THE CONSCIENCE (C), THE BRAIN (B), THE HEART (H)

CBH - Trilogy 8

H - Hello my friend … you seem to be in deep thought …

B - What else? Thinking is my role.

H - And you know what? Your thinking affects me. I feel.

B - Surely la. You are all heart. You feel.

H - Ya. Like now. I feel your thoughts.

B - Really? And how do you feel?

H - Mixed.

B - Mixed?

H - Ya. On one side love and loyalty. On the other side anger and anguish!

B - Over what? About what?

H - About my country … not really. My country - O’ it is so blessed with natural resources and natural beauty. Even the animals and the people in my country - they are so beautiful.

B - You mean our country!

H - Yes, yes. Our country. Our beautiful country.

B - And so what is this love, loyalty, anger and anguish all about?

H - You know we just went to a country for a few days and came back.

B - Ya ….

H - You saw. You observed. You thought.

B - Ya … that’s correct. Am I not an intellect as well?

H - True. And am I not an emotion? I feel don’t I?

B - Correct. Now to what we saw, thought and felt.

H - About that country we visited.

B - Yes. First the system and order we saw there. Second the conduct and behaviour of the young people we came across along the road, in the trains and buses. Third, the staff serving behind the counters of public service, theatres, shops… just anywhere.

H - Ya. Their attitude and response.

B - True. In the public transport. The train and bus services are so well organized, systematised and superbly convenient.

H - Ya. Even my country cousin, if he were to go there for whatever purpose - all he needs to know is the address he has to reach and just ask …. he will arrive by train and bus safe and sound.

B - And cheap. Imagine - getting a one dollar refund at the end of every train trip!! Unbelievable.

H - And what else. Each and every time we boarded a train or bus, crowded; but some young man will just stand and offer me his seat.

B - Seeing your grey hair.

H - Ya. Respect and consideration shown to senior citizens.

B - Here?

H - No comments.

B - And given a choice, shall we go and settle there?

H - Hey, hey my friend, don’t talk like some stupid, racialist politician. Why? Why should we go and settle there, when my heart is here! My country.

B - You mean in your heart of hearts?

H - Heart, heart of hearts. I love my country and I live here. That’s it.

B - But we are not as orderly, as systematic, as civil and as behaved as we can be.

H - True.

B - That’s what my thoughts are about.

C - About change! Right?

B - How right you are my dear conscience. Change! We need change!

C - And change will come.

B - But how? The conscience of the others…..

H - You mean them. The decision makers?

B - Ya … the conscience of the elite in the seats of power …does it exist?

C - Does not matter even if they have lost it.
The conscience of the people who gave them that power is awakening and surely awaken.

H - Wow. I am feeling a courage.

B - Ya…. and I am feeling a power.

C - That is the power and courage of me … conscience. Once I awake …..

B&H - Conscience kills.

C - Correct. The wily connivance of the politically powerful versus the moral conscience of the people. No match. Need I to tell you who will fall?

B - No need. History is full of it.

H - And so is Literature.

C - So, go … learn … change.

The Conscience (C), The Brain (B), The Heart (H)

CBH - Triology 7

C:Why are you both just smirking and sometimes laughing?

B&H:Ha. Ha. Haa … O’my God …We just can’t help it. It looks so … so … we don’t know what to say!

C:What is it?

B:One day in a year. One particular day in a year.

H:Just one day in a year!

B&H:And they call it FATHER’S DAY!

H:As if fathers did not or do not exist on other days!

B:True … on most of the days I am made to think, calculate and work out how to do and carry out work. Where got time to think of father.

H:Yes la. You are paid to do work.

B:Yes … I am paid to think and do the work I am employed for.

C:So I have seen. Day in ,day out you two fellows are so pre-occupied with so many things.

H:So much so I have taken my father and mother for granted.

B: Only father and mother! You and I have taken so many of our family members for granted. Even good friends.

C:That once a year you have to be reminded to remember and sort of rejoice.

H&B:Ya.

C:And made fools of.

B:Made fools of! By whom?

C:Why? By hotels, restaurants, gift shops, sms messages, blah…blah….
They and their advertisements of lunches, dinners, parties, gifts for Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, this day – that day. All commercialised to make money at your expense..

H:And we take the bait.

B:Gullible.

H:So my dear Conscience – are you saying we should not have a Father’s Day or Mother’s Day or any such “day” at all?

C:How emotional … and irrational. I did not say that la!

B:Irrational! Hey! That’s going too far!!!

C:Hold it. Hold it.
Reflect … reflect on the values you grew up with.

B:Values?

C:Yes. Values. You grew from infancy valuing your mum .. cuddling up to her … valuing your dad … as you held on to his hand … Think back … and you will feel.
(After a long pause)

B:Yes. You are right my friend.

B:Agreed. In fact everyday is Mother’s day. Everyday is Father’s day.

H:After all we remember them and pray for them everyday. Don’t we?

C:Don’t you? Hmmm…..

B:O’ stop that sarcasm.

H:And as if you remember mom and dad everyday!

C:Right! You have come my way now.

H&B:??

C:You see fellows…over the years I saw and felt the pain and pang mothers and fathers suffer through till they die.
Then when news reaches the kids that mom has died … the tears … the remorse … the obituaries … All done on this world – for this world to see.

B:And in the next world or next re-incarnation?

H:I feel pain. I miss my mom and dad.

B:What is your problem? They live just a short bus journey away.

H:And I have not visited them for over two weeks.

B:Busy-busy … just like me!

C:That is when I used to come in. I would prick.

B:Ya … I remember.

C: And who took advantage of it? Not the person I as his conscience pricked.

B:Ya. I get you. The commercial world took advantage of it. All for money … money … money.

H:And the sentimental bloke I am, I fell for it. The cards, the sms, the gifts, the this and the that.

C:Do it … it is okay if you have the cash to spare. But communicate WITH FEELINGS. Not just by forwarding a wordy, romantic sms already sent by so many like you to their mom or day. You think they don’t know.

B:So … what is your message my conscience?

C:Aaah … think … reflect … and you will understand.

H:I do now. Everyday is Mother’s Day. Everyday is Father’s Day.

C:Yessss ,,, because everyday is GOD’s day …

B&H:Thank you Conscience. Thank you!

C:Good for you and better for your mom and day.
“Matha, Pitha, Guru, Theivam.”

B:I think I know what you just said.

H:Ai … I don’t know la. Tell me.

C:Find out.

CBH - Triologue 6

THE CONSCIENCE (C), THE BRAIN (B), THE HEART (IH)

H : Hei - I see you are making the face frown. Why frown?

B : Yes - in anger. In frustration. Cheh!

H : Cool it buddy. You are a brain. Don’t heat up. Don’t frus. Then you cause stress in me.

B : And hypertension. Sorry. I did not mean to. It is just the other brains around me.

H : Who are you referring to?

B : In this instance the bodoh brains of course.

H : Be precise.

B : The politician brains la!

H : And why?

B : Any why?? Because they do not know simple basic grammar.

H : Grammar?

B : Yes. Grammar of tense.

H : You mean Present Tense. Past Tense. Future Tense and so on…

B : Yes - exactly.

H : Go on.

B : Since I can recollect …

H : That would be about 30 to 40 years ago ……

B : Yes. Since 30 over years ago. These politicians - at every rank, more prominently the senior fellows.

H : What about them?

B : From then to today … I have never heard any one of them speak in the Past Perfect Tense. It is always “we will do this, we will achieve that. We plan to complete this and that …”

H : Ya … they are notorious in saying “when completed the country will have achieved this … we will accomplish that” and so on.

B : Always in the Future Tense.

H : You are right. Take the rivers for example. They promised the rivers will be cleaned up in 10 years and allocated millions of Ringgit.

B : Ya … and now it is past 25 years!

H : And the rivers are even dirtier than before .. if not dead!

B : You remember they said “we shall be one country … we shall be one nation … we shall be one people”.

H : Ha … bullshit.

B : I cannot recollect one politician in power speaking in the Past Perfect Tense.

H : I wonder if he knows what it is to speak in the Past Perfect Tense.

B&H : And how do you look at all this?

C : Me? Hmmm. These worldly fellows! They have lost their foundation in grammar. Not only in grammar but in so many other things!

B : And they have lost their sense of self-respect … honesty … O’ I can go on…..

H : Now I understand your anger. Your frustration.

B : And what can be done about it? Send them back to school to learn grammar? Learn the Tenses and use them correctly?

C : Too late!

B&H : Then we are doomed!

C : Not really. It is they who are doomed. Not only here but also in the hereafter. Their karma.

H : Here. Doomed. Karma … also doomed.

C : Hello my friend - can’t you see. Take that once all powerful guy. Today he barks and snarls with no bite. All his snarling is going down the gutters. His colleagues now call him a gutter politician.

B : Ya … I get you, And the other fellow … yelling and shouting until one day his wig will fall off. A very rich but poor fellow.

C : Do you think they sleep easy? Even if they somehow manage to, now … do you think they can sleep easy when they are laid six feet below?

B&H : We don’t know. And really, we don’t care.

C : But I care … I care for my fellow conscience in them, As I said earlier … their conscience has been corralled…. boxed in.

B&H : Too late!

C : To be seen. Change can happen.

H : What change?

B : Wait and see.