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You ask me: Why were You so mischievous in Your childhood?
Do you think I am different? Not a bit. I am still the same. I
did not allow my childhood to be spoiled by anybody. And what
you think of as mischievous, I have never thought about it in
that way. Even today I don't think that anything I have ever done
was a mischief I had my reasons, and very valid reasons.
For example: the first day I entered high school from my middle
school.... In high school they used to have a prayer at the
beginning of the day. It was a very famous song of Mirza Iqbal,
who was one of the greatest Urdu poets of this age. As far as
the language is concerned, it is certainly a great piece of art,
but the philosophy behind it is ugly. The song says: "My
country, my nation, is the best of all the nations. My country
is a beautiful garden and we are nightingales in this garden...."
And that's the way it goes on.
I said to the principal who was standing in front of the two
thousand students and fifty teachers, "I will not participate
in this prayer because to me this is absolute rubbish. Every country
thinks of itself in the same way and every country has its ego
in it.
"You ask the Chinese, you ask the Japanese, you ask the
Germans, you ask the English, you ask anybody - they all think
the same. So what Iqbal has written is simply rubbish as far as
the philosophical background is concerned. And I am against the
very concept of "nation". The world is one; I cannot
say that my country is the best of all the countries.
"And I don't even see the reason for singing the song. It
is not only that I am against nationalism, the song is untrue
too, because what do you have? - poverty, slavery, starvation,
sicknesses, increasing population and increasing problems. And
you call this our garden and we are its nightingales! I don't
see a single nightingale anywhere! These fifty teachers are here;
can anybody raise his hand and say, 'I am a nightingale'? Let
him sing, and let us see! These two thousand students are here;
can anyone say it? Look at these poor students."
And they used to come from faraway villages, miles every day,
from at least a twenty mile radius around the city, because there
was no other high school except this. "They walk, they come
utterly tired, they are hungry. And I have seen what they bring
with them: just dry bread, not even buttered, and a little piece
of salt. That's all that they bring every day and every day they
eat it.
"These are your trees, this is your garden? So factually
also it is not right. And I don't care whether Iqbal is a Nobel
prize-winning poet or not. I don't care. It does not make me feel
like singing this song; in every way uttering a lie."
The principal was so annoyed and so irritated that he could not
speak for anger; he became almost red. Trembling, he went into
his office and brought out his cane which was very famous - but
he rarely used it. He told me to put both my hands in front of
him, and he said, "This is my answer, and remember it."
I said, "These are my hands. You can beat my hands or my
whole body if you want, but before you start, remember that from
here I am going directly to the police station, because this is
legally prohibited. Both you and your cane will be behind bars."
It was illegal to beat any student, but nobody cared. Still today,
in India, students are beaten. And the law that students should
not be physically beaten has existed for at least fifty years.
So I said, "You decide. Here are my hands, this is your cane;
you are here. And remember, these two thousand students are eyewitnesses,
fifty teachers are eyewitnesses, and you will leave your signature
on my hands. Leave it there! If you have any guts, beat me."
I can remember even today that he remained almost like a statue.
The cane fell from his hand. He just turned back and went into
his office. I told all the students, "Now you need not be
worried; we are finished with this song. Unless they find something
reasonable, we will simply be standing here for ten minutes in
silence."
Now, do you call that mischief? It can be called mischief, and
it was mischief in the eyes of my principal....
For three years he avoided me like anything. But I will not say
it was mischief although it will appear so. I don't see a single
point supporting the idea that it was mischief.
For three years, while I was in the high school, we continued
the silence. The ten minutes' silence continued instead of prayer,
because they could not come up with something better. Whatsoever
they brought up I was capable of finding faults with. And without
my approval, I was not going to allow it. So finally they decided,
"Let this boy be gone from here, then...." And the
day I left the school and went to the university....
I came back in some holidays and I went there to see what was
happening: and the children were repeating the same song again.
I went to the principal and I said, "I have just come to
check. It has not reached your mind at all - again you started
the same thing."
But he said, "Now please leave us alone. I was afraid that
if you failed, then you would be here for one year more. I was
praying for you to pass. I had told all the teachers to support
you, to help you so that you pass. Any way you should not fail,
otherwise one year more.... But now, you leave us alone."
I said, "I will not be coming again and again. I have just
come to check and to see whether you have any mind or not, and
you seem to be absolutely unintelligent. You are a postgraduate
in science, and that too in mathematics - which is just an
extension of logic - but you can't understand a simple thing.
I will not be coming here because now I am occupied in the university.
There are so many problems there, I cannot take care of your school."
ignor21
The disease is not only dangerous, the disease is as ancient
as man. The disease comes from the idea of comparison.
We are always comparing; from our very childhood we are taught
comparison. Somebody else's child is more cute, more beautiful,
more intelligent; somebody else's child is more obedient, and
you are not...
All educational systems depend on comparison: somebody comes
first, and somebody is the last in the class; somebody passes,
somebody fails. Teachers appreciate students who are obedient;
they hate the students, they punish the students who are not obedient
in every way.
The whole structure of society is continuously comparing, and
the very idea of comparison is absolutely false.
Each individual is unique because there is nobody else like him.
Comparison would have been right if all individuals were alike;
they are not. Even twins are not absolutely alike; it is impossible
to find another man who is exactly like you. So we are comparing
unique people - which creates the whole trouble.
When I entered my high school, I came first in the class. Somebody
came thirtieth, and he was crying. I went to him and said, "You
need not cry, and if you are crying I will sit by your side and
start crying."
He said, "But why should you cry? You have come first."
I said, "This is all nonsense. It is only a question of
seeing from where you are seeing: on that side I am first; on
this side you are first, nobody could beat you. I can be defeated,
but you cannot be defeated."
He started laughing at the idea that from the other end of the
line he is also first; in fact, I am thirtieth from the other
side.
In my vision, in schools there should be no examinations, so
nobody comes first and nobody comes second, nobody passes and
nobody fails. In schools there should be merits given every day
by every teacher in different subjects to each student. And based
on all those merits it should be decided when a child is ready
to move into another class. Some child may be ready within two
months; there is no need for him to wait one year. Some child
may move after eight months, some child may move after twelve
months, some child may take fifteen months. But nobody is higher
than the other; everybody is moving according to his pace, according
to his interest.
Everybody has some uniqueness.
Education should be organized in such a way that that uniqueness
comes over, becomes an actuality.
There should be no hierarchy in the world. socrat12
When I entered high school, I had a teacher who was a little
eccentric about a few things. One was that whenever he took the
attendance, he would not allow anybody to say, 'Yes, Sir.' When
he called the names he would insist that we would say, 'Present,
Sir.' And I loved it, because I started meditating. This is what
I used to do: when he called my name, I would say, 'Present, Sir,'
and I would be really present. I would forget everything and just
stop and be present, pure presence.
He became aware by and by that I was doing something else. One
day he called me after the class and said. 'What are you doing?
You seem to be mysterious. When you say, "Present, Sir,"
what do you do exactly? - because suddenly your face changes,
your eyes change, your movements stop, and I have started feeling
some energy coming towards me. What are you doing? I feel very
pulled,' he said, 'and sometimes now I have even started remembering
you. In my home sometimes I suddenly hear you calling, "Present,
Sir," and something happens to me. But what are you doing?'
If you just become present suddenly, the whole energy changes.
The continuity that was going on in the mind stops. sale14
As far back as I can remember, I loved only one game - to
argue.... To argue about everything. So very few grownup people
could stand me. Understanding was out of the question....
I was never interested in going to school. That was the worst
place. I was forced finally to go, but I resisted as much as I
could, because there were only children who were not interested
in things I was interested in and I was not interested in things
they all were interested in. So I was an outsider.
My interest has remained the same: to know what is the ultimate
truth, what is the meaning of life, why I am here and not anyone
else. And I was determined that unless I find the answer, I am
not going to rest, and I am not going to let anybody around me
rest, either. last113
The ego wants you to be indispensable to existence, that without
your work, existence will not be complete.
The same teaching was given to me by my parents, by my teachers,
that "you have to do some work in your life; otherwise your
life is just the life of a vagabond, a bum." I said, "Perhaps
that is the work I am here for, to be a vagabond! Anyway, a few
people are needed to be vagabonds..."
The teacher who was telling me about the work said, "It
is very difficult to discuss with you." And I said to him,
"This is a very psychological trap to enslave people into
some work by giving nourishment to their ego, to say that by fulfilling
this work you will have fulfilled your destiny."
I said to the teacher, "I don't have any destiny, because
I cannot conceive that existence has any destiny. What destiny
could existence have? When the work of existence is complete,
that will mean an absolute death, because nothing more is there
to be done. Everything has been done, so drop the curtain."
I said, "I cannot see any purpose in the flowers, any purpose
in the trees, any purpose in the oceans, any purpose in the stars..."
Existence is not a work, it is a celebration - a sheer dance
of energy which will go on and on forever in different forms,
but cannot disappear. The energy is eternal.
And I said to the teacher, "Never again mention work to
me. Celebration is okay, but work? It is destroying the whole
beauty of life. And I am in tune with existence, not in tune with
you. You can go on doing your work. What work are you doing? Just
being a geography teacher. I cannot conceive why existence needs
a geography teacher. The whole geography is of the existence;
what is the need of a teacher?"
It is a very wrong conditioning that has created a workaholic
society, which condemns people who are not participating. mani26
I was continually insisting to my teachers, to my professors,
to my vice-chancellors, "I don't want a bookish answer. That
I can find in the library, I don't need you for that. I want your
personal experience. Have you experienced anything that you can
go on teaching?"
And I have seen their embarrassed faces, their empty eyes, their
empty souls. Yes, they are full of rubbish, all kinds of doctrines,
creeds, cults. If you want them to give you a sermon then they
can give you a sermon, a beautiful sermon, on the ultimate goal
of life.
And the truth is, life is only immediate; there is nothing ultimate.
dark16
Alone you are born, alone you will die. Between these two alonenesses
you can deceive yourself that you are not alone, that you have
a wife, a husband, children, money, power. But between these two
alonenesses you are alone. Everything is just to keep yourself
engaged in something or other, so that you don't become aware
of it.
From my very childhood I have never been associating with people.
My whole family was very much concerned: I was not playing with
children, and I have never played with them.
My teachers were concerned: "What do you go on doing when
all the children are playing? You sit under the tree just by yourself."
They thought something was wrong with me.
And I told them, "You need not be worried. The reality is
that something is wrong with you, and wrong with all your children.
I am perfectly happy to be alone."
Slowly slowly they accepted that that's how I am; nothing can
be done about it. They tried in every way to help me to mix with
other children of my age. But I enjoyed being alone so much that
it looked almost neurotic to play football.
And I told my teacher, "I don't see any point in it. Why
unnecessarily hit the football from here to there? There is no
point. And even if you make the goal, so what? What is achieved
out of it? And if these people love making goals so much, then
rather than having one football, have eighteen footballs. Give
everybody one, and he makes as many goals as he wants, nobody
prevents him. Let them have goals to their heart's content! This
way it is too difficult - why make it unnecessarily difficult?"
And my teacher said, "You don't understand at all that that
will not be a game, if eighteen footballs are given to the children,
and everybody is making goals as many times as he wants. That
will not help."
I said, "I don't understand, that creating hindrances, preventing
people.... They fall and they have fractures and all kinds
of nonsense. And not only that: when there are matches, thousands
of people gather to see them. It seems these people don't know
that life is so short - and they are watching a football match!
And they are so excited - jumping, shouting. To me, it is
absolutely neurotic. I would rather sit under my tree."
I had my tree, a very beautiful tree, behind my school building.
It became known that it was my tree, so nobody would go there.
I used to sit there whenever there was time for play, or time
for any kind of neurotic activity - "extra-curricular"
activities.
And I found so much under that tree that whenever I used to go
back to my town, I never went to the principal whose office was
just close to the tree - just behind his office was the tree - but
I used to go to the tree just to thank it, to show my gratitude.
The principal would come out, and he would say, "This is
strange. You come to the town - you never come to me, you
never come to the school, but you always come to this tree."
I said, "I have experienced much more under that tree than
under your guidance and that of all kinds of mad teachers that
you have. They have not given anything to me - in fact, whatever
they gave to me I had to get rid of. But what this tree has given
to me is still with me."
And you will be surprised - it happened twice, so it cannot
be just coincidence.... In 1970 I stopped going to the town,
because I gave a promise to my grandmother: "I will come
only while you are alive. When you are gone, I have nothing to
come here for."
I was informed that when I stopped going to the town, the tree
died. I thought it must have been an accident, just a coincidence;
it could not be connected with me. But it happened twice.*...
I understand that there is some synchronicity. If you silently
sit with a tree...the tree is silent, you are silent...and
two silences cannot remain separate, there is no way to divide
them.
You are here. If you are all thinking thoughts, you are separate.
But if you are all silent, then suddenly there is something like
a collective soul.
Perhaps those two trees missed me. Nobody came close to them
again, nobody with whom they could communicate. They died because
they could not get any warmth from anybody. I had tremendous love
and respect for those trees. bond25
*Note: refers to a tree at Jabalpur University when Osho was
a professor, see Part V
In my high school days, I was almost always late because I was
interested in so many things on the way. I always started from
home to reach the school at the right time, but I never reached
because so much was going on along the way - some magician
was doing his tricks, and it was irresistible. Just to leave that
magician and go to study...some stupid teacher talking about
geography....
So I was punished continually, but soon my teachers realized
that it was useless to punish me. Their first punishment was to
tell me to go around the high school building seven times. I would
ask, "If I go eleven times will it do?"
They would say, "Are you mad? This is a punishment."
I said, "I know this is a punishment, but I have missed
my morning exercise. So if I make it my morning exercise, you
are not losing anything. Your punishment is covered, my morning
exercise is complete; nobody is losing anything, both are gaining."
So they stopped that, because this wouldn't do. They would tell
me to stand outside the class. I said, "That's good, because
I love the open air. The class is dark and dirty, and outside
it is so beautiful. And in fact, sitting inside I am always looking
outside. Who cares what you are teaching? - the birds are
singing, the trees are blossoming...it is so beautiful outside."
The headmaster would come on his round, and every day he would
find me standing outside. And he would say, "What is the
matter?"
I said, "Nothing is the matter. I love to stand outside;
it is healthier, hygienic. And you can see how beautiful it is."
But he said, "I will see your teacher. How is it that he
allows you to stand outside?"
I said, "I don't know, but he tells me himself, every day,
`Stand outside.' So now I don't even ask him. It has become a
routine, so I simply come and stand here."
He asked the teacher. The teacher said, "It must have been
thirty days ago! I told him only once to stand outside - since
then he has not entered the class. I was thinking it was a punishment,
and he is enjoying it. Not only that, he is spreading the rumor
among the students that it is hygienic, it is healthy. And they
are asking me, `Sir, can we also stand outside?' Then what am
I to do here? Then I will also go and stand outside."
It is a question of how you take things. enligh04
One of my teachers was very perfectionistic, a great disciplinarian,
a very beautiful man. Every year he started his class with the
same introduction, because the students were new; he introduced
himself by saying that, "It is better that I should make
clear to you what kind of man I am, so you are not in the dark
and you don't do anything without understanding the nature of
the teacher. First: I don't believe in headaches, stomachaches,
no. Anything that you cannot prove and anything that I cannot
check by myself will not be an excuse to take a holiday or to
go home. You can have a fever, I can feel your fever. So remember
it - I simply don't believe in headaches and stomachaches
because there is no proof. Even a physician has to rely upon the
patient, that he has a headache - he may be lying, or he may
be in illusion. What is the guarantee? How do you know that you
are right?"
I said, "This is strange; this is going to be difficult" - because
those were simple excuses to escape from any class, to say that
"I have a strong headache and I want to go home."
He used to go every evening for a walk. Just by the side of the
school there was a beautiful road, covered from both sides with
big trees, mango trees.
I said, "Things have to be settled from the very beginning."
So I climbed up into a tree, high up, and waited for this teacher - he
was a Mohammedan, his name was Rahimuddin. He came exactly on
time...He was very precise in everything; at exactly the same
time each day he used to pass by that tree.
I dropped a big mango on his head. He said, "Ahhhh!"
and looked up. And he saw me there.
I said, "What is the matter? What has happened?"
For a moment there was silence. He said, "Come down."
I came down.
He said, "You have proved that there is something like a
headache, but don't tell anybody. If you have a headache, you
just raise one finger and I will give you a holiday. If you have
a stomachache, you need not prove it to me - you just raise
two fingers, because you seem to be dangerous!"
He was a bachelor, an old man; he had never married. He lived
a very beautiful life, had a small cottage, a garden.
And he was very famous for one strange thing - because he
had enough money, unmarried, no children, no wife.... He had
three hundred and sixty-five suits of clothes, one for each day;
then for the whole year that suit of clothes would not be used
again. Naturally every husband was jealous.
He said, "I live alone. I sleep outside in the garden, and
I don't want any proof for stomachache! - so one is enough.
You have given me the proof that you are capable, so when you
have a stomachache raise two fingers and I will understand. But
this is an agreement between us: that you will not tell anybody
else that headaches or stomachaches exist."
I said, "I am not worried about anybody else. My problem
is solved because I want things from the very beginning to be
clear, just like you do."
He said, "You have made it very clear - it is still
hurting! I have been a teacher thirty years and nobody ever thought
of this idea. I will remember you for my whole life."
It was a small incident, and would have been forgotten - but
when people started coming to me many years after this incident
he started telling people, "I knew beforehand that this boy
was going to be someone extraordinary."
People asked, "How did you come to know? - and you never
mentioned it before."
He said, "I had almost forgotten it; just now, as his name
is becoming known around the world and people are coming to him
from all over the world, I remembered. And now that incident has
a totally different meaning. Because for my whole life I was introducing
every class in the same way and nobody ever tried anything. And
this was the only one - a singular instance - who proved
to me that a headache had to be accepted. I knew it that very
day."
In 1970 I went to that village for the last time. He had become
very old. Hearing that I was there, he came to see me. I said,
"I was going to come to you. You are too old, you should
not have bothered to walk almost two miles."
He said, "I am feeling so happy. Seeing you it still hurts,
but now I feel a certain pride that you were my student."
Now the whole thing takes a different color, it becomes a pride.
Otherwise, if I had turned out to be a thief or a criminal, then
the same incident would have been a proof: "I knew from the
very beginning that this boy was going to be a criminal, that
sooner or later he would murder somebody."
Retrospectively you always look at things in a way you would
not have looked at them if life had moved in a different direction - the
same things. The same things would not have given you the same
indications. enligh26
In my childhood I had a friend whose father was a magician. They
had a very good business - the business was that they had
a few snakes. Being continually in their house, slowly I learned
that ninety-seven percent of snakes don't have any poison. Only
three percent of snakes have poison, and only one percent, the
cobra, is very dangerous. Once the cobra bites you it is very
difficult to save you. Death is almost certain. But the snakes
all look alike.
The father used to have non-poisonous snakes, and he would send
his son - who was my friend, and I accompanied him many times - to
somebody's house. There we would leave two or three snakes around,
and then the father would come with his special musical instrument
that was used for snakes. He would announce, "If anybody
has snakes in his house, I can catch them." As he started
playing on his instrument, the snakes that we had left around
the house would start coming, and for that service the housekeeper
had to pay. He would say, "It is very good of you - once
in a while you should come back, because we were not aware that
there were snakes in our garden."
Knowing that there are snakes which don't have any poison, I
would enter into my class with a snake in my pocket. I would just
leave it on the table of the teacher, and he would stand on his
chair and shout, "Save me!" The other students are running
out...who is going to save him except me? And I would tell
him, "I will save you, but remember that I have saved your
life. You should not be nasty with me. Promise?" And with
that snake sitting on his table, you could have taken any kind
of promise.
Finally it was reported to the principal that a strange thing
was going on. But a principal is just the same as anybody else.
When he called me, I went there with two snakes. And I left them
on his table, and he stood on his chair, and everybody in the
whole school was looking through the windows - what is happening?
I said, "Now, do you have something to say to me?"
He said, "No. Just don't bring these things in my office!"
I said, "I have not come on my own, you have called me.
Now I cannot go without your promising me that you will not be
nasty to me."
He said, "This is strange...but I promise, I will not
be nasty to you."
I said, "That's okay; then I can persuade the snakes."
People have lived with such fear. Fear always seems to be around
them - anything can create fear. And if the man had been a
little spontaneous, he could have seen that if I can manage those
snakes, certainly there must be some trick and there is no need
to be afraid. But the very word snake is enough to trigger all
the fears, of centuries of humanity, that you are carrying within
you.
To my father it was reported, "Now your son is becoming
more and more dangerous." My father said, "I have promised
him, just as you have promised, not to interfere. Otherwise he
will start bringing those snakes in the house!" mani20
I will tell one incident that I have never forgotten and will
never forget.
In India, there is one day every year devoted to the worship
of snakes. On that day, all over India, there are wrestling competitions.
My school used to be for many years the champion of the whole
district. This was due entirely to a single student who failed
every year in matriculation. The school was happy about it, because
he was a good wrestler.
The principal and the teachers all said to him, "Don't be
worried. You can fail as much as you want, but every year you
have to bring the championship to the school. And when you are
tired, we will give you some employment in the school. Don't be
worried about your employment, although you are not even a matriculate.
We will make some arrangements, we can make you a peon: you do
not need to be a matriculate."
And he was very happy that a job was guaranteed and every year
he was the hero. But the year I reached my matric class that man
unfortunately passed the examination. The whole school was sad
and sorry. The principal called me and said, "Now find somebody,
for up to now we have been winning."
I said, "It is a difficult thing to find a wrestler of his
quality." He was doing nothing but exercises the whole day,
morning till evening. And the school was providing him with as
much milk as he needed, because every year he brought the championship..."It
will be very difficult to find somebody, but I will try."
In my class there was a man, a young man, not very strong and
not in any way a wrestler, but a very beautiful person with a
great sense of humor. I told him he would have to do this.
He said, "I have never fought anybody. I have never been
in any competition. I have never done any exercise. And the people
who will be coming from other schools are trained."
I said, "Don't be worried. Somebody has at least to participate.
At the most you can be a failure."
He said, "If that is all, then I am ready." And what
he did left an impact on everybody.
It was going to be decided in the semi-finals ...and because
my school was continuously the champion every other school was
afraid. They were still thinking that because of our man we would
finally win. So they had brought a professional wrestler who was
not a student. They could find no other way to defeat our man
who had won continuously for ten years.
Naturally, they had to find some way. So they looked and found
a wrestler who was not too old and they shaved him well and prepared
him perfectly as if he were a student. But he was a trained wrestler
and our candidate was not a wrestler at all. He asked me, "What
am I supposed to do?"
I said, "Make it fun. Don't be worried." I had once
seen a wrestler...the village where I lived was famous throughout
the area for wrestlers. There were so many gymnasiums in that
small village and wrestlers from outside used to come to fight
with the wrestlers of the village.
Once I had watched a wrestler and had become very friendly with
him. His style was very new. First he would dance around. The
other wrestler is standing in the center, looking embarrassed,
and he would dance. And he had a very beautiful body. He would
dance all over the place. And his dance made the other man feel
embarrassed and a little afraid also: "If this man is dancing
with such joy, there must be some strategy that will defeat me."
And then he would suddenly jump to the ground. He was not a very
strong man, but he had a very beautiful body, a very proportionate
body.
And he had made the man so much afraid by this time, by his dancing
which was so out of the ordinary - nobody danced. There was
no real need because most of the time he would win. I liked the
man very much. He used to stay in a temple nearby, so I went to
visit him and I said, "This is very beautiful. This is how
things should be. You have a great psychological insight."
So I told the boy, "You do the same. First you dance around.
Make the other fellow feel completely embarrassed. And we are
here, because the competition is going to happen in our school.
All the students, all the teachers will be there. We will clap
when you dance. We will laugh and cheer you. So you dance, and
don't be worried about that man. Let him stand in the middle,
embarrassed, worried: what is going to happen, what is happening?"
So he danced and we clapped and shouted and cheered and that
man looked near defeat. Nothing happened. But the boy that I had
chosen was no match for him. He was a wrestler and this boy had
no idea. He danced and then he simply jumped into the middle and
fell flat on the ground. In Indian wrestling, the person who falls
on the ground with his back touching the ground and the other
person sitting on his chest is thought to be defeated and the
man sitting on the chest is the winner. So that boy without fighting
simply fell in front of him and we all cheered him and the man
could not think what to do.
The boy said, "Sit on my chest. Sit down, and be victorious!"
The man could not bring himself to sit down on the chest of this
man who had fallen by himself. He looked all around and the boy
was smiling.
And the referee came in and said, "What do you want to do
with your opponent?"
He said, "I am simply puzzled. What kind of wrestling is
going on? - because to sit on this poor boy's chest looks
so ugly. I have not fought, how can I be victorious? And he is
telling me to sit down. He is almost ordering me."
They were declared to be equal. And we took the boy on our shoulders
and we danced around. And the principal called to me, "You
managed ...at least to be equal. I had no hope that this was
possible and when I saw that boy that you had chosen I thought
the trophy was gone. But you trained him well."
I said, "I trained him only for dancing. What he did was
absolutely spontaneous. Seeing the situation he said, `I am going
to be defeated. What is the point of fighting unnecessarily and
being harassed. Just lie down, rest.'"
But he was a very humble person with a great sense of humor.
chit30
Three years I had been under the high school principal. Even
the photograph that is taken when you are leaving the school...He
was very much worried whether I would appear in that picture or
not, whether I would come or not. I not only came, I came with
a photographer.
He asked, "But why have you brought the photographer?"
I said, "This is the photographer, the poor photographer
of the town. You always call a photographer from a bigger city;
that is unnecessary. This poor man needs more work, because I
have seen this photographer selling umbrellas in the rainy season
and in the summer he is selling ice and soda and other cold drinks.
But whenever some chance arises he takes photographs - some
marriage or something. He is a poor man, and I want him to be
our authorized photographer from today. This school should respect
him."
The principal said, "Now that you have brought him..."
The poor photographer was very much afraid because he had never
been called. I had explained everything to him - how he has
to do it, how he has to arrange...and he had come with his
best suit and everything. The principal was standing in the middle,
and the teachers and everybody, and he arranged and did everything.
And then he asked, "Ready?" I had prepared him.
He said, "I have to be worthy of the position, the authorized
photographer of the high school" - that was the biggest
institution in the town. So he asked, "Ready?" and then
he clicked his camera and said, "Thank you" and everybody
dispersed. Then he said, "Wait - because I forgot to
put the plate in! And the whole fault is yours," he told
me. "You never told me, `You have to put the plate in.' You
told me everything else."
I said, "I thought that as a photographer you must know
that the plate has to be put in; otherwise how will the photograph...?
And all this `Thank you' and `Ready?' just went to waste. But
no harm."
So I said, "Get ready again!" The principal was very
angry because the school inspector was there, the collector was
there, and it became such a hilarious thing when the photographer
said, "I have forgotten to put the plate in, and now what
to do!"
The principal called me in. He said, "This is the last day.
You are leaving, but you are not leaving without mischief. Who
told you to call this photographer? That idiot! That's why we
have been avoiding him for years! And you have seen..."
I said, "But it was such a beautiful and hilarious scene!
And everybody who has participated today will remember it his
whole life. You should pay him a little more! And remember that
from now on he is the authorized photographer of this school."
He said, "Are you leaving the school or are you still going
to be here? This is our business...whom to make authorized
or not."
I said, "That is not your business. I have told the class
that is going to succeed me, the proper people, to take care that
this photographer has to be brought every year, and if it is needed
then they can call me from the college. It is not far away, only
eighty miles. So every year on the photograph day I will be here
to see if the authorized photographer is here or not."
He said, "Okay, he is authorized."
I said, "I want it in writing, because I don't trust you
at all." And he had to give an authorized letter. I gave
it to the photographer.
He said, "I was very nervous, but you have done such a great
job - you have made me forever the authorized photographer.
I can show this to other parties also, that I am not just an idiot
as people think. I am the authorized photographer of the educational
institute of the town."
And he asked me, "How did I do?"
I said, "You did perfectly well."
He said, "Just one mistake."
And I said, "That was not a mistake; that was the real thing,
that you forgot the plate. Without it there was no joy. Photographs
anybody can take, but you are really a genius!"
He said, "I was thinking that everybody will be angry."
I said, "While I am here nobody can be angry."
And he is still the authorized photographer! Whenever I have
gone to the town I have enquired from him...He told me, "Now
it has become established. Many principals have changed but I
remain the authorized photographer. But you were right: the great
joy that happened the first time has never happened again; I have
not forgotten the plate."
Those people were powerful in every way, but somehow I never
felt that they were really powerful. I felt they are just pretending
to be powerful; deep down they are cowards, and if you hit rightly
all their power disappears. And I remained like that my whole
childhood - in the school, in the college - it was an
everyday thing. I have enjoyed all those moments.
I used to think sometimes that perhaps I am somehow different
from other people because nobody gets into such trouble as I get.
But all those troubles were giving me a certain strength and the
strange experience that people who are pretending to be powerful
are just suffering from an inferiority complex and nothing else.
Everybody who was concerned about me was worried every day that
I may do something - and I was never planning anything. Things
were simply happening.
Just my presence was enough, and something would trigger.
I would like everybody to live in that way. There will be differences
of situations, of unique individualities - but I would like
every child to live in this way so that he can remember every
moment that has passed as really a golden moment.
I don't remember anything that I can say should not have happened
or should have happened in a different way. The way it happened
I enjoyed it so much and loved it so much, but everybody who was
concerned was worried that I had spoiled a situation. mystic09
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