Though Christmas is over and one is surfeit with cakes and
biriyani and of course wine, the season with its carol songs and Merry
Christmas greetings still lingers in the air and rings in the ear. So I think
it is quite alright to write a Christmas story for my blog. I haven’t written
for a long time and I think it is good to write one before the aroma of
biriyani wafts into the air and disappears!
Can you imagine a Christmas story that starts with ghosts?
Yes, this one does. I am referring to the novel, “A Christmas Carol” written by
Charles Dickens in the year 1843. Quite inappropriate that I read this story
meant for children only now, after retirement! They say in old age one behaves
like a young child. May be I am in that stage!
This is the story of a businessman by name Scrooge, who with
his partner Marley, had been running his business of a counting-house, in
today’s parlance, a sort of bank in England. After the death of his partner
some seven years back, Scrooge is running the business on his own, without changing
the name of the firm, “Scrooge and Marley.” Scrooge is a miser, tight-fisted
and a covetous old man. He is also self-contained and solitary. He didn’t like
anyone greeting him or sticking a conversation with him in his office or on the
road. Nobody dared to do so too. In his office, even in winter, he wouldn’t
spend money for warming himself and his clerk, who had to warm himself at the
candle.
One Christmas season his nephew came wishing him Merry
Christmas. Scrooge’s response was “Bah! Humbug!” His principle was a person as
poor as his nephew had no business wishing anyone Merry Christmas. What is
merry about Christmas for a poor man like him in any case? Then his nephew asks
him, why is he not happy and celebrate Christmas cheerfully when he is rich!
His uncle would have none of that. The nephew goes off saying Christmas is a
kind, forgiving, charitable and pleasant time and his uncles is missing the
whole Christmas spirit. But Scrooge refuses his nephew’s dinner invitation and
dismisses him off grumpily.
Another two men come seeking some contribution from Scrooge
for the poor and destitute during Christmas time. You think Scrooge would open
up his purse or heart? No way! He tells them to advice the poor to go the
workhouses and get benefits under the Poor Law. His policy again is not to make
idle people happy. If the poor die, then in his opinion, it is good because it
will reduce the surplus population. Well, what do you think? The two gentlemen
quietly withdrew. He even refused paid-holiday to his clerk for Christmas. Next
he chased off a boy singing Christmas Carol at his door. Now you know what sort
of man Scrooge is. Well, someone ought to do something for him – may be smack
him on his behind!
As Scrooge returns home and warms up some food and starts to eat
it, he discerns another figure in his bedroom, Marley, his dead partner’s
ghost! It strikes a conversation with Scrooge. Trembling Scrooge asks why he is
visiting him now. The ghost regrets that while he lived he was similar to
Scrooge, unkind to the poor and the people and now he is in chains and roaming
the world for the sins he had committed. He warns Scrooge not to continue these
mistakes and become like him at his death. He can still correct himself.
Marley’s ghost says three more ghosts will visit him, one after the other,
sharp at twelve at night.
First ghost promptly appears at 12 midnight. It calls itself
the “Ghost of Christmas Past.” It takes Scrooge for a ride outside to the place
where Scrooge was born and brought up. Scrooge recognises the place and the
school he studied. A boy was sitting alone in the school, Scrooge! Then they
went in to a dilapidated, cold but big mansion. Scrooge was there as a small
boy all alone shivering in the cold reading a book. Scrooge had tears in his
eyes when he saw himself so lonely and neglected as a boy. Now he wishes he had
not chased the boy who came singing Carol to his place. Then the ghost takes
him to the shop keeper where Scrooge had worked as an apprentice. He saw how
the master invited him and other boys and how they all had a wonderful and
merry Christmas party in his home. Then he sees himself as a young man in love,
but his ambition was to make money. The girl releases him from the commitment,
because she realizes that he is after money and not love. Later she was
married, though poor yet lived a happy life. On Christmas day her husband comes
in bringing lot of small Christmas gifts to her and their children. This also
the ghost shows him. Scrooge is heart-broken seeing all these, realizing how
miserable he had been, thinks he has learnt a lesson. Has he, really?
Next night the next ghost appears, and introduces itself as
the “Ghost of Christmas Present.” This ghost takes Scrooge to the streets where
boys are running around delightfully and homes are celebrating Christmas with
friends and families. Even in that winter cold people were happy and cheerful.
They both went to the suburbs – to the house of Scrooge’s clerk. Even they had
a good Christmas dinner and were rejoicing, in spite of having a boy who was
crippled. They even drank to the health of Scrooge! Everywhere people were
wishing each other Merry Christmas and the spirit of Christmas and cheer were
overflowing. Then they visited the home of Scrooge’s nephew. They also were enjoying
with one another Christmas dinner.
Next comes the third ghost, the “Ghost of Christmas Yet to
Come.” It is about the future. It takes Scrooge to a group of businessmen, who
were talking about the dead Scrooge, who had died alone in his bed! They spoke
so ill of him! It would be a cheap funeral they said! No one said one good or
kind word about him. Unloved, unsung, unattended he had died. On seeing this,
the horror of it strikes Scrooge, who vows that he will become a changed man,
so that he wouldn’t meet such a lonely and despicable end. Good for him!
At home he sobbed violently, then he got up, ran out and
wished a boy on the street Merry Christmas. In one night Marley’s ghost and the
three other ghosts had really done a great job and Scrooge was a changed man.
He went to the church, smiled at people, visited his nephew, raised the salary
of his clerk, and generally became a kind and helpful gentleman.
So ends the story. Charles Dickens beautifully shows the
transformation of a miser into a liberal and kind man, who helped everyone. This
is a simple story, emphasizing the importance of Christmas spirit of sharing,
and loving, and wishing peace and happiness to all. Didn’t the angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, And on
earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Is any one of us like Scrooge? Better change for good, or else
one might get a visitation from the Christmas ghosts!
Wishing you all Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. God bless
you all.
