Back to Life:
Priya was only remotely fascinated by her actual name before-- her parents sometimes used to make fun of her, saying that it would have been better if she had been named 'vakuLa', with a tint of sarcasm. Neither she understood what they meant, not did she understand what was wrong with the name 'vakuLa'. They always said that her grandmother didnt like staying with them even though they tried bringing her over because her way of life was too strict and out-of-date, and that she stayed in a remote village away from them.
It was only later when she met her grandmother incidentally on a trip did she realise what her parents meant. But right in the first meeting, she found her grandmother far more likeable than her parents. She developed a soft corner for her grandmother, who still called her VakuLa, and started visiting her often. Gradually, she began to prefer the name 'VakuLa' over 'Priya'. Though she enjoyed battling with semaphores and forks in work, she found this far more gratifying. In a short while, she had learnt so much that she felt she came a long way. Now, because of the same qualities that made her an excellent team lead in that software testing form, she had become the life of the town because of her commitment and hardwork, and she had become a role model for other young women.
At one point, she understood that more than devotion to the Godhead, it was the commitment to lead a way of life that preserved riches of life that kept her going--an honest attempt at leading a much more organic, natural, intuitive, and richer way of life where she can always learn something about the nature, the people around her, and finally herself.
And so, every weekend, she became VakuLa, and every Monday, she returned to work as Priya. Her grandmother did not coax her into any kind of decision. She knew that her granddaugher had come on her own, and she had to make her own decision-- and the decision had to be made soon.
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It is the end of my narration, for I do not know what the future has in store for the central character. Will she become VakuLa in the end or will she stay Priya... I do not want to take it any further, because I do not want to think for the readers of this story. If you have come till here, you have already an opinion about Priya/VakuLa, and about yourself. Her story ends here and yours begins here. What you want to become and where you want to go is your business.
P.S.: Yes, the narration is sloppy, the character development is incomplete, and some characters are too stereotyped and banal. But if you still manage to look through this nebulous fog and find something to ponder over, then I have done my job.
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6 comments:
You have.
She can be both vakula and a team lead...if only she can see how to be...
well well... I think I should expect such an answer from someone devoted to software industry. Actually, its not a bad answer.
If you look at it, She is a tem lead even in that town. Its just a different industry.
I think that a brain drain similar to 70s and 80s is happening now-- conventional roles in life still need great minds, but those minds now work for the IT. While being in IT one may still work for tradition, but it is still aprt-time job.
i dunno if am "devoted" to anything yet... :)
anyways...first, i interpreted this a lil differently and there went my off-the-cuff comment. i just meant it to say that working in IT/living in city doesnt and need not mean you are against your culture/tradition. You can incorporate it in your life inspite of whatever you do for a living.
as per your comment, now that i see what you wanted to convey, ofcourse yes, i think it can be called urbanisation of india. its more because of concentrated development on few areas and uneven spread of opportunities.
its the quality of life as seen from the popular view of people thats causing it. not everyone is a tyagaraja and live by "nidhi chaala sukhamaa..." philosophy.
just to add to it. lets take the study of veda. take the case of a veda pandita today...is there a social environment where in a veda pandita can live by just studying veda and teaching it. few of them are salaried by ttd and other instituitions. but lot of them learn smArtham/paurohityam and live by it. obviously vedaadhyayanam takes a back seat.
in this environment its better if atleast people in other professions learn them part-time and pass on this treasure to next generations.
I have a different take on this. If a guy/girl from another profession wants to help the cause of Vedas and all, there are two ways:
1) leave the job and take up studying Vedas, but this is not feasible for most.
2) help others (monetarily or otherwise) who want to learn Vedas. This is the better one.
I once used to think it is people like us who have to learn it part-time and spread it. But now, I think that we can only offer indirect help. If you still want to learn Vedas, you can still do so, but it cannot be more than a matter of interest. We in IT cannot offer the commitment it deserves.
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