Big Trap

This story is about a temple, situated far away from village. It was around 25kms from the
nearest village. Temple belonged to private trust managed by 5 villages.Village headman(Sarpanch) was the incharge of day to day affairs of this temple. To describe him,he was tall,muscular,tough and ruthless in character.never used to laugh nor gave a smile.

He had a task to newly appoint a Archak(purohit) as the previous Archak ran away unable to bear this guy and meaningless rules. Sarpanch called for face to face meeting with new archak(hero of our story) near temple premises.So our Archak came there a litl bit late as he had to travel from a distance of 25kms. Sarpanch as usual was not happy that archak wasnot in time,but somehow controlled his temparament. Sarpanch-" ok,first time late,but this
should not happen in future. I am giving you this offer.This is your salary-X rupees.Do you
agree?'.Archak raised his eyebrows-"So less?". Sarpanch-"Less? This salary is fixed.Who will take the money offering of Mangalarti? Dont you make money there?".

Archak had no idea of how much collection will happen everyday.he could not even ask the
previous archak as he had escaped.So unaware of what will be his 'Variable component',he asked the sarpanch "How much may be this Mangalarti collection?". Sarpanch was again irritated "100%" he said." This temple is also visited by tourists. More than that,it
depends on your performance,if you serve devotees better ,they will offer more.This is
common sense,you should know this".Archak was stunned.Somebody taught him common sense aftera long time.
Sarpanch continued-"I beleive in commitment,values,ethics,discipline.I should
not receive complaints from devotees about you.You should overperform and take this temple to the heights of Tirupathi". Archak wondered where this temple and where far way tirupathi.
He started realizing why the previous archak ran away.Sarpanch was more interested in
revenues from the temple as he was a major shareholder.Sarpanch gave a final blow " You have to be here by for first puja at 6:30 am and leave only by 8:30 pm".Archak was confused whether he was joing military or a temple to offer puja.'Work hours,discipline,ethics' all resemble army traits.

There was a deep pain in Archak's heart,little bit tensed about his fate,archak didnt speak for few seconds.Then he realized,he has to agree for this or try to negotiate. He started " My salary is less,this temple is 25kms away from home.Fuel will eat away my salary.I have an old Luna". Sarpanch had a quick answer"there is an arrangement. I will send a bullock cart to pick and drop you from home.You can pay meagre fee to the rider.".Archak had no answer.He had lot of commitment and wanted an urgent job for his livelihood.He nodded and agreed for this offer. While leaving,he had a small question."Who will be the back up for me if i fall sick?I cannot work like a donkey here. There are 6 idol gods here which i have to take care from 6:30 morning to 8:30 night".
Sarpanch had all these already calculated. He didnt want to loose revenue because of his absence."I will have a young archak who will assist you" he said. Archak's thoughts started flowing on the word 'Young'. "How young can he be?I am still 35.Am i old?".

It was his first day,he had to wake up early.It took arnd 1hour to travel in bullock
cart,thanks to old oxes and old rider. So Archak rescheduled his time of exit from home to 5:15 to reach temple by 6:30.Night he would reach his home at 9:30
night.It was a bad fate of Archak.After few days,he came to know that even variable
component was not good enough.Due to his constraints,he could not leave the job as well.He was in a trap,by his fate.

People are smart enough to understand to whom this story resembles.This is common fate of people working in IT companies listed in NSE,BSE.Needless to explain their paralysed work life balance and their commitment to 'Commute'.

Will continue in next post.

Why this Blog name

Why the name Vichitrachitta? VichitraChitta is a sanskrit word meaning unique thoughts or weird thoughts.This was the title given to Pallava king MahendraVarman-I.Very unique in his thoughts, he was pioneer in building temples with stones.It was he who had said that ‘never again will a temple be made of perishable material’.Temples were built with perishable materials like bricks and mortar at that time.Cave temples were also his contribution.His chitta was into music and paintings as well and was expert in them.Wrote several books.Straightforward and also a good critic in his books.He had varied interests.His thoughts were different from others.

How i got to know this title was when i was preparing History notes for Public service examination in year2001.More than Mahendravarma, Vichitrachitta title was very appealing to me. Sounded just as me(not in actions).Whenever i used to get weird thoughts, i would myself call vichitrachitta. Now,to name my blog,thought this is an apt name.