G - THE SATURDAY CLUB

THE SATURDAY CLUB

A group of fifteen men, all retired personnel, were members of the
'Saturday Club', formed by their own efforts to get together every
Saturday evening at 3p.m. at 'Krishna Farms', which was the farm house
of Mr. Patel. They drove through the gates of the farm house in two
cars, one was Maruti Esteem and the other was a Ford Icon. The care
taker of the farm house served them with food and drinks and these
fifteen elders enjoyed themselves without any disturbance. They
discussed on topics like politics, financial matters, movies, about
their children, cricket, health, books, and anything they could think
about.

Every week they held a writing competition and one among them was made
the judge of the day. The judge was chosen by alphabetical order, so
every member got his turn. That days topic was, 'The view of hell from
this side', excepting the judge the others took part in the
competition. They were given thirty minutes to write on the topic. The
judge, Mr. Das, had a hard time to declare the winner. At last Mr. Rao
was judged the winner of the week. The winner always got a chance to
read out his writing before the group. Mr. Rao read aloud:

THE VIEW OF HELL FROM THIS SIDE

A voice could be heard over the loudspeaker - "Today, we focus our
discussion on 'Hell'. 'Hell', as you all know has an imbibed meaning in
us as something very hot and burning. In Hinduism we believe in
'Karma', which means the good and the bad quality of actions. Bad deeds
performed during lifetime can put us into a life after death in hell.
'Hell' is a place of detergence. Open up your minds eye and visualize
about hell - Your soul being boiled in the huge boiling pond of hell or
your soul being fried in the burning hot oil in a huge container or
again think your soul being shoved into burning fire. With the thought
of this word 'Hell' itself - the burn is felt. The hot burning inferno
comes not in your lifetime but is associated with the soul after the
body is lost." These were the words, which wondered the sea of heads
congregated to listen to the sermons of a speaker addressing from the
Pulpit.

The winner's prize was a packet of cigarette. It was time for them to
be back to their houses and the two cars left the farmhouse gate
heading towards the houses of the members.