A Miser's Mite

A popular adage says, it is easier to wake up a sleeping person rather than the one who pretends to be asleep. The wake-up call for the Indian subcontinent was sounded sixty years ago, when the leaders of the nascent nation and all those who mattered in the political arena declared her to be a republic, ruled by the people. It is not easy to find how far the nation has truly become republic, taking into consideration the feelings and sentiments of all peoples; for a country like India, with hundreds of cultural traditions, languages, rites, rituals, customs and ethnicities, it is hardly possible to apply a uniform rule for them all.

The largest democracy in the world has much to offer to the world at large, and the world fraternity of nations sees a point in her unique position. It is difficult to find a country in the world, which has so diverse and unique cultural traditions and languages as India. In fact, it is proper to say that India is a federation of nations, just as the United States is. Each of India’s states could be larger in size and population than many of the European countries, and yet poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and underdevelopment plague the nation as a whole.

What has the nation achieved over the sixty years, since it was declared a republic? Has the country realized some of the great dreams and ideals that the freedom-fighters and countless martyrs envisaged in 1950? If the country has not achieved the basic level of satisfaction, what are the causes and what has been done to remedy the blocks and obstacles? There are more questions today than there are answers as one looks at this emerging super-power! No wonder, India had been basking on past glory, the ancient civilization, multiplicity of cultures and religions, and had not concentrated on some of the basic problems existing still today. After the independence in 1947, the nation had given birth to a class of people who made use of ignorance and illiteracy for their benefits, and unfortunately the nation is a pawn in their hands even today.

There have been so many Five-year plans declared and huge amount of money had been pumped to remedy the crying needs of the people. India has the resources, which can even feed the whole world, but a large amount of the Indian resources are locked up in banks outside the country, especially in Swiss banks, and in investments outside the country. We had known only one Mittal (a proud Kolkata Xaverian), who had pitched his tent in Luxembourg, to rule over the largest steel manufacturing unit in the world; but there are many who had been quietly going about in Europe, selling the nation to the highest bidders, in the name of bringing foreign investments and exchange. We may never come to know about them, but it is good for us to know that there is a big hole in our purse.

Abraham Lincoln is famed to have said, ask not what the country has done to you, ask what you have done to the country, and it is time that every literate and conscientious Indian ask himself/herself, what s/he has contributed to the growth of this republic! What we need today is not great leaders, who can show the way; we need public opinion, which can build bridges between the rural and the urban, between the literates and the illiterates, between the poor and the rich, between the haves and the have-nots. It does not cost a lot to become part of a nation-building; it is primarily a matter of attitude, which may lead to realistic action. If every Indian thinks at least on this day for the nation, what s/he has to offer to the nation, India can truly be proud to be a ‘great tradition’.

Beauty and Beast

Today the Indian subcontinent witnessed one of the most spectacular diamond rings in the sky, when the annular solar eclipse was sighted from the Southern most tip of the country, and there were a lot of people flocking to Dhanushkodi and to Kanyakumari! One may still remember that these are the very places which had witnessed some years ago one of the worst onslaughts of tsunami! The spectacular show has come as a consoling factor to the tsunami ravaged coastal region of Tamil Nadu, which is still to rise from the harvest festival Pongal slumber. So the wonderful celestial sight was a feast to the star-gazers, if not the coastal fisherfolks, for whom the eclipse was nothing more than a sophistication of a natural event.

But day before yesterday nature showed its ferocious face in Haiti, when an earthquake devoured over 50,000 men and women. Seven richter scale is nothing so low to bring down buildings, and there were people who were buried under the debris, and never to see the light of day. There are more and more natural calamities over which the human beings have too little control. Nature however had its own mechanism to avert major calamities which would cost the earth dearly; but the human intervention has undone these mechanism, to such an extent that it is hard for nature not to be stern. And when nature is hard, the first casualty is the human persons en masse!

If the earthquake has shaken Haiti day before yesterday, our turn may come any time; we are called to be prepared to face the tune of the angry earth. The human race which had mercilessly killed nature’s sap, are to replace them with their own blood, and yet it is doubtful if the earth would tally the accounts and start life anew! But one of the most nagging questions which disturb many of the underdeveloped or developing nations is, why they be held responsible for the destruction of the earth and her resources by the developed nations? Who are the people who have plundered the earth’s resources and filled their pockets? Is it not unfair to make the innocent people held responsible for what they do not know?

The irony of earth’s divine sport is that on the one hand she reveals herself as one of the most charming, beautiful of all created things; and on the other side is her ferocious side! Beauty and beast seem to co-exist, and who else but Lord William Blake can try to reconcile these contradictions. Without contraries is no progression, Blake was to have told, and that is why he brought in Lamb and Tyger (Blake’s spelling), representing innocence and experience. True, the humanity was innocent some centuries ago, and today the experienced men and women would only find ways of exterminating any beauty still left on earth, and it is proper that we see the beastly face of earth!

Humanity is all in praise for the wonders of the earth, and they will make melodies to sing her praises, so long the charm is still there, and she shows her beautiful face, spilling innocence. Humanity is frightened of the other side of the earth, the angry planet, ready to teach humanity a fitting lesson, so that they do not play with fire, which can devour all that is, and is yet to be! As we admire the most spectacular diamond ring of the century, let us not forget the hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti, who are fighting with their lives for no fault of their own, and bring them to our consciousness, so that their cry, pain and anguish may heal our greed and selfishness, so that we may in turn heal the wounds of the earth!

Fast in Fellowship

I know many people in India think of the former chief minister of Bihar, Sri Lallu Prasad Yadav as a clown in Indian politics, one who can amass public money property shamelessly, and even justify doing so publicly. He has been credited to have turned the ever loss-making Indian railways into a profit making one, which made the world take note of his USP. But I have a soft spot for this Bihari for several reasons: he is a man of the soil; he might have made a fortune out of the fodder scam, but he is also the one who believes in taking care of cows, and sometimes does not feel shy to pose milking the Jersy cows for photographs!

Needless to say, Lallu's wisdom is rustic, untouched by scientific and technological advancement. There are sparks of rustic wisdom in his speech, and one is left to amusement at the wisdom of this man, who however fails to apply such wisdom to reality. While many parts of the country are going through drought-like situation, Lallu had proposed a way to partly overcome this drought, which for the most part is human made. Citing the example of Jagdivan Ram, who during the time of drought in the early years of Indian independence, invited the citizens to fast once a week, Lallu invited the present generation to skip their meals (at least one meal) one day a week!

I found this simple solution not only innovative, though the credit goes to Jagjivan Ram, but it also challenges the people who are responsible for creating such a situation. It is also a challenge to the ever-increasing human greed and avarice. I welcome the idea whole heartedly, and propose an improvement of this idea as follows: It may be hard to skip the meals a whole day, since most of us would not have energy to work if we don't eat the whole day. So here is a way out. On alternative days, I can skip a meal; on monday I skip breakfast, on Wednesday lunch and on Friday supper. At the end of the week, I had skipped three meals, equivalent to not eating for a day.

Doctors recommend fasting as a means of staying healthy, and there are people who fast to keep themselves trim. But fast that is proposed has a wider social message, not only purely personal. What is important is not just to skip a meal, because that may not affect the world around. But then there is a way to make this simple act of fasting meaningful to a wider society. I cannot eat up what I save out of fasting on other days. If I feel the pain of those thousands of men, women and children going hungry to bed each day, then I will keep the grains, pulses and vegetables I save each week, and hand it over to the people who are in dire need of them. In this way, while I feel the hungry stomach, I can see the smile in the face of the hungry children.

Living very close to the VIP road of the City of Joy, I can see on weekends there is no parking space around our house. There are hundreds throng in and around Music World in Park Street, prepared to dole out some money to eat outside. If all these eateries, both big and small, were to pull their shutters once a week, save the food and money, and hand them over to the most deserving children, men and women, then we will see the world changing rapidly.If all men and women earning a salary or wage were to pause for a day in a month, and hand the money for those who lack basic amenities of life, then the world would be a better place for all of us.

Ode to a Unknown Soldier

Is it not strange that 62 years after the nation gained Independence, one little citizen has dared to carve this unpolished encomium in honor of the great sacrifices you have made, so that I can sit leisurely at my cozy little room and write these lines. We had not made efforts to know your name, your language, religion or even caste, because for those who matter today in the country, these are really immaterial. Mind you they will dig up your graves even after a century if that will move them an inch forward, and spend millions of rupees from the national trasury, without any qualms of conscience! But that is a different story, you may be well aware of!

True, I did not even venture to verify if you are a male or a female, or even the third gender! I know you have betrayed a wicked smile, and I do understand that whatever be the gender, there were people who placed their lives at the altar of freedom, without realizing that they would never taste of it! There were no press photographers flocking to you, to have that rare 'shot' for their exclusive story. For them you were not even worth a line at the last page, and so is my blog in your honor! I would have been delighted to post your photo on my blog, if only I could find one!

I know you are suspecting why I ventured to shower these beautiful words in your honour! Have I anything to gain out of this? You know only too well that in the midst of over the one hundred and ten crore people, who is this one little creature, trying to dig up the old graves! I can still see the boot-marks of the great men who trampled over your graves with utter insensitivity, not realizing that the freedom that we enjoy today, and they milk today is but the fruit of your labour! The annals of this great nation were written in your blood, and today it is they who have changed history! Forgive them dear, forgive them!

Do you believe that with the Indian Independence, all the maladies which haunted the nation were gone for ever? No, today we are infested with a far severe malady, the men and women who would sell the nation to fill their belly; people who would let hundreds and thousands die in the name of development; leaders who can blindly sell the national pride to other wealthier nations, with no sense of shame! Look around and see, what the freedom you fought for has come to! Look at the millions still starving in the remote corners of the nation, dalits and tribals still struggling to get what is rightfully their own, the indigenous people being decimated day by day! Look brother, sister, look around!

It is time for you to rise up from your grave, to don your costumes and march into the lanes and bylanes of our nation! Let the trumpet sound, and let all the souls of the departed martyres rise up to reclaim the land for her people! You will not be remembered henceforth in this lonesome pillar in the midst of vast expanse; you will live in the hearts of every Indian, living and dead! But rise up Brother, rise up Sister, before it is too late! As you rise up, I bow my head in humble adoration and reverance, for you are truly a son and daughter worth your name, and your Mother will only be honored by your valor! May your clan increase!

Cost of Freedom

Celebration of the anniversary of the Indian Independence is an appropriate time to reflect on the cost of freedom; how much have we paid and what have we paid to enjoy independence, which has put the world’s largest democracy into the world map? What was my share in acquiring this freedom? I might proudly hark that I was not even born when the nation gained independence, or else I would have given even my life for it. Needless to say, several selfless men and women had given their lives, fighting fierce battle with the British, to free their motherland. It is their sweat and blood that gave us this nation, which we can call truly our own.

We have a stereotyped list of freedom fighters, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, followed by a host of leaders who were instrumental in actualizing the freedom. Subhash Chandra Bose, Chittaranjan Das, Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, to name a few, were front runners in the freedom struggle. But today I think it is important that we turn our focus from these illustrious figures to the unknown freedom fighters whose names would never find place in the long list of glorious persons who gave their lives, so that we might have a better tomorrow.

The real strength of the Indian national movement or call it the fight for a free India, was not so much the big leaders who led the struggle from city to city, but the quiet foot-soldiers who fought quietly in the remote corners of this vast nation. Most often the names of these sincere and faithful children of Mother India are simply obliterated, so that the mighty and the powerful will win the glitter and the gold. They are often included in the list of the ‘unknown’ soldiers, with a barren pillar standing in the midst of rain and shine, with none to care.

Today we recall to mind the spirit of sagacity that these men and women in different parts of the country exhibited, going beyond any political or social or communitarian leanings. Their thirst for freedom has found the nation breaking free, but these small fry have been swallowed by the monstrous leaders who took hold the fate of the nation. Today it is time to call for another freedom struggle, to free the nation from the corrupt, power-hungry, immoral, selfish leaders, who know only one thing – to make the nation to fulfill their personal goals and objectives. It is time that the souls of these foot-soldiers rise from their ashes, and reclaim the nation for her people.

The cry of mother India pining for love and care for her marginalized children echoes in the skies; she wept the fate of her children even as the Prime Minister hoisted the tricolor at the ramparts of the Red Fort. The cry of a mother cannot go in vain, so they say; if that be true, then there is sure to be a resurgence, when her children will rise to bring the same pristine honor and glory that she had been enjoying for centuries. It is our turn to blow the trumpet, chime the temple bells, draw out our swords and daggers, because here begins our ‘dharmakshetra, kurukshetra’!

The Divine Dancer

In the Indian religious tradition we have that beautiful notion of God as a dancer, the Nataraja is often deemed as the symbol of the aesthetic elements mingled with religious spirit. But his is not so much the erotic dance, which many a temple art in India portray, the most important being the temple in Khajaraho in the state of Orissa, but his is the cosmic dance, which celebrates life, and no wonder at every formal Bharatanatyam recital this deity is invoked at the very beginning. I find it quite amusing to think of God as a dancer, and I would even go to the extent of extending the image to think of God as a choreographer par excellence, who composes, teaches, and helps perform the universal, cosmic dance with the whole of creation, a dance which unites all the worlds, and which gives life and sustenance to all creation.

I have never danced in public, and consider myself inept to dance, and have not even tried to dance; but it is not that I do not dance quietly, when I stand before the mirror in the morning or in the evening, or before or after a shower, or as a body warming exercise. There is a dance in each one of us, just as there is a song to be sung in all of us, whether we are aware of it or not. It is not an ethereal dance that we are capable of, but even if it is just to stand with awe before the presence of God, and stretch the hand forward to receive his gentle hand, that is good enough to be part of his divine dance party. In fact, it is not to be my concern what I would dance, and how I could do it; it is the responsibility of the Lord of the dance, and he knows what character I would best suit, and he would assign me accordingly. But from my part all that is required of me is to keep my heart and mind open to learn from the divine master the secrets of making moves, which would delight his divine soul.

But often in life, I realize that I too have a dance sequence which I would like to display before the divine master, and feel over confident in what I can do, without his help. When I consider myself superior to the master, then I am sure to end up in disappointment and despair. If it is my personal endeavor then it is my responsibility to bear the consequences, and when I am under the care of the master choreographer, then I have nothing to worry, even if the show is a flop, and there is no appreciation from others. The greatest advantage for me in being a humble student of the divine Lord is that I come in touch with so many persons, in whose lives I leave footprints; I begin to see that our lives criss-crossing, and building webs of relationships that last longer than our memories. We become co-dancers, and share the joys and sorrows collectively. The world of the divine dancer is quite different from the world I am used to; he/she may invite me to undertake things that are too hard for me to achieve, but I know that he/she is always at my side to hold me. That is a great consolation for me.

If my dance is going to give pleasure only to me, I cannot boast that I have achieved the purpose for which I have learned to dance; instead every dance that I perform should give pleasure to the people I live with; it is only when I cross the boundaries of my own satisfaction that I am able to enter into another person’s life. On another level, my dance needs to fit into the cosmic dance that the universe uninterruptedly performs; if I am aware of my specific role in the economy of salvation of the world, then I would just fit in well, or else I may feel myself a misfit, and that may make me perpetually unhappy.

Today I would like to pause for a while to think about what my specific role is in the cosmic dance of the divine dancer; what does he want me to do, or what is the specific role that he/she wishes me to fulfill. I would also reflect about my openness to his/her promptings at the depth of my being, so that I may not drown his/her voice with the noise of the world around me, and pretend as if I did not hear that voice speaking softly within. I would like to discern my part in the eternal cosmic dance, and do just that, without aspiring to do anything more than that, for I know if I do this to the best of my ability and knowledge, happiness will be mine for sure. Then I will be able to forget the world I live in, witnessing the mesmerizing dance of the whole of the universe, where life flows endlessly mingled with joy and happiness, where even a blade of grass will tell me the secret of a happy living, even a crow will sing for me melodies wondrously soothing, where even a gentle breeze will chide the troubling thoughts, and even a flashing moment will put me in place in eternity. If that is the outcome of being part of the troupe of the divine dancer, I would not need anything more!