This Doklam episode reminds me of my grandfather( a real tiger of a man) and an absolutely perfect incident involving him to sum up this whole issue.
Although of medium height and slight build yet a towering figure not only in his village but also in all the 24 villages of same gotra in the region due to his honest, industrious and no nonsense demeanor.
With his sons on active duty in armed forces further raised him a few notches up in stature in the eyes of the people of the region.
The fact that how he singlehandedly brought up his three young sons (eldest being 10 yrs and the youngest just an infant) after losing his wife to a fatal ailment at a very young age is a separate story altogether.
Cut to the original story. One of his farms was adjacent to that of the other influential guy of the same village. This ’other guy’ would dismantle the embankment erected to demarcate boundary between two fields after the end of every crop cycle and raise a new one after preparation of the field for a new crop.
This was absolutely fine till it was noticed that in the process he would move the boundary a bit towards grandfather’s field thus encroaching his field.
The other villagers also alerted him to this other guy’s wrongdoing.
Although grandfather himself noticed the definite shift in the boundary yet resisted himself from taking up the matter with the other guy.
Precisely for two reasons (1) There must be an end somewhere to this mans greed. There will definitely be a time when this man will say enough and put a stop to this unethical practice.
2) Any clash with this guy can spiral out of control and very much lead to an animosity continuing from one generation to the other. He was witness to many a personal enmities and how these pan out, devouring people of affected families for generations together. So personal enmity was the last thing he wanted to pass on to next generation in inheritance.
Did the other guy relent? Was there actually an end to his greed?
Answer is anybody’s guess. A big NO.
The demarcation kept on shifting further and further towards the other end of grandfather’s field and that too without any remorse on the part of ‘the other guy’.
Grandfather realized the futility of being a nice guy by now.
One day he picked up a spade and in a flash leveled to the ground the boundary embankment in front of the very eyes of the other guy.
Totally shocked and dumbstruck the other guy finally mustered up some courage and asked,”Numberdar what are you up to? What is this for?”
Grandfather boomed,” You are trying to reach my other end by shifting slowly and surreptitiously, I don’t have that much patience, so in one stroke I have reached your other end. Now both the fields are mine. Do whatever you may. Go wherever you may”.
He didn’t expect such a bold reaction from grandfather. He tried to reason out but everything was falling on deaf ears now.
The other guy didn’t have the moral courage to stand up to a man who was so aggrieved, blunt and furious.
The matter was taken up in village punchayat, few influential people of the region tried to intervene but grandfather didn’t budge a bit.
At last the other guy ran to the BDO office, bribed a few guys and came back well armed with a few made up maps well tucked under the arms of a patwari and a few of his cronies confronted grandfather in the fields.
Reasoning and counter reasoning ensued.
Atlast Patwari said,”Numberdar ,you have got so much of land then why fight on such trivial issue”.
Grandfather said,” Who started this bullshit and what do you mean by so much of land? Does it mean I should give all of my land on a platter to this moron?”
“Numberdar ,even the maps don’t support your cause”said the patwari and realising the futility of reasoning he quickly pulled out the tampered maps and began pointing out the discrepancies.
By this time all the strings of patience had snapped in the’ tiger ‘ and he roared for one last time,”Tere nakshon pe hum kutton se mutwayenge”.(I will make dogs pee on your maps)
Realising ‘discretion is the better part of valour’ the other guy,patwari and the cronies quietly eased out of the arena with their tails well tucked in between their legs.
Grandfather stood his ground (both literally and figuratively).
He did relent after some time after much cajoling and appeals but on his own terms. The status quo is maintained to this day even when grandpa is not in this world.
This Doklam episode reminds me of my grandfather( a real tiger of a man) and an absolutely perfect incident involving him to sum up this whole issue.
Although of medium height and slight build yet a towering figure not only in his village but also in all the 24 villages of same gotra in the region due to his honest, industrious and no nonsense demeanor.
With his sons on active duty in armed forces further raised him a few notches up in stature in the eyes of the people of the region.
The fact that how he singlehandedly brought up his three young sons (eldest being 10 yrs and the youngest just an infant) after losing his wife to a fatal ailment at a very young age is a separate story altogether.
Cut to the original story. One of his farms was adjacent to that of the other influential guy of the same village. This ’other guy’ would dismantle the embankment erected to demarcate boundary between two fields after the end of every crop cycle and raise a new one after preparation of the field for a new crop.
This was absolutely fine till it was noticed that in the process he would move the boundary a bit towards grandfather’s field thus encroaching his field.
The other villagers also alerted him to this other guy’s wrongdoing.
Although grandfather himself noticed the definite shift in the boundary yet resisted himself from taking up the matter with the other guy.
Precisely for two reasons (1) There must be an end somewhere to this mans greed. There will definitely be a time when this man will say enough and put a stop to this unethical practice.
2) Any clash with this guy can spiral out of control and very much lead to an animosity continuing from one generation to the other. He was witness to many a personal enmities and how these pan out, devouring people of affected families for generations together. So personal enmity was the last thing he wanted to pass on to next generation in inheritance.
Did the other guy relent? Was there actually an end to his greed?
To be continued
Answer is anybody’s guess. A big NO.
The demarcation kept on shifting further and further towards the other end of grandfather’s field and that too without any remorse on the part of ‘the other guy’.
Grandfather realized the futility of being a nice guy by now.
One day he picked up a spade and in a flash leveled to the ground the boundary embankment in front of the very eyes of the other guy.
Totally shocked and dumbstruck the other guy finally mustered up some courage and asked,”Numberdar what are you up to? What is this for?”
Grandfather boomed,” You are trying to reach my other end by shifting slowly and surreptitiously, I don’t have that much patience, so in one stroke I have reached your other end. Now both the fields are mine. Do whatever you may. Go wherever you may”.
He didn’t expect such a bold reaction from grandfather. He tried to reason out but everything was falling on deaf ears now.
The other guy didn’t have the moral courage to stand up to a man who was so aggrieved, blunt and furious.
The matter was taken up in village punchayat, few influential people of the region tried to intervene but grandfather didn’t budge a bit.
At last the other guy ran to the BDO office, bribed a few guys and came back well armed with a few made up maps well tucked under the arms of a patwari and a few of his cronies confronted grandfather in the fields.
Reasoning and counter reasoning ensued.
Atlast Patwari said,”Numberdar ,you have got so much of land then why fight on such trivial issue”.
Grandfather said,” Who started this bullshit and what do you mean by so much of land? Does it mean I should give all of my land on a platter to this moron?”
“Numberdar ,even the maps don’t support your cause”said the patwari and realising the futility of reasoning he quickly pulled out the tampered maps and began pointing out the discrepancies.
By this time all the strings of patience had snapped in the’ tiger ‘ and he roared for one last time,”Tere nakshon pe hum kutton se mutwayenge”.(I will make dogs pee on your maps)
Realising ‘discretion is the better part of valour’ the other guy,patwari and the cronies quietly eased out of the arena with their tails well tucked in between their legs.
Grandfather stood his ground (both literally and figuratively).
He did relent after some time after much cajoling and appeals but on his own terms. The status quo is maintained to this day even when grandpa is not in this world.
