RAJESH--THE FETE OF A SAHARANPUR BOY

WOW! ‘RAJESH’, WOW!! ----- YOU HAVEABUNDNTLY PROVED: “WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS WAY”.


I know scientists and rationalists will blabber for days on with full cylinders blazing as to how big a hoax you were? And, no doubts, ZEE NEWS and KISHORE AJWANI will drum beat their chests as to how they punctured the bubble of your ONE DAY OLD CLAIM TO FAME. By ridiculing you they are doing the same mistake which your school teacher did on 26 January 2005, when he stopped you from making a speech in English to the school assembly. May be KISHORE AJWANI and the President of the RATIONALIST SOCIETY OF INDIA will term their fete equivalent to solving the riddle of ‘LIFE IN THE OUTER SOACE’. Perhaps, in this din and noise, every one will forget as to how impossible it was to accomplish, what you had achieved with determination and focused mind. Your achievement is all the more creditable to me because of your background, environments and handicaps. I reckon it is like climbing MOUNT EVEREST without oxygen cylinders.

My scientist friends have already pronounced their judgment on you. They see in you a psychological disorder. They feel you have done this by watching two ‘HOLYWOOD’ movies. I suppose the movies are, namely, ‘Total Recall’ and ‘Infested’. I wanted them to explain as to how did you do this? I wanted some of my scientist friends to repeat the same fete personally to strengthen their argument. But no, no explanation was given. There were only theories galore -- which rejected your achievement. The emphasis was more on REJECTING than APPRECIATING. All of them were in a TEARING HURRY TO PUT THE SEAL OF THEIR ‘KNOW-ALL-CAPABILITIES’ by passing NEGATIVE VERDICTS on a phenomenon which required deliberations and detailed examination. The boy became a guinea pig in the MEDIA race for TRP and EXPERTS craze for a sound byte on the REALITY TV SHOW.

I am talking about a ‘Live show’ on ZEE NEWS on 13 July 2007 as a counter to IBN-7 Channel story of a village boy mesmerizing every one with his AMERICANISED English, broad cast on July 12, 2007 between 8 PM and 11.30 PM. The story is on a 14 year old poor boy who, suddenly one day took a vow that he would not speak his mother tongue i.e. HINDI but converse only in Americanized English. Wonder of wonders, he spoke as fluently and confidently as a natural born American would, perhaps. He hails from a remote UP village and studied in a HINDI medium school. He belongs to a family of Laborers and his father became mentally sick after an accident. He has an elder brother who is just two years elder to him—who can hardly speak English. The boy has been presently living with his paternal aunt at Roorkee for a year and a half. The incident of ‘VOW’ had taken place three months earlier. He baffled his teachers and class mates by conversing in English. The boy not only speaks in American English but also talks of scientific theories of THOMAS EDISON and EINSITIEN. As claimed by IBN 7 Channel, he had been teaching B-TECH students of an EngineeringCollege. The boy was interviewed and grilled live respectively on IBN 7 and ZEE NEWS Channels on 12/13 July 2007, along with some experts.

The name of the boy is RAJESH. His father Mr. SAT PAL SINGH is mentally sick. His mother OM KUMARI is totally illiterate. They belong to Bilaspur village in SAHARANPUR district of UP (INDIA). The boy is around 14 years of age and studied in a Hindi medium school in the village. There is no cable TV or modern amenities anywhere around the village. Around two years back, his father met an accident and lost his mental balance. He is yet not cured. Around the same time, Rajesh was ridiculed by a school teacher when he tried to give a speech in English to his school assembly. This traumatized him. Under a state of shock, he got involved in an incident with his father. This further caused a mental trauma and he cut himself from the rest of the world and confined himself to a room. Within a month, he surprised his teacher, who had ridiculed him, by his refined speech in the same assembly. Thereafter, he shifted to ROORKEE to stay with his paternal aunt. Here, he probably mastered the language to perfection, including gesticulations, accent and manners. “WHAT BROUGHT A CHANGE IN HIS METAPHOR” and “HOW BIG IS THE ACHIEVEMENT” were the questions that RATIONALISTS AND EXPERTS should have answered? Forget about his scientific knowledge or the lack of it. Fourteen years old, who has not studied physics and chemistry, would not know laws enunciated by great minds. To me, these laws of NEWTON or Einstein’s theories were not the issues.

I am not asking as to how the boy learned about EDISON and EINSTIEN or the theories of SCIENCE. I am also not saying by any chance that he might have displayed knowledge of previous BIRTH. I just wanted these SCIENTISTS to EXPLAIN AS TO HOW DID THIS BOY, WHO HAD NO AMERICAN AND ENGLISH ENVIRONMENTS AT HOME AND SCHOOL, LEARN THE LANGUAGE, ACCENT, MANNERS AND GESTICULATIONS OF AN AMERICAN?

Some of the experts expressed view that the boy had learnt the language by watching two HOLYWOOD movies, repeatedly over three months. Disgusting view but very well accepted because of its theoretical probability. A 14 year old poor village boy, confined to a room for three months, learns all this on his own? It does not sound convincing to me. Ask SANJAY DUTT –a product of LAWRENCE SCHOOL SANAWAR, why did he not pick up Queen’s English accent? Ask TUSHAR KAPOOR –a product of HARVARD University- as to why doesn’t he speak AMERICANISED English? How about our dear PM, Dr. MANMOHAN SINGH? All of you know he had been to CAMBRIDGE. And you tell me a small village boy with no resources, does it on his own in three months because he has psychic disorder. It pooh-poohs his talent and intellect. What a LOGIC of SCIENCE and I suppose SCIENCE IS all about OBSERVATION, INQUIRY, INVESTIGATION, EXAMINATION, HYPOTHESISATION, ILLUSTRATION, CONFIRMATION and ENUNCIATION. Where is the REJECTION or RIDICULE in this?

Then, there was another gem on IBN 7 Channel’s live show on July 12, 2007, from the president of the Rationalist Society of India. He asked the boy –a mere 14 year old—studying in 9^th class, as to what was Newton’s SECOND LAW OF MOTION? The young child was obviously startled. Thankfully, the IBN anchor, Sandeep—I think, cut short the RATIONALIST by telling him, “Sir, do not ask about Newton’s laws but please explain how come a rustic village boy of 12 years age, born of very poor parents, in a remote village, called Bilaspur of SAHARANPUR DISTRICT in UP, wakes up one fine morning to speak AMERICANISED ENGLISH as fluently and expressively as a natural born American only can speak with the same gestures and manners”. I wanted to ask my RATIONALIST friend, IF HE KNEW AS WHAT WERE THE “THREE LAWS OF ABSURDITY”? Try out, if some of you can—otherwise, I will give it out in my next post.