“So you are from Kerala, the land of coconuts?” Dr. Bhatti asked
I wanted to add ‘Yes sir, the land of coconuts and the the home of so and so’. I couldn’t think of anyone in particular to boast that he or she is from my state. I wished I was from Calcutta, at least I could have said home of Mother Theresa, though technically she wasn’t from Calcutta.
It is not that Kerala didn’t have its share of famous people. But I honestly felt that it isn’t the famous people that makes Kerala what it is.
It is the ordinary people of Kerala that makes it a unique place.
I wanted to tell Dr. Bhatti that Kerala wasn’t simply a land of coconut.It is a home of a Malayalee.
The home of Shakaracharya, the same state that welcomed Jews, Christians, Buddhists and the Muslims.
The home most malayalees like me love to hate and love to bits.
I almost smiled thinking how much I love Kerala and how desperate I am to leave kerala. You need to be a Malayalee to understand the complexity of being a Malayalee.
“What do you do when you have free time?” Dr. Bhatti asked
“read” very simple answer.
“What do you read?”
“anything sir” Even the newspaper that the shop keeper use to wrap the stuff I bought! I thought of adding.
Dr. Bhatti was staring at me and I knew my answers were pretty vague.
“I like to read history sir. I also love to read about travellers like Marco Polo” I had already told him about Gibran, so I didn’t add Gibran’s name.
“Why do you like history?”
“Sir, everyone of us carry a fragment of someone before us. I feel to know who we are, we need to learn who we were before”
“So you believe in re incarnation!”
“Sir I didn’t mean it that way, what I meant is our behaviour is affected by the actions of those before us. Not because of reincarnation. I had always thought about re incarnation, but I can’t prove it and I can’t agree to something that can’t be proven”
“So you are a hardcore scientist!”
“no sir, I just believe in science that can be verified and proved and can be repeated again and still obtain the same result”
“How many siblings you have?”
“4 Sir” I stared at Dr. Bhatti to see why he was asking me how many siblings I have while we were talking about science?
“How many brothers and sisters?”
“I have three sisters Sir”
“all of you look alike?”
“Not really sir”
What is wrong with this guy. Why is he asking me questions like this?
“So your sisters are also studying for medicine?”
“No sir. I am the only one. My sisters are not interested in biological Science. They are like my dad, They love maths and physics.”
“So four of you, from the same father and mother, but not much in common eh”
My sisters and I, we are as different as day and night. Nah that is not correct. My sisters are from Mars and I am from Pluto. We had nothing in common.
“Could it be because you are all reincarnation of someone?”
“Huh?” I stared at Dr. Bhatti
“Don’t you think it is possible that you are all different because of reincarnation?”
I tried to think of any scientific theory I could use to dispute Dr. Bhatti. The only thing I could think of was Darwin’s theory of evolution. Survival of the fittest didn’t go well with reincarnation.
I wanted to tell Dr. Bhatti ‘No, Sir, I don’t agree that if I did something wrong in this life, then I pay for it in the next life’, Yet I have always thought all my bad luck was the results of my past life misdeeds.
It isn’t very often I am stuck for words.
So I did what I am good at
“I agree to disagree sir”
Dr. Bhatti burst out laughing.
He rolled his head back and was laughing so much that I thought he would collapse.
I wanted to laugh too, but wasn’t sure if I would be doing the right thing.
“Agree to disagree” Dr Bhatti stopped laughing for a few seconds to repeat what I said and then started to laugh again.
And I sat there like a fish out of the water. Still trying to figure out if it is possible that my sisters and I are different because of reincarnation.