ID CRISIS--THREE

ID CRISIS – III

By A.V.Dhanushkodi

No, it is not what you imagine it to be.  It is not the profound soul searching questions who am I, what am I, and where am I?  I am fully aware of who I am, what I am, and where I am.  My crisis is a very simple middle-class crisis.  It is just a question of others not knowing who I am, what I am, and where I am.  I think you are still not sure what I am talking about.  Let me explain with an example.

My niece Roshini from Phoenix and I used to have breakfast often at  Murugan Iddly Shop in Besant Nagar, when she was teaching and staying at the Olcott School for a couple of years.  After breakfast, we would hop into an auto, I would get dropped at my house, and she would go back to the school.

I had taken my umbrella that morning, the sky being overcast.  After breakfast, when we stepped out, the sky was clear.  We were lucky to spot an empty auto.  After a brief bout of bargaining by Roshini, we got in.  While bargaining, I noticed the auto driver looking at me sharply now and then.  I requested Roshini to drop me at a shop. 

I got down at the shop and was about to cross the road, when I heard the auto driver ask my niece, “Madam, isn’t that Rajinikant?” referring to me.  I stopped to listen to the conversation, proud that he mistook me for the Superstar.

I could hear my niece roaring with laughter, “Are you mad?  Do you think Rajinikant would take a ride in an auto and walk on the street with an umbrella?  Besides, Rajinikant doesn’t have a moustache and a beard, and is almost bald.”  For my age, I still had a decent shock of hair on my head, although greying.

I could hear his sheepish defence, “No Madam, I thought he was returning from an outdoor shooting with his make up still on”. 

I wasn’t sure whether I felt proud or peeved.

A.V. Dhanushkodi,  June 23, 2011