The Orkut Philosophy

When he reached home from work that day, Preetham saw his wife Seema immersed in watching a mindless movie of Emraan Hashmi. Preetham didn't like the idea of his wife wasting a Saturday evening in front of the telly. Much against her wishes, Preetham dragged his dear wife to a pravachan (discourse) at the local temple. Seema tried to change her husband's mind by trying to quote from Ramayana - the one that Sita used when Ravan forcibly kidnapped her from the hermitage, "You can forcibly take this Immortal Body with you. But my soul would be here in front of the television..."

After half an hour they were at the temple for the pravachan. Roaming eyes of Seema was searching for someone. She was hoping to find the teenager who had enlightened her on the soul-body concept (Read it here). And she found him with his mother sitting somewhere in the middle row. Preetham was reluctant to allow her to sit near that teenager. This time around Seema got clever and quoted her mother in law, "You know what your mother often says! A pregnant lady's wish should never go unfulfilled. Now I wish to sit near that teenager.Please!!!" That did the trick.

Before she could exchange greetings, the old man on the dais started his pravachan, "Today I am going to talk about Maya (Illusion). When I say Maya, I am not talking about the Maya of any magician, I am talking about Maya of the Mayapathi(Almighty). This Maya blinds our inner eyes and diverts us from our life's sole purpose - salvation. This Maya has several forms - the Maya of Youth, the Maya of Love, the Maya of Attachment..."
Seema was already getting bored and shared her thoughts with the teenager, "This is boring me to death! Even my economics lecturer was much better. He explained those crazy economic theories with a case study"
The teenager was full of energy as he replied, "Sis! I can explain to you this simple concept of Maya and that too with a case study and with the help of internet." So saying, he took out his laptop and directly logged into the networking site, Orkut and opened the profile of one Mr Vasudev, "If you study photo albums of any orkut profile over a period, you will be clear about the concept of Maya...." was the teenager's simple mantra.

The teenager started his tale, "The hero of my case study is one Vasudev, who opened his orkut profile when he was in his teens. See his photo albums at that time."
Seema thought that the images were speaking of the energy of the youth of Vasudev. Most of the photos were from trekking expeditions. The images had the hero of the tale with his friends on river banks and mountain tops. Their T-Shirts had their friendship spirit written on it with the simple two words, 'Friendship Forever'
Seema let out a 'wow' and exclaimed, "The Power of Yuva (Youth)! I feel this youth if channelized in the right direction is unstoppable and can bring unthinkable rewards... "

The teenager corrected her, "Yes!... Only if they had a longer life. But in many cases, the shelf life of the power of youth is very short. Those T-Shirts with friendship written all over it had longer life than the original friendship. Those fifteen strong men had to quickly make way for one woman- the woman in his life. And they say, Woman is weak! Her Maya is really the strongest of all."
To put across his message, he showed latter years photo albums. Those group photos made way for portrait photos of his lady love. There was elements of nature even in those portrait pieces but they served only as decorative pieces or background for adding beauty to the portrait.
Seema however liked the way the husband Vasudev had captured his wife in those camera lenses, "This Maya definitely has the power to make a professional photographer of an ordinary man. But don't you think this Maya has the power to make our hero a complete man."

The teenager smiled, "You are right! But before many realize how to overcome this Maya and how a man and woman can complete each other, they would be under the pull of another Maya - a still stronger one and a longer one. That's what happened to our hero Vasudev"
There were no friends nor wife in the latter year photo albums. The center of attraction was now his son. The albums had strange names - his first step, my angel at sleep and so on. When she saw the album 'his first step', Seema felt as if she was watching a flip book, "Whatever happened to his wife? Did she grew to the size that the camera lens couldn't capture her?"
The teenager smiled at the remarks, "That's the power of this illusion. It makes one forget everything else and do anything for his dear one. Attachment is what the old man would term this illusion. First our hero is ready to take all kinds of head aches for his son. He doesn't know when the son grows up, he may give him all kinds of heart aches."

Suddenly the mother of the teenager woke up and shouted at her son, "Like the one you are giving me now! Its time to say goodbye to your new found sister. If I allow you to speak like this, you will ruin the reputation of my family..." and she started dragging her son out of the avenue with the same force with which Preetham had brought his wife to the avenue.
Seema looked confused and looked at the young teenager for an explanation for his mothers actions. The teenager boldly told the truth, "She can't face reality. Reality bites! The hero whom I have been speaking of, is none other than my elder brother whom I have seen with this bare eyes falling prey to all kinds of Maya..."

Preetham was more than happy to see the back of the young man, "Now lets listen to the original pravachan...."
Seema liked the teenager to the old man as she answered, "But the boy was speaking from experience and that's what always count... Your Old man is creating magic with words whereas my friend was using pictures. You know a picture speaks more than thousand words."