Change is the law of nature. It is a continuing process, is inevitable and inescapable. Stagnation is against the nature. That precisely is one of the eternal truths I was always told by my parents at home, and by teachers at school.
As a child, I could not appreciate the importance of this hard reality and its philosophical interpretation. So, in my own little thinking at that tender age, whenever I saw an old dilapidated house crumbling during heavy rains or otherwise, and a new house came up at the site, I thought that this precisely was what the saying meant.
Today, when I look back, I feel that I was not wrong in my interpretation. Even this kind of change was also the change that the scriptures and the wise have talked about. As I grew up and went from my high school to a university college, it dawned on me that this transition, too, was "one of the inevitable changes".
By then, the theme of change or transition had so much dominated my thinking that I started perceiving change in every sphere, at every level and at every place. Yes, before I forget, I must mention that one of the greatest transitions I went through was when the flexible 'G' nib, made of copper, was replaced by fountain pens.
While writing, the 'G' nib, which was cut vertically in the middle, would expand sideways and impart the right thickness to an alphabet or numeral at the right place. It was like the nibs used by calligraphers. Well, I am grateful to the good old 'G' nib and its inventor who enabled me to acquire a reasonably fair handwriting at a time when there was a drought of legible script.
Gradually, the 'G' nib gave way to pointed and hard nibs in fountain pens and otherwise. That, too, was a change but for the worst.
With apologies to those deprived of the gift of legible handwriting, including many doctors, I must say that the cause of their predicament started the day thick and flat nibs gave way to pointed ones.
Well, as we know, transition or change is like a clock activity. But we notice only some, mainly the glaring ones that could not be ignored. We do not - and perhaps need not - remember all transitions. I, too, have gone through numerous transitions but would like to mention one that weighed on my mind for a considerable time.
Those were the times when inflation did not hit headlines. Quality was not compromised and there were hardly any short supplies of items of daily needs. Pure desi ghee (clarified butter) and mustard oil were the cooking medium in our family. Desi ghee was always a costly commodity, but we were in a position to afford it. However, a time came when inflation hit our family budget also and we started looking for a suitable alternative.
Great demand
Sensing a big business opportunity, a major corporate house descended on the market with its brand of hydrogenated vegetable oil that looked like desi ghee. Soon it was in great demand.
When my parents asked me to bring a tin, I wondered if we had really fallen on bad days. I was scolded for showing reluctance but I agreed to bring it on one condition - I would buy the tin late in the evening and in a satchel so that nobody notices it. I bought a big tin and rushed through dimly lit lanes to reach home at the earliest.
That was the first day of our transition from pure desi ghee to hydrogenated vegetable oil.
For several years, I brought it regularly but made it a point to transfer the stuff to some container and then destroy the tin beyond recognition. After all, the family's name was at stake. The new medium did hit our throat, but the inflation was hitting harder.
Paradoxically, a time came when I, too, had to stand in a queue to buy a tin for our family even as other inflation hit familiar faces watched me in surprise.
What a transition it had been for us!
Lalit Raizada is a journalist based in India.
