Its Free my friends!!!

Being jobless at home has its own share of rewards and spoils. Everything is rooted to one word- FREE. There is Free Food (Of course parents pay for it, but the intake of food is in no way balanced with the deservedness for it, so it has got to be free!!), there is also Free time (too much of it for comfort ). With that ends the rewards part of it. The spoils part of it comes when you get Free Advice. Elders expect you to talk with them at least once in 3 days. As long as it was college life there was something substantial to be said about your day…I had a nice day, attended labs, proceeded on my project, played cricket with friends etc. But now this is how the conversation goes…

E: How are you jagan?

J: I am fine, thank you.

E: So, what are you doing these days?

J: Hmmm, nothing much…sitting at home…(pause)

E: (pause)(pause)(pause)

J: (pause)(pause)

That’s when the familiar rant of advice starts. “please chant the Gayathri mantra. As you will be having free time why don’t you do Sandyavandanam? Go to the temple everyday and pray…good news will surely knock on your doors soon.”

This gayathri mantra has always aroused the curiosity in me. I have heard many people say that chanting it will increase your memory power. Well, how will chanting a 5 lined verse have an impact on your memory? Chanting a hundred page hymn everyday…now that’s at least something. Having said that, 4 years mugging of 100s of volumes of texts hasn’t made that positive an impact on your memory.

Next comes this ritual of praying in the temple. Well this, I feel is even more useless than attending the recruitment tests with thousands of competitors. In these tests one might be in queue with more than five thousand candidates ahead of him. But when praying to god in a temple, you don’t even know the status of your plea. Your plea might only come to process after a year or so, what with half the people in the world forwarding similar pleas everyday, god is the busiest existing solicitor (did I say existing?? Ok, lets not branch out into that raging debate!!!).

In the current state of affairs, more than god, it is the recruiting officers who should hear our prayers. As for the “sandyavandanam” part, I don’t even want to start on it.

In this money-driven crazy society, advice is the only matter which comes free of cost. Maybe people at the receiving end should start charging for it… “Welcome to 9444850576. All your incoming advices are chargeable. The customer wishes you a pleasant conversation and uninterrupted listening. Have a good day.”