Sweat Under the Mask

When you quietly munch on the hard rotis packed in your lunchbox and yet say 'loved it' when she asks about lunch in the evening, you are being a man. When you quietly get up to offer to the pregnant lady your seat and not for a moment expected gratefulness, you are being a man. When you quietly muffle a mugger in the dark alley on your way home to let the lady he was troubling, run away without so much as a glance, you are being a man.

When you quietly serve the senile woman who had borne you for months and put up with you for years knowing well she won't be there to fondle you again, you are being a man. When you let her voice reign, well aware that with your gifted baritone, you could have easily drowned those of all the six colleagues like her, you are being a man. When you did what you knew was right, in spite of the spate of spite you had to take, you are being a man.

When there is none to pat your back, yet you toil on thinking about that life you promised her, you are being a man. When you said what is right, in the right way, regardless of what she thought, you are being a man. When she rained little fists of fury on you, yet you stood back absorbing it all unflinchingly, you are being a man. When you resisted her constant bickering knowing well that her female co-passengers could easily throw out your luggage for not being considerate, you are also, being a man.

Uncountable such moments sum up to make your apparently impotent, thankless, non-existent life, yet you 'man' it on because you only cease being a man the moment you give up.

There is no school for chivalry, there are no teachers preaching old-school honor. You lie down every night, knowing well that even in your dreams, you cannot play to the galleries. You are but alone, for solitary is what men are designed for. Herds are for those who wish to survive, which you don't, which MEN don't- men Live.

So, rise from all the cute-hugging, affection-hogging, lusting, foul-mouthing and mark your own karma- do what is right. Unlike its present avatar-religion-in this age, Dharma has a galactic, trans-communal meaning given life only by your deeds. Only then shall you achieve Artha, the purpose of an elevated life. Don't be dejected by the effervescent illusions of deprivation, for there is way beyond what you can imagine where your path of being a man leads.

Man on........as long as it takes.

P.S.- Man is not to be confused with its usual meaning of gender, for deeds and not orientation is measured in the old-world system of Artha, Karma and Dharma. Hence Purusharth has got nothing exclusively masculine and Purushottam has everything in Him for women to follow too.