When I arrived home my teenage daughter was busy listening to music in her cellphone and deeply engrossed reading a book.
“What are you reading?” I asked her.
“Did you mumble something?” she asked taking out the earphones.
” I did not mumble. I asked you what book are you reading” I said.
“Oh. It is a very interesting book about Past Life Regression. It can tell you what you were in the previous birth” she said.
” I think it will be better if you concentrate on your tenth standard studies rather than wasting your time on books like this ” I told her.
“This is not a waste of time. Many of my friends have read this book and they have a clear idea of what they were in their previous life. One of my friend is convinced that she was a Labrador dog in the previous birth, another feels that she was a cat and the third one feels that she was a pigeon”, she said.
“This is nothing but a bird-brained idea. You should not get distracted by these books” I told her.
“This is not a bird-brained idea. Persons behavior in this life have residual traces of what happened in the past life. For example my friend Sunita who feels she was a Labrador has fantastic smelling power. Without me opening my tiffin box she can tell whether there is idli or dosa in it. Another of my friend Savita who feels she was a cat is very fond of milk and fish and the third one who feels she could have been a pigeon is a perpetual chatterbox. We call her “Guttergu”, she said.
Getting irritated I told her ” This is ridiculous. How can you believe in such things”.
“This is not ridiculous. In fact after reading the book I am now even convinced who Anna Hazare was in the previous life” my daughter said.
“Really? Then tell me who he was ” I told her sarcastically.
” He must have been King Vikaramaditya” she said.
“What?” I snorted.
” You don’t know who King Vikramaditya was? Have you not read Betal Pachisi? she asked me as If she was my mother and I was her little son.
” I know what Betal Pachisi is. It is the story of a King and a vampire. The vampire keeps piggy-riding on Vikramaditya asking him stupid questions .But what has this to do with Anna Hazare?” I asked her.
” I find traces of King Vikramaditya in him” she said.
“And what makes you think that” , I asked her.
“His behavior is like a king. He has made the whole of India follow him like Pied the Piper and the powerful government is scared of him” she said.
“And who is the Betal?” I asked her.
“Simple. It is the television media” she said.
“Why do you feel that ?” I asked her.
She said ” see the Betal hangs upside down from the tree and sees the whole world in a topsy turvy manner. The television media also have the same perspective, a distorted vision”.
“Shhhh. Speak slowly. If your mother hears it we will get into trouble” I whispered to her as my wife is a television journalist.
Ignoring my pleas she said “secondly, just like the legendry Betal, the media piggy rides on Anna for increasing their TRP and follows him where ever he goes. Thirdly, all the TV guys bombard him with the same set of questions which is enough to make any persons head explode”.
