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    Hang Your Shadows
    Hang Your Shadows
    Hang Your Shadows
    Ebook159 pages2 hours

    Hang Your Shadows

    By Raja Sharma

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    About this ebook

    They have been waiting for twenty two days, expecting it to happen any moment. Some of them joke that she is going to take twelve months. My pregnancy has become a topic of discussion for the big family of sixty five members.

    Though they have their separate kitchens, the mentality of the joint family is still there. They keep on peeping into the lives of others: what is being cooked in the elder brother’s house? Who is visiting them today? What has she brought for her daughter? Why have they not woken up early today? Who, among the daughters-in-law, touched the father-in-law’s feet without covering her head? What did mother-in-law say?

    No Roses for the Master
    Hang Your Shadows
    Overnight Guest
    Be Homeless
    Parvati (A True Story of a Prostitute)
    East and West
    American English Vs Englishes
    Learn English My Way
    Woman for Pleasure
    Just 10 Minutes
    The Most Painful Sentence
    My Reviewer Friend
    Christ Goes Shopping
    World of Little Gods
    She Lives Among Stars
    Dilemma Faced by an English Teacher
    You call it Progress?
    MIRAGE
    Subway Treasure
    Remove Your Thorns
    The Buddha in Me

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRaja Sharma
    Release dateAug 5, 2011
    ISBN9781466007048
    Hang Your Shadows
    Author

    Raja Sharma

    Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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      Book preview

      Hang Your Shadows - Raja Sharma

      Hang Your Shadows

      By Raja Sharma

      Copyright@2011Raja Sharma

      Smashwords Edition

      Chapter 1

      No Roses for the Master

      The bent old body was not able to move even a few steps with the help of those legs which had kept him standing for almost six decades in front of his students. Life had moved so fast that he did not even get a little time to think about himself. The black coat over the white shirt and blue trousers had been his recognition in the college compound. A figure that pulled reverence and obedience, not because of the authority as a professor that he possessed, but because of the humility of his nature, was hardly ever the representation of the academic degrees which he had earned in his career. To a layman he would appear to be a common clerk from any of the government offices in the area. He had seen thousands of students pass from M. B. Degree College to find the fulfillment of their dreams, but he had never aspired to take the wings of flight which would carry him to the world where awards and recognition wait for the aspirants. Teaching, as if, was his religion, and one could see him standing in his classroom, with his trademark smile and powerful voice, which was powerful not because of the high pitch but because of the knowledge it carried.

      Today he is going to bid adieu to all this, for he has found that the soul is willing to continue but the physic is not helping. Where had he reached? What had he gained? What had he given to his students? Why was all this happening? Why couldn’t he continue to teach? Thousands of questions were taking shape in his mind. He had always told his students to study devotedly for their better future but where he himself had reached. He had studied under the best of the teachers, at the best of the colleges, and acquired desired degrees, but what he had missed was also not known to him. His family, his wife and children, were presumably happy and well off, and there was almost everything in the house to maintain the so called modern standard.

      Many ideals had inspired him to move ahead and he had done so. The philosophical thoughts of Socrates had kindled the fire. Science was the charm of his life, and to pursue the career of a scientist was almost imminent but one day the introduction to the philosophy of Buddha created an impediment. One who was a prince, who had everything at his disposal, had so willingly renounced everything in search of wisdom made him uncertain whether he should continue with the ambition that he had nurtured for a few years. Gradually, the deep study of the works of Bertrand Russell, J. S. Mill, and some of the ancient Greeks brought a visible change. He surrendered and decided that life was meaningless, but it was difficult to remain alive without doing anything because one has to earn one’s livelihood in this world.

      His amble into the central hall of the college was watched by thousands of students who had gathered there to listen to their esteemed teacher for the last time. The function had been organized by the college administration to honor Mr. Dev Prasad Verma, who had served the college for about four decades. No one wanted him to leave because they felt as if a part of the body of their education was being taken away. He was a kind of living library, an encyclopedia, a knowledge bank in him and even our best of the data banks cannot boast of the memory that he possessed.

      A thundering applause welcomed Mr. Verma to the dais.

      It is an undeniable fact that the things which are there today will not be there tomorrow; they will either be replaced with some other things, or their forms will change. But in the case of humans there is a slight difference. Humans come and depart but their words remain for the posterity to explore, interpret, and to raise a new kind of world from the ashes of the past. Many of the greatest scholars had passed away before the arrival of Christ, and this world experienced many changes but their words have remained alive to guide, to inspire, and to lead us to more light. I say more light" because I don’t believe in perfection, I believe in further improvement.

      However, I feel that our definition of a civilized human being is highly questionable. A person goes to college, earns degrees, studies science and commerce, invents new things, adds to the comforts of life, amasses wealth, and bequeaths this tradition to the posterity. I find the progress of material here because all his life he adds things and things. Human has not progressed at all but he has become less animal for sure. To prevent himself from sun and cold he designs clothes, produces coolers and heaters, to save time in eating habits he has introduced fast foods, and likewise in many other fields there is only the visible addition of things. The pace of life has become too much.

      How diligently our students study the lines written by Rabindra Nath Tagore and William Wordsworth but when it comes to real life you see no flowers surrounding them. Of course, plastic flowers have captured almost every market. The song of the nature that is audible when you cross a meadow or a valley on foot is subdued by the drone of the jet planes which in the name of fast travel deprive you of the greatest of the delights that Mother Nature provides. Learning anything new is definitely an enjoyable experience but in our academic institutions the same process has been made so grotesque and insipid that the learners feel burdened under the volumes of books which are prescribed by the administration. Volumes have been added but the delight has been missing.

      It would not be appropriate to dwell at length on the topic of warfare because all of you know how advanced we have become at killing each other. All the governments of all the nations, all the academic institutions in all the nations, all the teachers in all the academic institutions, in one voice, have been advocating the better life and better future but they, perhaps, misquote the words, because when they say a better life, I see a few more new things so that physical exertion could be less.

      I tell you, my children, that there is nothing more important than your existence as a living human being in this world. I have taught thousands of students during my teaching career but I am ashamed to confess that I have been unable to produce a single civilized human being, who could shed spontaneous tears seeing the pains of others, who could dance with the nature, who could hug other humans from different parts of the world, who could offer his helping hand to the people in distress and need, who could willingly partake his better fortune with the less privileged ones, who could proudly disregard the differences which are so religiously taught by every so called civilized society in this world, who could love other living beings, who could feel happiness in the happiness of others, who could smile for the last time, before closing his eyes forever, and say, ‘I am leaving this world a little better.’

      Though unwilling to leave you all, the natural burden of this body has literally compelled me to say good bye to all of you."

      The hall suddenly exploded with a thundering applauds, and the lone professor began to walk, with the help of his walking stick, towards the exit.

      Chapter 2

      Hang Your Shadows

      Vijay…what are you looking at? whispered a strange voice.

      Um…Nothing…I am just looking at the rising sun… said Vijay, almost waking up from his sleep. The scene is very enchanting. How vain people seem to be in this crowded world! Only a few things remain known, and the rising sun is one of them, Vijay tried to find the owner of the voice but didn’t see anyone around.

      So many people pass by in one day. How many of them do you remember? You leave your house in the morning and come back every evening. Whole day you meet people. How many you remember and how many you forget? But once back in the house, all that seems to be unnecessary.

      Vijay was trying to follow the voice.

      You come back home and hang your clothes but you can’t hang the shadows which haunt you like compulsory ghosts on your shoulders. What about thoughts? Take a shot of whiskey and they begin to rise like sleeping ghosts shaken out of their sleep. There is no restriction on them.

      Vijay was listening attentively.

      Nowadays, people carry their share of light, air, water, etc. in their pockets. They pull cigarette out of one and the light out of the other and forget about others. Two things they don’t have in their pockets: birth and death. They neither come willingly nor depart willingly. Don’t they feel suffocated? How many limits are they going to add to their pockets?

      There are limits but they are happy and… Vijay wanted to say more.

      It is not only happiness. The point I am trying to suggest is that they have fragmented lives and particles of happiness.

      What do you say to limit of stomach? Ask a hungry and he will tell you that the limits are evident. Some are happy and some not.

      I accept that the limits are evident but are the existence of human and his form only limited to requirement of food? He has some other things around him…

      Form is evident and existence is evident too and the relations around are also understandable but if there are limits, there must be reasons. When people walk with their hands in their pockets, they have a reason lest others should not put their hands in their pockets. They believe it.

      "This belief is very personal but they don’t work in whole society. All are related to one another

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