We from India PR Blog wish all our readers a very happy 2008! I am taking a break this week from a series of Public Affairs posts we are posting. We will get back to the serious business from next week.

Well, do not go by the heading of this post. I am not going to bore you with usual resolutions, which you might have read in almost every newspaper or magazine in the country. I am going to talk about a children’s play I saw with my little tiger. The play was unique. It was adopted by Gulzar from some Japanese story. Agar – Magar was the name (if translated crudely it is ‘Either – Or’!?). It had two endings for the same story.

The story revolved around a teacher and his pupil named ‘Peehu’. Peehu’s mother was suffering from some unknown sickness which is killing people across the village. Teacher wants to go across the snowy mountain range and bring back medicine from a doctor which could cure the illness. Peehu decides to accompany his teacher in order to save her mother and other villagers. Peehu’s journey begins with teacher and two other pupils.

Agar:

The mountains were cold and dark. Peehu couldn’t bear the weather and at one point of time was unable to move an inch. Teacher asked him for his wish – whether he wants to stay back and let others go (it was almost an order rather than a request). Peehu accepts teacher’s advice (order) and decides to stay back. Considering the circumstances, Peehu requests teacher and his friends to throw him in a valley so he can die immediately without much pain and suffering. Teacher insisted that his last wish need to be fulfilled. Peehu jumped in to the valley with help from his friends!

Magar:

The mountains were cold and dark. Peehu couldn’t bear the weather and at one point of time was unable to move an inch. Teacher asked him for his wish – whether he wants to stay back and let others go (it was almost an order rather than a request). Peehu rejected teacher’s advice (order) and decide to continue the journey. Considering the circumstances, Peehu requests teacher and his friends to take him along on their shoulders so he can conquer the mountains and get medicine for his mother. Teacher gave him reasons and rules against his wish and insisted that he should stay back. Peehu argued saying that if teacher cant even show the way and do not allow him to complete his journey – he has no right to remain a teacher or a leader of the group!

Well, this story is here for a good reason. I will come back tomorrow with my version reasons and learning from this play, which I am sure will be applicable to all of us. After all, we are either ‘teacher’ or ‘Peehu’. Meanwhile, if you want to read between the lines and give me your version of reasons for this story being part of IPRB post, keep’em coming!

Once again, to all of us PR Wallahs wishing a very happy NEWs year!

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