Firm foundation..!

Friday, October 21, 2011 - Was standing outside in the building compound this morning, when I heard a cracking sound and found the sweeper nearly falling into the gutter; the slab of kadappa stone that had been placed over the gutter had cracked and broken. Knowing that a rather portly gentleman came and sat on the wall near the cracked slab every evening, I told the mali to change the slab right away. I’ve always realized that when you give instructions you should always come back to see whether it’s carried out and was quite pleased to see that they had indeed brought another slab and placed it over the open gutter. However on looking closer I found that it was the wrong size and jutted over the gutter and over the ground. “Another person can fall!” I said, and immediately the enterprising little gang of the mali and sweeper packed the underneath of the stone with loose paver blocks. “Now it is firm,” said my mali looking at me hopefully.

“Walk on it!” I told him. “Now jump on it like the children do!” He did and the loose pavers underneath came away and I nearly lost a mali. We picked him and set him on his feet, “What do we do sir?” he asked a crestfallen look in his eyes, as he eyed me, and his makeshift work warily. “Call the mason,” I said, “and tell him we want a firm foundation!” As I write this piece I can hear the sound of the mason mixing cement and shoring up the slab with bricks and cement.

How easy it was for us to be satisfied with just putting an irregular slab on the gutter with nothing firm underneath. I dread to think of what could have happened had the portly gentleman who loves sitting at the same spot every evening, suddenly finding himself down in the sludge below. Not only would it have broken a few of his bones but would have created even more damage to the repaired structure. Likewise, how easy it is for us to be satisfied without a firm foundation. Loose, flimsy, shaky foundations can be seen in everything we do. I have seen people being counseled by someone who has done a three day course in counseling; no foundation! I have seen people with no knowledge of the holy scriptures waxing eloquent on religion, and fooling their listeners.

Even as I ask you to check your own foundations, to see whether they have been built strong and firm, I also ask you to check those of so called leaders: Does the old man going on a yatra against corruption really have a foundation that talks against his own incorruptibility? Or are his religious views imbalanced and one sided? Check foundations, that’s the only way you won’t be carried into the mucky slush below..!

—Email:bobsbanter@gmil.com