Today being New Years Eve, there are going to be lots of parties in town, it is quite obvious, most would be going to one. Had a chance meeting with a friend, kind of party rocker, and asked him,
Me: "So you must be going to some Party to night."
He: "No, yaar, I am staying at home."
Me: "What? You are not going to party, but it's New Years Eve!"
He: "So what, even you are not going."
Me: "Well, I am not a regular to parties anyway, but you are one who does."
He: "Well, it is not easy to explain, I rather tell you an analogy."
And he began:
You know P. L. Deshpande had written a story, there is a character in the story called Antu Barve, a Brahmin from Ratnagiri. Well there is a small conversation there, it goes like this. "Mahatma Gandhi never visited Ratnagiri, why not?" Asks Antu, and answers also, "There was nothing for him to see here, and nothing to show to people of this place too. See, most people here wear lesser clothes than him, eat lesser than him and do their own work, so they would never have understood the importance of him and his sacrifice. On other hand people from the other place were well to do, in sense they were used to eat good things, including ghee and all. Hence, the reason."
Similarly, people like me do not see any difference between New Year’s Party and normal party, in fact it's worse. People who have been starved for fun, liquor and good food end up on these parties, and increase the chance of some bad incident. While for people like me it is like taking a bath every day, for them it is a bath at sea, once in blue moon.
I was left standing, speechless.
