Brothers in Arms

The title of this blog is the name of a Gregorian song, Masters of Chant, Chapter 1, and as I listened to the song, as is usual, the words were not that clear. So I googled and found the lyrics, which were so very wonderful that I thought I would dwell on just four lines from third verse of the song. These are the words which caught my attention from the song : There's so many different worlds / So many different suns / And we have just one world / But we live in different ones. These words I feel, depict our present predicament; what we have done with the world, and how we have alienated ourselves from our brothers and sisters!

I may be lucky not to have my close relatives or parents or siblings across the border, in Bangladesh or Pakistan or Sri Lanka. I may not be able to feel the pain and agony those who do have their dear ones across the wired fences, nor will the country's leaders will ever feel it. It is the same earth, same green fields, same rivers, but we have given them different names, different attributes; we have painted our fields and waters with political colors, and the same waters which flows from the courtyards of our dear ones across the border, become untouchable poison when it reaches our shores! What have we done to this earth, and what have we done to the humanity?

It is heartening to realize that I have an identity which is so very different from those of my friends and relatives living across the border (an imaginary line of control that some people have drawn in their minds, and expect the whole population to abide by it). I envy the birds of the air, which can fly across these wired fences without passport and visas; I envy the insects, who can give a wake up call to the people of neighboring countries. The birds of the air and the insects of our gardens know that it is one world, and why have we not understood this great philosophy! And still we would hark that humanity is far more advanced than the plants and birds!

Bernard Shaw, several decades ago, had shown the futility of arms, in his popular and enlightening play "Farewell to Arms". It is true, he used the word 'arms' with a pun, but nevertheless he had a point to make. The world is becoming smaller and smaller day by day; the rising sectarianism across the globe is a threat which is far more dangerous than the ecological devastation we are so frightened of! Each nation is facing growing sectarianism, which are based on the selfish interests of a handful of people, and the nations are not able to contain them, and so, our world is becoming narrower day by day, and I am afraid after a few decades, we may have village-nations (like the city-states of the Greeks and the Romans).

We cannot think of a nation, which will be prepared to give up arms happily, in order to let the pigeons of peace fly in the sky, to let the citizens walk freely. If only the money that is spent on keeping a vigil at the wired fences and the borders were used for educating the rural masses, India would have been a super power long before. If only the money spent on arms and ammunition, fighter planes and warships were utilised for poverty eradication programs, the nation would have grown into a happy nation. It is time that we the conscious citizens of the nation make conscious and serious efforts to over throw the wired fences to forge ahead and meet the brothers and sisters longing for a warm hug across the borders!