Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Between You and Me

CHANDRABABU Naidu has earned the gratitude and goodwill of the people of the State by declaring that there should be no public celebration of his birthday. Of course, a large section of his acolytes must have felt cheated of an opportunity of indulging in sycophancy and possibly getting some benefit from that. He has also shown maturity by recognising that the birthdays of living public men are more a celebration of their chair than the person sitting in that. By that reckoning, it would be his seventh birthday. As soon as a person goes out of office, the selfsame cheerleaders forget that he was ever born. So, not making a public event of it, one saves oneself future misery.

If the birthday was celebrated, you can imagine the number of public functions that would have been organised. First, all roads leading to the Jubilee Hills would have had barricades installed to direct traffic. Then after receiving garlands, bouquets and cakes, he would have proceeded to different venues. Traffic hold-ups for at least 15 minutes one way for each venue would have dislocated the normal life of the citizenry. The gratitude of the common person becomes all the greater when one is reminded of the last birthday of his female counterparts in the North, and earlier, in the South. The extravagance of the celebrations was matched only by the brazen assertions that they were a spontaneous expression of people's happiness. There was no evidence of such happiness on their birthdays when they were out of power. I thought a woman would be reluctant to reveal her age. But then, one does not have to reveal her age in order to celebrate a birthday. I know many women who celebrate their birthdays without acknowledging the number of years that have left their mark on their faces. When a man has a birthday, he may take a day off, but when a woman has her birthday, she takes a year off. It is nice to declare you are 30 when you are really forty. Many a husband remembers his wife's age but forgets her birthday. The best way to remember her birthday is to forget it once. I always remember my wife's birthday. It is a day after she reminds me of it. Another problem with birthdays is the question of presents. VIPs remind you about that part of any celebration when they mention in the card: `No presents please.' It is only nuts who forget to take the hint.

It is said that you are getting old when the only thing you want on your birthday is not to be reminded of it. But that will be too uncharitable an interpretation to put on Mr. Naidu's announcement. As politics goes, he is very young. During his tenure, he has initiated many policies for the public welfare. The announcement prohibiting the public celebration of his birthday is one in which the public welfare is most discernible. For that alone, they will wish him many returns of the day.

* * *

JAMES THURBER once said that `outside a dog a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog it can't be read.' It seems increasingly that books are going inside dogs. First, the classics were read in the original. Then a generation came which read them through comics. Now, they see them in animated films and cartoons. So, a day has been allocated to the book in a year. Last week there was no function anywhere to celebrate the book in a country in which it is called a `guru' -- the remover of darkness. We are not faced yet with the demise of the book. It is only having a terminal illness, and it will pull through. I don't think a time will come when book will become a museum piece. Books will be read because they have their own smell and aura. One can go back to them again and again, and if they are good, even take the liberty of taking them to bed. With new and attractive cover designs, they can also be displayed in the drawing room - and often are. Great books are those, which people want to have read, but do not.

I feel with Aristotle and Cicero that house without a book is a body without a soul. Some people buy books; most borrow them. They are seldom returned. I take this opportunity of reminding all those who have borrowed books from me to return them. As for myself, I hope they have forgotten the ones that I have borrowed from them.

* * *

``Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.''

-- Ambrose Bierce

Narendra Luther

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Fire safety trapped in `no escape' route
• Goud asks RTC to become efficient, competitive
• Teachers' dharna tomorrow
• Between You and Me
• Media urged not to play up miracle cures

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu