Mysuru used to be a quiet, laid-back town and people were easy-going, as this tale of some 20 years ago demonstrates. My friend Dr. Prashant was invited to be chief guest at the first big meeting of a new voluntary organisation. The meeting was to start “exactly at about 5 o’clock”, as they charmingly put it, in a venue adjacent to a temple.
Prashant reached the venue on the appointed day just before five, but finding nobody present, wondered whether he had got the date wrong. Ten minutes later, when he was thinking of leaving, a profusely apologetic individual hurried up to him, asked if he was Prashant, and introduced himself as an office-bearer. After another 10 minutes, some people sauntered in and rigged up a cloth banner.
The meeting began with four persons on the dais and fewer than 10 in the audience. An office-bearer stood up to welcome the gathering, introduced the chief guest as Mr. Prakash and set out to eulogise him — when somebody went up to him and whispered in his ear. He immediately apologised and corrected himself that the chief guest was not Mr. Prakash but Mr. Prashant, and continued with the introduction. Soon after, another person went up and whispered in his ear. The speaker once again apologised and announced that the chief guest was not Mister Prashant but Doctor Prashant, a medical practitioner who had devoted his life to caring for the sick and needy. Prashant did not inform them that his doctorate was in Chemistry.
The gathering had grown to around 15, and another speaker rambled on, but concluded with the suggestion that more audience-members could be got from among the devotees leaving the temple. So some members left to urge people to come to the meeting.
Minutes later, as a third speaker droned on about the reason for the meeting, somebody noticed a youth removing the cloth banner and making away with it.
There was a hue and cry. Members, many of them elderly, rose and gave chase, and the hall emptied, leaving Prashant sitting alone on the dais. But in a short while, the posse of ageing and old men returned triumphantly with the culprit.
Now there arose a heated debate whether the thief was a petty criminal or from a rival organisation. Amid the din, a senior member quietly said that what was important was to decide on the punishment to be given, and to continue the meeting. A fresh debate arose about whether he should be handed over to the police immediately, or after the meeting. Prashant, not yet invited to speak, sat with a widening smile. Again the quiet voice spoke; he said that since there was a shortage of audience, and since the meeting must go on, the thief should be made to sit and listen to the chief guest. So the youth was made to sit in the middle of the audience.
The third speaker resumed from where he had been interrupted, and when he finally finished, he pleaded another pressing engagement, and stepped down to leave.
The organisers had arranged for packets with a laddoo in each for distribution after the meeting, and thought that the departing speaker may be given his packet, and the meeting could continue.
Clearly, the audience was not very attentive, and in any case many of them had been “hijacked” while leaving the temple. So when the packet was handed to the departing speaker, some in the audience, thinking that the meeting had ended, lined up for the packets.
Willy-nilly, the person with the laddoo packets started distributing them, and the hall began to empty. Soon, only the three on the dais, the distributor of laddoos, and the youth who had stolen the banner, remained. Dr. Prashant, who had not yet spoken, was given his laddoo packet along with profuse apologies and was being escorted out, when the youth spoke up: “You have forgotten me, sir. Could you give me a packet too?” So he too was given a packet, and he walked out along with the unheard chief guest.
All was forgiven and all forgotten on that pleasant evening. Prashant went home in a pensive mood, not unhappy that he had not spoken at the meeting. So, one presumes, was the mood of the youth.
sg9kere@live.com
