On a shiny and warm Monday morning in June 2015, I arrived early to work and I was restless to get started with my day. My brain was already in work-mode since it was my new job after a long health break. The urge for a word processing application to record my random morning thoughts in a blank document. It is my ritual to shift gears, to switch lanes, and to ramp up, before I hit the work freeway.
Unfortunately, wherever I worked I would always arrive early even before the security sometimes! With all my agitation in techno-color, I reached the office only to find that the security had stepped out to get some water. I began to prowl in front of the small but functional entrance of the office. The Security was on the third floor, while I knew for a fact that I did not have his contact info.
So, my mind understood that it will take some time and now there is only one way out, which is to wait. My Identity card was not programmed to open the office tolled door since I was just a probationary employee. As my frustration was rising to enter the office, I began restlessly prowling the entrance space like a geek writer.
I was making my third turn almost like Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. Now I didn’t have Mr. Darcy around to chillingly cut me to the undersize that I was or to admire my style of walking. (pun) Anyway, we are deviating from our important topic. So, coming back on my third turn my attention was captured by a quick flash of an almost familiar looking tail.
Let me expand on this tail business. I have this fun game with my sister’s son who is a little monkey himself (Kothi pila ) and of course, I am the big monkey (Peda Kothi) in that team. We love each other to distraction. Both of us would get into trouble with my more pragmatic sister, while I was governed by rulelessness.
My sister with resilience always called us the big and the small monkeys playing pranks in the house. Both the monkeys got this wonderful idea of Matching the animals with their tails – an exemptore game. The rule was to discover by merely looking at the tail and coming up with the animal’s name. My little monkey nephew enjoyed looking at various tails and coming up with the matching animal’s common name.
I knew from the quick view of the tail that it was a small sized Indian monkey’s. So, what is he doing on a busy morning and that too near my office?! Come on now, said my brain. It is a commercial place, and one can’t have animals around here, okay granted all domesticate animals like cat, dog, squirrel, common bird not frightened of human is fine, but a little prankster Monkey!!!
I told myself oh! That’s unique! So, I made a quick short U-Turn on my prowling and rushed to the front yard because the curious child in me was grabbed by the scruff of my attention seeking neck. My eyes eagerly scanned the spot where the little guy could possibly be and guess what? I found him happily jumping around and confidently rushing toward the road.
Right at the time a car was coming at great speed up the by-lane near the foot of the bridge. My office was situated on the side of the bridge, and it is a huge confusion of vehicles, pedestrians, domesticated animals and today our prankster Monkey. I panicked for his safety when he jerked into an upright position, and I winced at the sharpness of his movement. It felt like he was pulled to a sudden stop.
That is when I noticed his collar and chain. As I followed the chain, I found it disappearing into the calloused hands of an old man.
The old man was dressed in a colorfully patched up coat that have seen better days. Now my attention got transferred to the old man. He was wearing a peculiar combination of dress code – a combo of Western and Eastern garments. He wore an old and faded dhoti in typical South Indian style, and he had an assortment of cloth pieces in vibrant colors.
He appeared to have a beard and his hair was greying and unkempt. On his face, he wore an expression of boundless tolerance for the little prankster. My mind quickly equated his appearance to be a complete picture of a Madari.
Who Is a Madari?
A Madari is a Street showman who gives performances with an aid of animal. The animal performs a few neat tricks that would keep the onlooker reverted. He would have a small two side drum known as ‘Damaru’ which he would sound for the animal as the act start signal to perform. At the sound of the drum, the trained animal would willingly respond, and begin to perform gymnastics for public viewing. A Madari is a travelling showman whose existence surrounds the animal trained to please the onlooker while both would squeeze out a living.
How do I relate these pointers?
I am kind of surprised and diverted in my mind about my own existence. Isn’t my life also something like pleasing onlookers?! We are always busy trying to please our parents, our love interest, our teachers, our friends, our superiors at work and others who need to be impressed by us.
I also knew that I was childish and much like the prankster monkey. Complying with the rules was simply not for me. If someone gives me a rule, my mind will be busy trying ways to break it. I lost that only in my college days but occasionally it would appear every now and then troubling me with behavioral patterns. Partly the reason why I am always happy with children and playing gleefully any game that requires rule breaking could stem from this reason of non-conformity in me!
Expostulating Spirit of Spiritualism
That is when I looked at the complete picture of madari and the chained monkey. I was kind of made to feel that after all a human being is like the little monkey when the madari is the one who runs the show from above. Our invisible chain is bound to Him and He knows how far we can drift off towards danger before he jerks us back in.
There may be a profound truth that is lurking behind this simple scene. But the interpretation can be done in multiple levels. If the monkey were our desires and wishes; then, surely there is something interesting happening in that route.
The Madari is our wiser self-watching over our uncontrolled senses, the little monkey. The chain of existence becomes our contact point and the reflexive pulling the chain being the prerogative of the higher self. Either way that monkey kept me reverted for the rest of the week.
Featured Image Source: Street Entertainer and the Indian Monkey
Entry Timeline: 28 November 2015
Itinerant Storyteller 