; I had not even thought about why Parsis could be cremating their dead bodies that way; let alone thinking about them so profoundly. But an elderly,lonely, probably not very educated country man woke me up from my delusions. Philosophy, my friends, isn’t the copyright of Paulo Coelho or Ayn Rand; or even the myriad Yogis and sages. Philosophy is delivered by any one who wants to think, and say his thoughts aloud!!!

Well, I am generally delighted when I get to know anything that is informative and at the same time intelligent and insightful; and given that, the man surely made my day!!!

15 thoughts on “Just look around!!! There’s so much to learn!!”

  1. Amruta,

    That was delightful indeed – I mean the insight offered by your “aam aadmi”. This goes to show that the poor road-side Indian is philosophical and intelligent as well.

    Still, what is lacking is education. It is important to realize the distinction between intelligence and education/awareness. Just imagine where this key-maker would have been given proper education.

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  6. Hi Arti!!

    Thanks for your comments, and welcome to the blog, and keep writing in your feedback.

    Hey I also see that you are an established blogger yourself. Will surely go through your blog soon.

    Btw, care to tell me which friend of yours recommended my blog to you?

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  7. Hi Amruta,

    I recommended Arti your blog. She is my friend and a wonderfully gifted writer but above all a very sensitive, caring and intelligent human being.

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  10. I dont know if I am right or wrong, but education – like religion, caste, class, language, culture etc seems to broaden the line between the two cagegories of people- educated and uneducated. Education in my opinion is dividing people. If a person has masters degree, he has a different designation, engg degree has a different designation and arts/science graduates have a different designation. But all of us do the same work. In fact we have noticed that the lesser educated you are, the harder you tend to work but lesser you tend to get noticed. Maybe this might be blessings in disguise, but still education, I feel is a tool in mankinds hand to further divide and categorize people, like religion, caste, lang, culture etc. I welcome contraditory views.

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  11. Bhaave..!!
    Well this is only the third blog that I have read (of all the blogs that u have posted) and frankly speaking I am already addicted to your writings.. 🙂

    Just a few thoughts from me here.. I personally feel there is a meaning behind every thing that is followed or happens.

    Parsis feel that even after a person is dead he still does something useful for the world by feeding the dead body to the hungry birds. As you said it may sound odd to us but may be if we were parsis it would be normal.
    When you bury a body in that way too you contribute to the enviornment. (when a body decomposes in the soil, again plants and other animals do get their matter from it).

    My point of argument here is: There is nothing wrong in your education my dear. Just like you were not “aware” of why parsis do this similarly I am sure that key maker will not be aware of the “hello world” program you write 🙂

    Dont “kos” your education system for this. Life is too short for anyone of us to learn everything. 🙂

    Why do we feel that an educated person should think/talk sense always..?? I want you to get that notion off from all your minds… Education / Intelligence / General knowledge have nothing to do with each other.. they are independent entities. And this goes to everyone out there who also feel that “if the key maker was educated imagine where he would be”..

    Moral of the story: Education / Intelligence / General knowledge are all independent entities. – DRILL IT IN 🙂

    Note: No offence meant to anyone here. This is my first note here. Again as Bhaave puts it.. perspectives..!!! Feel free to correct me if you feel I am wrong.

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  12. Hey Khwaja!!
    Thanks for ur comments, and welcome to the blog! 🙂

    Well, I am not ‘kos’ing our education system…. I am just saying that we should try and achieve a little broader mindset. Right?

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  13. Hey Amruta

    I dunno u remember me or not but i was there in TVM with you for the TCS training. Just came across your blog and was searching for some posts which could reflect your thot process when i came across this one. It was really nice.

    Keep it up

    Utkarsh

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  14. Hi Utkarsh!!
    Ofcourse I remember you!!! 🙂
    Hey thanks for your comment, and encouragement! And welcome to the blog. Btw, I just noticed that you are a great blogger yourself. Will surely go through your blog soon. And yeah, u’ve edited the CSS of ur blog well!! 🙂

    Anyways, keep reading and writing in!! Byee! 🙂

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  15. Nice one 🙂 , Although I already knew about the parsi custom, because of my parsi friend.

    We have so much to learn, and its all there just around us.

    We can learn something or the otehr, from almost everyone and everythign around us, I guess we just need to keep out eyes and mind open.

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