By: Ashish daslaxman

As it is said in the Bhagavad Gita “This body is made up of gross elements, do not lament for its loss, like one changes his garments and puts on new ones, the soul changes bodies.”

My dear friend, Mr Rusty Stoic, wonders if the lord is actually worried about the garments.

‘People’ around him want him to dress well, when I say people I mean people who call themselves the makers and breakers of the ‘society’, more precisely ‘their’ society.

What does dressing well mean we must understand in order to understand Rusty’s apathy towards their hollow ideologies, and of course their towards his stoic mentalities.

Rusty thinks a garment must cover one’s sensitive organs so as not to arouse physical excitement in the opposite gender or any gender, and curiosity in the remaining too younger or too elderly minds (which may in turn create chaos in ‘their’ society). But, Alas! That garment always seems ‘unfit’ for the petty job. Rusty feels that the excitement and curiosity still floats in air like the stink of a two day old carcass. Now, should that garment be executed for not doing what was expected out of it, should it be burnt down? Should it be torn to pieces and buried forever?

Let us not forget the less violent ways- the courts of justice. Rusty brings the garments to the witness stand, but the charges? The garments are charged for imprudence, carelessness, and causing unintentional disturbance to the otherwise normal human behaviour. The petitioner, Mr Rusty Stoic, tells the court about the availability of sufficient evidence against the accused in terms of dividing the ‘society’ by the affects that the accused causes, such as looking down of less well-dressed by the well dressed, or wrongly judged capabilities of a person due to his being poorly dressed etc., forget about doing the duty.

The ‘people’s’ lawyer jumps in, “Wait! Wait! Wait! Isn’t this what ‘people’ wanted? Isn’t what this court of ‘people’ is fighting for? Isn’t this the need of our society? Yes, the garments are being framed for serving the ulterior motive! ”

“Ulterior motive?” Mr Stoic repeats.

“The motive of putting variety in this society, and demarcating the individuality of every one, isn’t this a beautiful thing? One man becomes drastically different by not dressing well, and the other feels drastically different by dressing well.” The people’s lawyer captures the momentum of the court.

“I would ! Wait! I would like to remind the defence lawyer, the intelligent man, that we already have more than required discrimination in the society based on religion, colour, caste etc. “

“Mind your words! The word is segregation, and not discrimination!”

“Alright that’s the word, but… one’s intelligence, let one’s wisdom be the factor, not so superficial things as the pattern of lines on a piece of cloth covering someone’s chest! How hardly does it matter if a philosopher who has the wisdom to change the course of the society wears rags? What ‘impact’ would it have made had he worn a $1000 shirt shoplifted from your branded showrooms that are always overloaded with disco lights?”

Mr Rusty had stripped off every trace of self-respect from the defence lawyer’s black suit, but now it was the time to payback.

“Mr Stoic, this is contempt of the court!” the judge finally noticed.

“Why would that be so my majesty!”

“You have appeared in this court of justice… in undergarments. Would you care to look at yourself, your clothes suggest that you don’t care to maintain the decorum of this court where the poor and the rich, the man and the woman are all served with fairness and equanimity. Hold this man for contempt of this honourable court! “

“But that’s what my petition is all about!”

Two men ‘well dressed’ in the police uniform grabbed My Rusty Stoic by his arms and carted him off the courtroom while the people’s lawyer was patiently grinning at him, “’Impact’ my friend! It’s the ‘impact’.”