With the
advent of social media, we may be excused if we feel that fake news is a recent
phenomenon. But it has always been there. One could come across it off and on, especially
at times of great political or social turmoil. One such macabre fake news that
I remember was during the emergency. People told each other, in hushed tones, that
if you looked at the sky at night you could see four white clad men carrying a
dead body for cremation, with a white clad, long haired woman wailing and
walking behind it. I was already twenty-one then but still, I had a bone chilling
experience. Fortunately, my parents had always pooh-poohed such stuff and we
continued to have our dinner in the open yard of the house that summer without
ever witnessing the dreaded tableau in the sky.
This story is
so outlandish that I sometimes wonder if it is a product of my own imagination!
Fast forward
to the mid-nineties.
I was working
in a factory. Almost every day, on the way to work, I stopped at a roadside
shop to buy a banana or two as a midday snack. I often saw a man at the shop having
tea and chatting with the shopkeeper.
One day, this
man was there when I went to the shop. He was clad, as usual, in a saffron
dhoti and a white shirt. His face, with a finely trimmed predominantly grey
moustache, was decorated with religious marks of sandal paste on his forehead
and temple. He had a lit cigarette between the taut fingers of his left hand. The
difference was that he had two reluctant listeners, who looked like retired
gentlemen. He was haranguing them with a supercilious air. What he was saying
was this. (The whole conversation was in Kannada* but I have given an English
version of it here.)
“The imam of
the Jama Masjid of Delhi had given a statement when Americans landed on the
moon. He said, how can mere humans go and land on the moon! These Americans are
fooling everyone. Imagine thinking so in this age! So what we are trying to do
is educate these people for their own sake.”
This was like
a red rag to a bull, for me. Or should I say, a saffron rag to the red bull in
me? I turned to him and said, “Why? Did not the Shankaracharya of Puri say
exactly the same thing? Moon is our god. How can humans land on him? So,
please! You go educate your people, we will take care of our own people.”
I would like to imagine that he never caught on that I was not a Muslim!
I turned to
his captive audience to tell them not to listen to such nonsense but they had
quietly disappeared as if into thin air! And the “uplifter” of Muslims had
turned away from me without a word.
I bought my
supply of bananas and went on my way to work.
* ಉದ್ಧಾರಕನ
ಮಾತನ್ನು ಓದುವಾಗ ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಕನ್ನಡದವರ ಧಾಟಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಿಕೊಂಡರೆ ಆತನ ಮಾತಿನ ಧಾಟಿ ಅರಿವಾದೀತು.
ಉದ್ಧಾರಕ: "ಅಮೆರಿಕದವ್ರು ಚಂದ್ರನ
ಮೇಲೆ ಇಳಿದಾಗ, ಜಾಮಾ ಮಸೀದಿಯ ಇಮಾಮ
ಏನಂದ ಗೊತ್ತುಂಟ? ? "ಅದು ಹೇಗೆ ಸಾಧ್ಯ? ಹುಲು ಮನುಷ್ಯರು
ಚಂದ್ರನ ಮೇಲೆ ಹೋಗಲು ಹೇಗೆ ಸಾಧ್ಯ? ಅಮೆರಿಕನ್ನರು ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಮೋಸ ಮಾಡ್ತಿದಾರೆ!" ಅಂದ. ಈ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಗೆ ಹೇಳೋದು!
ಅದಿಕ್ಕೇ, ನಾವು ಈ ಜನರನ್ನು
ಉದ್ಧಾರ ಮಾಡುವ ಅಂತ ಹೊರಟಿದ್ದೀವಿ, ಅಷ್ಟೆ!"
ನಾನು: "ಯಾಕೆ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ? ಪುರಿಯ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಶಂಕರಾಚಾರ್ಯರೂ ಅದೇ ಅಲ್ವ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದು? "ಚಂದ್ರ ದೇವರು! ಮನುಷ್ಯರು ಅವನ ಮೇಲೆ ಇಳಿಯೋಣ ಅಂದ್ರೇನು", ಅಂತ? ನೀವು ನಿಮ್ಮವರನ್ನ
ಉದ್ಧಾರ ಮಾಡ್ಕೊಳಿ. ನಮ್ಮವರನ್ನ ನಾವು ನೋಡ್ಕೋತೀವಿ"