तेरा जाना दिल के अरमानों का लुट जाना ! Parting protocol…!!!

Parting in style
by Rajbir Deswal
NOW that 2011 should be saying goodbye to us all, let us ponder a bit over parting protocol to be followed without which what is left in sensitive minds is an ever-lurking unfulfilled feel of a desire, besides a pinch of nostalgia to be experienced with a kind of negative stimulation later in life. Hence wise people make the parting moment charitable, memorable and at the same time such that doesn’t leave a sense of “O’ it could’ve been this way!” It applies to situations when you call it quits but some exceptional people have exceptional ways of executing parting.
Former Italian Premier Berlusconi, while transferring power to his successor effected a smoother and musical transition. On the last day of his office, he sang “songs of love” for his fans and followers. He handed the reins of governance employing an enthralling performance and ensuring a kind of grand finale to his tenure; his checkered record of having been involved in a sex scandal, notwithstanding. Parting and departing verily are two different things
I am reminded of Dr. Faustus, who repenting being an actor with pure flesh and blood and enjoying un-tasted pleasures in the world, begs the Almighty, “My God! my God! look not so fierce on me!”
I am also reminded of Kaka Hathrasi, the famous humorist and poet, who in the town of Hathras in UP, told his near and dear ones, well- wishers and fans to let him depart from the world the way he lived here – jocularly. He had his mourners take him for his funeral reciting his poems with huge, uproarious guffaws, “which should rant the skies”. So they did, on his death.
A common refrain in the Army is “When you go home, tell them of us, for their tomorrow, we gave our today!” A movie made after the Chinese aggression of 1962 ‘Haqeeqat’ had a song Kar chale hum fida jano tan sathiyo / Ab tumhare hawale watan sathiyo which reverberates still, and more as a signature-song for all patriotic functions in our country.
Contrast the above scenario of departing with that of the Watergate protagonist, President Nixon, who remained glued to his chair with his upper limbs gone round and round with arms on the chair like a creeper coils around a branch or a trunk; and his lower extremities woven around the legs of the chair in a similar fashion. He at a later day had to untangle and go away unsung, and in the most unceremonious manner. The scene described here was the subject mater of a cartoon in those days.
Similarly General Musharraf extracted every tear and the last drop of sweat from his people while shedding his uniform first and then shedding his tenuous dictatorial stance. He could have sung a qawwalli —Teri mehfil men kismet azma ke hum bhi dekhenge, London!
Basheer Badr, the famous Urdu poet, has a couplet to his credit – Dushmani jam ke karo lekin ye gunjaish rahe, jab kabhi hum dost ho jayen to sharminda na hon.
Even the Bollywood movies have the hero fade away, crooning songs. And we all lap it up, singing along! When parting becomes inevitable, sing on, sing on and sing on! All hail Berlusconi!