Once there was a Tramp...

Once my dear old man said “life is not a joke” and then the same statement kept repeating itself by many faces on many occasions. Yes, it’s not a joke any more… I wish it was… left with no reason to smile I am since then looking for the fool, the universal tramp, who has gone missing. He has gone missing not only from the daily people you encounter; he is not to be found even within us…
The fool, who got kicked around a lot, was so foolish that the clever ways of the world never made any sense to him, but was so wise that he moved and touched the human being in all of us irrespective of our race, nationality and religion across decades. It is by astutely refusing to comprehend the absurdity of established orders, that the tramp challenged the inane intelligence of human kind. He gave birth to characters of Charlie Chaplin and Raj Kapoor in cinemas and few more in the foothills of Himalayas. But then again he is gone missing now, I fear that he has fallen victim to the demonic forces of absurd seriousness; the vanguards of national, communal, religious jingoism have hunted him down brutally everywhere, the lovable mascot of gentle humour!
I feel it’s not only the artists, gentle mavericks and independent insolent thinkers who are under threat from the fascist forces, humour has been also on the casualty list. By creating an atmosphere of fear and impending danger they clamp down heavily on the business of laughter.

Their fear is that if used to humour, the common man might use humour to learn to laugh at them and thus see through the absurdity of their intentions and plans. For nothing reveals truth as well as humour does. In Zen Buddhism enlightenment is likened to the experience of understanding a joke, when in an intangible moment a larger design is revealed amorphously. With an insight into a ‘Greater pattern' the meaninglessness of many of our presumptions and fears are challenged. This moment reveals the interconnectedness of all of us as human beings, part of this one universe, political and religious demarcations blur and for at least an infinitesimally small moment we are connected.
Humour provides a platform for challenging the dominant social order. It is rebellious, subversive and non-violent. It is impossible to arrest humour or the fool. Humour is the tool of the oppressed to survive, to seek justice and find solace reassurance and camaraderie. Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychotherapist and a survivor of Auschwitz, talks about humour in the concentration camps; how the half dead, cold starving and hopeless the inmates would gather in a barrack to have cabarets, stand up comedy, all just for a good laugh.
Jesters from courts have been an integral part of many a folklore, such as Tenali Raman and Birbal in the Indian tradition. In their own ingenuous way they unmask the kings and the discrepancies in their governance. This they often achieve by creating an allegory, an analogy that beats any logical correlation, but reveals a larger pattern. In the process they make a fool of themselves while actually challenging the acumen of the authority. Mullah Nasiruddin a popular figure in the tales across Central and South Asia actually challenges the religious and political orders with his own brand of innocent enquiry. Afro American groups have in fact used a lot of clowning/ foolery as a strategy to combat oppression during the days of slavery. "Play fool, to catch wise" suggested Jamaican slaves in dealing with their masters, and African-Americans constructed hidden meanings into their fooling as slaves
A significant and unique characteristic of fools is their ability to live in the world of a play, poem, or story and, at then will, step out of the action or narrative to comment directly on it. By turning reality into a story or a play they deftly step out of it and facilitate others in the process to step out as well.

It is important for me if not for all of us to rescue the tramp, the truly foolish one wise enough to see the bigger picture from the clutches of oppressive forces within and without. Lets step out our selves, see the truth and in the process laugh and amuse our life if not others. Get out of the narrow confines of boundaries, of identities, step out of the national, religious, racial, communal frontiers and discover the truly wonderful interconnectedness of living hearts. Travel within and without freely with wings of amused wonder…
So if you do come across tramp, let me know, while I continue searching for him/her on my own...