Sunday, December 22, 2024

Musings: Who is this third man?

…DHOOMIL still rules my heart. I can’t be in any sort of relationship with someone who doesn’t understand Dhoomil…

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People well acquainted with me are aware of the fact that I have a keen interest in literature. English and Hindi have been mediums of instruction and communication, respectively. Hence, I can take orders in English and communicate my wishes in Hindi. Apart from that, I have memorized some quotations and poetry as well. I have even parroted some couplets of Urdu and a few Sanskrit shlokas also. This is my brief literary introduction, and I fear that even an elaborate discussion won’t illuminate any of my other literary works or qualities.

Once a female friend of one of my friend’s girlfriends started discussing poetry with me, and she was genuinely impressed with my command over love for poems.

In and within fifteen minutes, she knew that her lips were like a red red rose and also that just by making an appearance in my dreams she could heal all my pains. Even Gods love praises, and she – being an ordinary mortal- was enjoying my cacophonous rendering of hymns meant to woo her.

With a desire to let the showering of praises continue, she started discussing poems with me. The litterateur in me took the better of me. Then I took her out from the beautiful alleys of love poems, dropped her in harsh and salty sea waters of reality, and read out many lines from DHOOMIL. It is that day (two decades ago), and today, she has not contacted me, and I doubt that she will ever contact me again.

I have developed a dislike for that girl, but DHOOMIL still rules my heart. I can’t be in any sort of relationship with someone who doesn’t understand Dhoomil…

Read DHOOMIL and try to find out who is that third person (Original in Hindi, with rough translation):

एक आदमी (A Man)

रोटी बेलता है (Rolls bread)

एक आदमी रोटी खाता है (A man eats bread)

एक तीसरा आदमी भी है (There’s a third man too)

जो न रोटी बेलता है, न रोटी खाता है (Who neither rolls bread nor eats bread)

वह सिर्फ़ रोटी से खेलता है (He just plays with bread)

मैं पूछता हूँ—( I ask)

‘यह तीसरा आदमी कौन है ?’ (‘Who is this third man?’)

मेरे देश की संसद मौन है। (The Parliament of my country is silent.)

— धूमिल (Dhoomil)

At least try not to be that bloody third person.

 

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