This news reminded me something that had happened to me
around fifteen years back. I too was using a motor bike then. I had a small
studio in South Delhi and one day I left the bike within the premises of the
rented studio as I had to go elsewhere with someone and that person dropped me
back home in his car. The next day I went to the studio, saw the bike where I
had left it. I spent my time in the studio and by evening I went to take my
bike. I brought it out and started kicking; the bike simply did not start. I
tried my best but in vain. I pushed the bike to the nearest workshop and the
mechanic quite adept in engine work brought all his experience out to kick the
bike to life. No way, it just wouldn’t oblige or obey. The mechanic spent
almost a few hours but he could not do anything to it so he asked me to go
there next day. Next morning, after much prodding and tinkering he reached that
Eureka point. Lo..there was a small nail inside one of the engine part just
adjacent to the kicker. An experienced hand at bike engines, he categorically
declared that it was a ‘revenge act.’ Nobody would do it unless that person has
a lot of hatred in him.
Who would do that to me? In South Delhi, even in those days
(one and half decade back), a biker was an underdog. Everyone in the locality
boasted a couple of high end cars (out of the limited range available in the
market compared to today’s daily introduction new models from the major brands)
but I found no reason for anyone to push a nail into a bike’s engine only
because it dared to came into their locality. I made some silent enquiries to
find out the possible culprit. Nothing came of it. May be a couple of
months after that incident, I was about to kick start my bike and the landlord
of my studio happened to come out of his house. He saw me on the pavement,
sitting on the bike, kicking it to start. He took a good look at me and asked
me whether it was my bike. I just smiled. It took no imagination to know who had
pushed that nail into it. Did I see a glimpse of regret on that mousy little
man who without fail came to the first floor studio on the fourth of every
month to claim the rent? In fact, I did not want to look at that man’s face for
I did not want to embarrass him.
Perhaps, these two stories have one thing in common;
incapacitate someone by any means necessary so that he/she would suffer a sense
of loss and inconvenience. It is an act of revenge, a very covert but planned
attack. But there is a question; why should the policeman in Trivandrum or the
landlord in Delhi have some animosity for someone who just doesn’t cause any
harm to them? Thinking of it, I find the answer: They want to wreck revenge
upon somebody just because they don’t ‘like’ him/her. What is the root cause of
this dislike? That is quite abstract a thing to answer, however I would try to
elucidate it. The root cause of this dislike is ego and the jealousy coming out
of it. The term ‘ego’ has varied explanations right from spiritual discourses to
psychological and socio-cultural
discourses to which I do not want to get in now. The Ego that I am talking
about here is the sense of self importance that comes out of territorial
ownership. Most of the fights between human beings are caused by this
territorial possession. Why did you park your car here? A person could lose his
life on this question. A whole community may get into arson, murder and loot
upon that question. Human beings have learned to make boundary walls than
collapsing it. So, Ego is a sort of right to certain portion of earth, property
or wealth. Anybody who does not belong to is an intruder who deserves to be
punished.
Now let’s just think about the behaviour of the policeman
and the landlord. The former did not like the boy coming by a new bike to his
territory (of jurisdiction). The very presence of the boy in his youthful
cheerfulness, clothes, apparent freedom and above all a very costly bike seems
to have hurt the ego of the policeman immensely. The question that comes to his
mind is how dare you do this? This question must be coming out of two other
reasons: one, the policeman must be so possessed by his own importance or
helplessness. Two, he must be bogged down by utter jealously upon seeing the
boy on the costly bike which he considers as an assault to his own imaginary
dignity. Then what he thinks next is to wreck revenge upon the boy. The
territorial aggression has been made into a legal issue by citing the absence
of a valid number plate. The hurt ego which has taken the form of utter
jealously gets its pragmatic manifestation in pouring the salt into the new
bike.
In the case of the latter, the landlord, this is simply a
case of ego which also has different manifestation. First of all, he thinks
that the bike parked inside his property is a sort of trespassing, which has
affected his ego. The second thing is that if someone has done it, then he
should be taught a lesson. The territorial aggressors should be punished! The
ego of the man then transforms into a sort of revenge. The punishment could be
simply deflating the tyre, which is what generally people do when they feel
especially irritated on people. Deflating the tyres and scratching the paint
are two things that generally vandalisers resort to do. But when you go beyond
that, like taking the pain to open the engine and push a nail into it or
opening the tank and put a full packet of salt into it, then it is a well
thought out act of revenge, therefore a crime. I feel that both the landlord
and the policeman have done a crime.
People like to do such ‘innocent’ crimes. For them these are
innocent crimes because they think they are justified in doing so. What they
have been doing is simply protecting their territory, ego and self esteem. They
just do not think of the inconvenience that they cause to others. The jealously
angle is palpable in most of such vandalising type of crime. Some people
scratch the paint off the bodies of new cars because they get a perverted
pleasure out of it. It is a sort of jealously sublimated into the form of a
minor crime. You celebrate the buying of your first car and your friends
celebrate (mentally) the first parking lot accident or scratch to your car.
This happens mainly because people are so blinded by ego, possessiveness and
intolerance. All these three things could turn into crimes therefore tragedies.
Macbeth was egoistic and he thought at every stage he was being snubbed by
his friend Macduff and also by King Duncan. Othello was over possessive of
Desdemona. The Houses of Romeo and Juliet could not tolerate each other. All
ended up in tragedies. Life is not just Shakespearean; every ordinary human
story is full of self inflicted tragedies. Ego turning into jealousy and
revenge is what we see in our lives. There is only one way to redemption;
decrease the intensity of ego; live in the truth that we are nobodies. And we
become somebody only when we transcend all our baser qualities to higher
qualities. Man could become God. But never by putting nails and salt into
bikes’ engines.
(Images taken from the internet for representational purposes only)
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