Small incidents always make me think about several things. May be when a man grows up, these old incidents try to relate to his own experiences or value for those objects. I am referring to chairs. The struggle for chair or retain chair is historical.
When I had gone to my Cousins house a few days back, there I found two kids fighting for one chair. I thought I should resolve their cause for the fight and hence I asked what made them fight for the chair. There was no reason except that both of them wanted the same particular chair. I tried to console them by offering to gift a new chair to one of them but it did not appeal to any one of them. One thing was certain that there was no venom in their fight. No malice but just a wish to retain the chair. Can I term it as childish.
We too had such fights when we were small kids. But more than that I remember the importance we gave to certain chair in the house. There used to be a reclining wooden chair with extended arms ear marked as our father’s chair. Nobody would sit in that chair. No one is encouraged to keep his foot on that chair. It is not that my father would not sit on any other chair but that is the chair on which he would recline, keep his legs on the extended portions of the arms and just relax or read newspaper. When he is around, mother would see to it all are kept away from the chair. That chair always used to be called as ‘ daddy’s chair’. When modern wind started blowing in our house and style of living changed, that is, spring sofas etc started replacing wooden furniture, this chair was never replaced Perhaps because it was father’s chair.
If I am not mistaken the history of the world is nothing but the struggle to retain chairs or as we say in history language ‘ seat of power’.. What we ordinary people call as chair, they call it as seat of power. Ultimately they fight for the chair only. Last month, a piquant situation arose in a Government Office. An official got himself transferred to a place by replacing another from that place. The person who was occupying that place was not willing to yield his place to him. They literally fought for that one chair. The first who came on the day occupied the chair. This became history.
History is replete with these type of instances where we have seen , especially during moghul rule, next of kin killing their opponents to take control of the seat of power which in fact is a chair, and they called it as throne. Our kings and nabobs took the help of English Rulers either to retain their seat of power or to throw out their opponent from the seat of power. The history tells us that one who retained the Delhi Seat retained power over the entire country. Even after Independence, the trend has not changed except that now it is not force, but democratic means is used to retain the seat or snatch the seat from his opponent. The political power is a struggle between several parties and party men to retain their respective seats. They jump from one party to another throwing to wind even the thinnest thread of shame, to grab the seat of power.
Above narration shows the struggle to retain the chair has several facets. One can see the difference between the innocent ‘fight’ of kids for the chair, the respect and reverence bestowed by the family to maintain the decorum and dignity of the chair of the father and the greed, force and cunning practices used by politicians to retain the chair. I should study as to who invented this chair?!