Freedom - A Disturbing Thought!!

“Into the heaven of freedom my father, let my country awake”, wrote Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate from India. I thought of this today and wondered in amazement. Do I really know what freedom is? What does freedom mean to me? What would it mean to others around me? I just thought of the few people and wondered what freedom would mean to them?

Just began thinking… and believe me, there came a point of time, where I just couldn’t, rather didn’t want to think anymore. I’ll just express my thoughts here and leave it for you to figure out what freedom would mean to these people, what it means to you.

Savita:

The first one I thought was a running, scrambling, struggling lady trying to fight her way into the 6:34 p.m. Virar fast local from Churchgate station after work. All this, to reach home safely in time to be able to cook her drunkard abusive husband, taunting in laws and mischievous ungrateful kids a delicious dinner. What would freedom mean to her?

Raju:

Just when I began feeling a bit uncomfortable with the flow of thoughts, the thought of Raju came to my mind. Yes, Raju, who works from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm at a tea stall at the end of my lane. He has varied hobbies, from cleaning the table to washing the tea cups; he has been made to love all of it. Oh, I forgot to mention, he just celebrated his seventh birthday yesterday amidst great fanfare. The delicacy for the day was a ‘Five Star’ he bought from his weekly savings of a rupee a day. He also had the pleasurable and much sought after company of ‘Moti’ & ‘Seema’, the two beloved pets of Mishraji who also happens to be Raju’s master. ‘Moti’ & ‘Seema’ are lucky, they are often fed a cup of sweet milk, little Raju has never been so lucky yet in his 3 years of dedicated service to Mishraji. What would freedom mean to Raju? Any idea?

Munni:

Just when I was trying to recollect my thoughts around Raju, another great personality struck my mind. “Munni” – the outperformer. Yes, Munni sold orchids, carnations, roses and any other sundry seasonal flowers as handed over to her by her incestuous uncle at the Churchgate Station Signal junction. She was truly an outperformer, better at delivering bottom-line results and meeting her assigned targets better than any other corporate head honcho.

This was her second consecutive week where she had exceeded her target of sales of Rs. 155/- everyday. She got her vada pav for dinner every day that week from her mother who was otherwise busy teaching her younger son the art of persuasive begging at the car windows at the signal junctions. He was underfed for a week too, so that he could look the part when it comes to the real act in a day or two. What do you think freedom would mean to Munni?


Rani:

By now, I was sweating heavily and wanted to go to my building compound for a walk. This was when I banged into an overjoyed Bahadur Singh, my building watchman. This one that Bahadur narrated to me took me a time to fathom. He told me the reason for his delight was ‘Rani’. Bahadur and Rani shared a lot of things in common. For starters they shared a bed last night in Kamathipura and more importantly for Bahadur; Rani also shared his native place in a small village in Nepal. Obvious reason for Bahadur’s excitement was the fact that he had a 16 year old Nepali girl to satiate his wild fantasies. It was dream come true for Bahadur. Something he always wanted! Wonder what freedom would mean to Rani???