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I gently told her, "Don't make up your mind before even listening to me because this time it's something as big as the national honour". "And how is that?" she asked. I told her, "I've decided not to accept the Padma Shri". "Excuse me sardar sahib, but who has given you the Padma Shri," she asked tauntingly. I declared, "Well if they haven't given it to me as yet, one day they'll certainly confer it on me" My wife couldn't make any sense out of what I was speaking. "You haven't received the award and you are already thinking of returning it". "Madam, advance planning bhi koi cheez hoti hai. Haven't you been reading the newspapers? Don't you know the latest trend? Haven't you heard noted historian Romila Thapar, Assamese journalist Kanaksen Deka and famous Hindi writer Vishnu Prabhakar decided to turn down the state honour? Though Vishnu Prabhakar decided to accept it only after the President himself intervened, it has become trendy to say "No thank you" to the Padma awards," I explained to my wife. After this controversy I feel that there should be two categories of the State awards - one of those candidates who actually don't want the Padma awards and the government is still bent upon honouring them and the second category of those who don't deserve but who still manage to get it after great manipulation. My wife interrupted my thoughts and curtly told me, "It's none of your business to decide these categories. You just tell me plain and simple what will be your reason for declining the Padma Shri?" "Well," I said, "I will return the Padma Shri saying that I deserve the Padma Vibhushan". |
WHEN
I got up in the morning I declared rather grandly to my wife that I had
taken a big decision today. She said, "What's new about it? Every
morning you take one such decision which ultimately proves to be
foolishly disastrous".