`I read a lot of novels by English authors in my younger days,like Enidblytons,BarbaraCartland and graduated to P.G Wodehouse ,Somerset Maugham etc,writers of early 20th century.
I enjoyed the plot and the language but could not identify myself with their opulent lotus eaters life styles[a spin off probably , from the spoils of colonising 3\4th of the world].The 'High teas',,constantly dressing up for lunch and dinner and whiling away holidays and weekends in huge manors ,surrounded by sprawling lawns and lakes ,being attended by butlers and parlour maids,every thing in fine fettle and the common thread of ' stiff upper lip'running through all the novels ,were other worldly to me.
I also read novels by Russian authors of the same period . I could easily identify with them ,as they dabbled freely in emotions,didn't paint a fairy tale picture and showcased the abysmal poverty, illiteracy and ignorance in their villages and towns.
`Anton Chekhov a Russian physician and novelist has made the following observation regarding the poor in one his stories.He says the poor are in constant dread of never having a crust to eat . From dawn to dusk they grind away ,ill from overwork, fade in youth ,become old quickly and die in filth and dirt and their children also grow and die in the same way. Millions of people live worse than animals.
Hunger ,animal fear ,incessant work is their lot . But the horror of their position is that they have no time to think and contemplate about their souls.
In the Mahabharata whilst the the Pandavas were in the last year of their exile , all of them ,one after the other swoon near a mountain spring after quenching their thirst , unheeding the request of a Yaksha to first answers its questions. Yudhishtra anxious at the long absence of his brothers also reaches the spring though assailed by a terrific thirst ,pauses long enough to answer the questions of the Yaksha ,to his satisfaction and regains his brothers . This is embodied as Yaksh prasana in the great epic.
one such question posed by the yaksha is as follows.
What renders a person good as dead?
To which Yudhishtra answers
"Mritro daridhrah purushah "
He who is poor is good as dead!
He who does not have an assured and safe shelter , who does not know where his next meal is coming from becomes unsteady of mind , gait and speech . He stoops ,stumbles and stammers .His benumbed mind prevents him from performing even simple tasks.Abject poverty can reduce a person to a state of worthlessness. He may start feeling that he is nobody in this world.
The Mahabharata further says
"A person who has no wealth or possessions becomes dull ,just as water bodies become dry in summer."
Hence Yudhishtra concludes that a poor person is literally dead to the world and dead to himself as well.
Chekhov in one of his stories further states ,that the horror of life ,like poverty ,starvation ,illness , drunkenness goes on behind scenes. They are only statistics on papers . It doesn't touch happy people .The happy people are happy because the unhappy bear their burden in silence .
He says , no one can ever escape the claws of life and every one would surely be visited one day or the other by loss ,misfortune etc. Till then they lead a routine,happy life flustered only by petty cares , as no one knocks on one's door forewarning of impending crisis .
Sounds dark ,cynical and ominous? I would have thought so too,few years back.
He gently advises the young,the happy , the hale and hearty, to look around,and to be good and do good ,whilst they can .
[courtsey---Chekov and Narsimhapriya ]
