A SOLILOQUY

Khub Chand Jain,
25/1/1966
(The Day I retire from
Govt.service, sixty years
after I was born.)

The five blessings for which I am most grateful to fortunes are:-

First that I was born a human being and not one of the brutes.

Second that I was born a man and not a woman.

Third that I was born an Indian nor a barbarian,

Fourth that I was born a Jain not a heathen.

Fifth that I was born with complete set of five senses and am not physically handicapped

But alas! The grand opportunity offered to me by nature is being frittered away and now I find there is a complete bank-ruptcy of Right Conduct.

Kahe kis munh se jaoge Ghalib
Sharm tum ko mager nahin ati.

O Ghalib, with what face will you go to Kaba you don’t feel shy of your conduct.

Man nakardam shuma hazar bakuved
Well, I did not but I do exhort you to be beware.