चल रे भोपळ्या टुणुक टुणुक

 

That day I was on my way back home from office, when my mind went on a trip to my childhood. 

I suddenly stumbled upon one of my favorite songs. It was a very famous story told in song format. I vividly remembered each and every word of that song, along with its tune, how dad sang it to me with expressions and how I imitated him and replicated those expressions. I started humming that song. 

It goes like: -

जंगल झाडीत वाघोबा लपले, म्हातारीला पाहुन खुदकन हसले

अग अग म्हातारे कुठे चालली, खाऊदे आता मला भुक लागली

थांब थांब वाघोबा मला जाऊदे, लेकीचे लाडू मला खाऊ दे

लाडू खाऊं होइल ताजी, मग कर हवी तर खुशाल भाजी

दोन तीन दिवसानी गंमत झाली, भोपळ्यात बसुन म्हातारी आली

वाघोबने भोपळा अडवला, भोपळ्याच्या आतुन आवाज आला

म्हातारी बितारी मला नाही ठाऊक, चल रे भोपळ्या टुणुक टुणुक

Everyone know that, it is story which tells how an old woman outwits a tiger in a jungle and saves her life.

I felt very nice and refreshed by this memory. I sang it twice. I was very happy – partly because I could recall it fully with tune, expressions and partly because I felt amazed by how our brains and mind functions. My inner child was happy and dancing.

I started wondering how these stories are made and passed onto us by our previous generations. How these stories hold the moral values, using metaphors to signify things, simplifying it so that a kid feels engaged and gets some message from it. I felt delighted.

I started to revisit it again & again in my mind, hitting replay button for more than ten times. I asked myself how as an adult will I interpret this song/ story. What could be its hidden message for me right now? Why is my mind repeating that song? What is it trying to indicate? I wondered. All of a sudden, that feeling of revelation seeped in. 

For me jungle symbolized our mind, which consists of so many known and unknown things (animals, creatures, plants & trees). Tiger is that one strong, solid, mighty, fierce, true yet scary ‘positive’ thought. Despite being all this, it is a lone one. Old woman represents that corrupt, biased, unproductive, negative thought, belief or habit that refuses to die. 

When that tiger confronts her to eat her up, it tries to escape to the distractions (old woman’s daughter). Those ladoos embodies things that feed our false egos and unproductive beliefs and biases and help them grow. It makes our negative or unhealthy thoughts, beliefs, habits so big that it has to be carried in a pumpkin. 

That pumpkin represents the भ्रम, delusion, misunderstanding that cover-up and protects the corrupt thoughts and biases and prevents the rationality or reality to come in and dismantle these prejudiced that we carry towards ourselves and others.

And yes, for a tiger these are hard to chase, catch and kill. So, majority of the time tiger turns out to be a loser. If you closely observe your mind, you will find that this happens zillions of times. It is difficult to break this pumpkin. भ्रमाचा भोपळा फुटत नाही!

It is therefore need of the hour to ‘save the tiger’ (no pun intended)! It is that lone and feeble thought that you need to nurture to kill the old-woman, her daughter, the ladoos and the pumpkin. And the best part it, you can start by observing within and identifying it for yourself.

Look how much you are biased, prejudiced towards others and yourself. Your brain gets hijacked by unproductive thoughts, emotions and you start holding grudges even when no on has said anything to you. You imagine things that don’t exist. This is how delusion is created that bars truth from entering in. And trust me, we start mistaking these delusions as truth and fact. This is how our perception is shaped which may further lead to complications in life.

Okay, we can work on ourself and do this. But what about the pumpkins that others carry? I’ll suggest, just sit quietly and observe these people engrossed in their own pumpkins. It is fun to watch them run around with their भ्रमाचा भोपळा. Just grab your popcorns and watch their show, while the tiger inside you is sitting and laughing! Let that tiger outwit the old woman henceforth.