CULTURE 

With some extra change in his hands, a traveller, on the shores of Naples, sees twelve beggars [before the days of Mussolini] sunning themselves, lying at the coast, under the Mediterranean sky. The traveller offers to honour a Lira to the laziest of them all; eleven of them contest to claim the reward, and he quietly offers it to the twelfth beggar. The story from Naples finds some parallels with the emerging trend of “Vehle Rehen Da Muqabala” in Punjab.

The organisers weigh the competition on a scale of larger public good, they say it encourages people to trim their screen time. The scale, in real terms, is tilted towards millions others glued to their screens. It is like straining tea through a sieve upside down — the intention might be genuine, but it leaves only a mess.

The mess is public, when the “performance of idleness” corners “idleness.” Here in Punjab, the “traveller,” is trying to find the worthy among the “eleven beggars” — while the twelfth is at leisure — embracing the ideals of idleness. ∎