Ushering New Year

It is Bengali new year day, but as I travel to another place, some four hours from home, I see no sign of celebration on the way, except some small shops were beginning to decorate the entrance with flowers; the traffic on the road was relatively less, but what about the celebrations? A good many people in the state seem to be quite oblivious of the fact that they were beginning yet another calendar year, and given the fact that in rural Bengal it is the Bengali calendar which is more in vogue than the English calendar, but we have long embraced the English New Year day than the regional one, and that says a lot about the change in attitude of the people towards long cherished traditions and cultural moors.

As New Year ushers in new hope and new aspirations; unfortunately promises and great plans are still stringed to the English New Year day; and they disappear into thin air a few days after the New Year. I have not heard about anyone taking New Year promises on a Bengali calendar year. For the general public, the regional calendar is of much less significant than the accepted English calendar. We are on the verge of giving a decent burial to the calendar which was shaping our socio-cultural living for centuries, and are prepared to replace it with the foreign and even alien system of calendar which may place us on an equal footing with the rest of the world.>/p>

Exchange of greetings on this day is not common either; as I travelled and met friends and familiar people, only one remembered to wish me Happy New Year, and that person is not a Bengali (in the true sense of the word, but a true Bengali at heart); I too did not dare to wish friends and associates, lest they should think I am old fashioned. The world is fast changing, and whatever that is local, close to the soil, is being relegated to the dusty store rooms, and whatever is foreign (bilati, and even our vegetables and fruits now have a prefix of ‘bilati’ – even our long time favorites, brinjal and tomatoes have fair skins) is glorified, treasured at the core of our homes and hearts.

The one word that goes round in our newspapers and during election campaigns these days is the ‘change’; it seems that the ‘change’ is inevitable in the political, cultural and social levels, and when the whole state is on the move towards change, no one can resist its powerful currents. There is a mad rush to welcome change, as if we had not experienced it all these years; we think only in terms of political powers, but we had been confronting change, for better or worse, almost everyday, and many of them had done good too. Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it, so says an old Indian proverb, and therefore we need to keep our records intact, the path we have come along.

New Year ushers in new hope and enthusiasm; every business person or a shopkeeper who opens a new “haal khatha” (account book) hopes that the New Year will come with “subha laabh” (manifold rewards). We all of us plead with the gods and goddesses on this day to make each day, a day of plenty, because it is only in plenty could we find our joy and happiness. But this is a paradox that we have landed in; we may find true joy and happiness only in scarcity and not in plenty. A person who has just a few hands full of rice enjoys it with great relish than the one who has too much to eat and throw off. The person who has just a few rupees spends it with great care than the person who has too much to spare. Therefore my New Year wish is that all may have just enough for them to be happy and contended, and share the surplus with those in dire need of them, and that is when each day of the year can be a New Year’s day.

Rocking Boats!

Two of my community members cannot accept me as the Rector of this place, complained a priest to me, when I went to meet him regarding one of our men who is undergoing some kind of apprenticeship under his care. I had known that the priests generally do not discuss with men of other congregations about the inner conflicts, but this priest was quite vocal. And to my surprise one of his strong enemies is known to me quite closely, and I was not surprised that this priest was having problem from him. Looking at people through cultural glasses is one of the most common maladies plaguing the Church in several parts of the country. I wonder if there is any quick remedy to this malady!

It is not surprising that this kind of feelings are felt and expressed in many of the religious communities. The fact is that in most cases, the members make the utmost effort to hide these inner conflicts and division among themselves. After all, no one wishes to wash their dirty linen in public. I was not shocked or surprised that this kind of inner resistance is expressed so clearly at the dining table, even in the presence of members of other congregations. I was not surprised, because such is the case even in many of our communities, and I am sure that such a thing will continue to exist for many more years to come; the only reason why this is something impossible for us to remedy is because we form human communities.

Luckily we are not saints, nor are we hardcore sinners; we are just ordinary, mediocre men, who think mostly in human terms. Though we have left behind all our families, friends, yet at the core of our being we have our own silly inclinations, what Ignatius of Loyola called, inordinate attachments. This human craving for self-promotion is so basic that it may pop up at the moment when we least expect. And I cannot believe a person who says that he/she does not have any desire or attachment, which is not lopsided. No one can be exempted from thinking in this line; the very fact that we are human persons, makes it obligatory for us to be bound by our attachments.

For the most part, we are not in full control over ourselves, our actions, thoughts and words; our attachments, desires determine everything we think, say and do. It may need careful observation on our part to realize the truth-value of this statement. I am driven not by my thoughts, but what I deem is essential for my very survival, and those are the deep-seated cravings, many of which might not have been acknowledged. Unfortunately many of us live and die, without ever realizing what we are bound with, leave alone attempting to free ourselves from these bonds. If only we realize that we are prisoners of our desires and cravings is already the starting point of our journey in freedom.

I know the inner conflict within the religious community will continue to rock their boats, until the concerned persons realize that by trying to rock other’s boats, they are in fact rocking their own, and it might not be too late before they realize that their own boats are sinking. It is impossible to explain to these over-grown men that each of them is holding on to his rock-forts which he hopes will protect him from all assault, but unfortunately that does not happen that way. It is only when they realize that while trying to pull down their companion from the seat of “power” they are only binding themselves more and more to their own demons, which may sometime or other make a prey out of them.

Lessons to Learn from Least

I found it hard to believe that Europeans could be so very insensitive, when they come to our country. Unlike we people here in India, who are so very informal, and would love to just walk in unannounced, the Europeans are known to appreciate formality, and yet when it comes to dealing with us, they take many things for granted, and that was one of the things which was annoying me, ever since this team of three Jesuits through a third person announced that they are coming to meet us. They would have booked their flight tickets some three months earlier, but they did not find time to inform us about their program.

I had a taste of how the Europeans behave in Europe, just a year ago, and after a stay for over a month I found, I might not survive if I were to stay in Europe. Life is so very artificial, and there are not much scope for one to be free to be what one wants to be in Europe, or at least that is the kind of feeling I got. You cannot walk into even your best friend's room or office without first making a prior appointment. That is how the society operates over there, and we would like to do things very differently here, and that is what makes all the difference to the people who visit us.

When people, even priests and nuns, visit us from either the United States or the Europe, often they exhibit a sense of superiority over us, our culture, language, though they cannot afford to do it openly and directly. Money power is their major strength, and sometimes they make attempts to purchase our value and cultural system with monetary and charitable help. They also show a sense of condescending over our culture and our people. While they appreciate our culture and rich traditions, they would hesitate to eat what we eat, drink what we drink, an obvious indication of keeping themselves apart.

We are born and brought up in a mortley of cultures and we know how to mingle with people of different cultures, religions and ethnicities. We have no problem to dialogue with people of other languages and cultures; even when we do not know the language of a particular group of people, and yet we know how to communicate. We know how to esteem people, and relate to them on equal footing, without showing any sign of inferiority or superiority, and the Europe and the US have a lot to learn from us, and it might take several centuries for them to first of all acknowledge they have something to learn from the developing nations.

I wish all the people who visit India, especially from the Europe and the US, learn from us the art of hospitality. Atito devobhava - guests are like gods, that is what the Holy Scriptures of our land says, and we mean it, as opposed to the cold, calculated and indifferent attitude of the Europe. We know the art of making homes as opposed to the developed nations, who only know how to make buildings. That is another thing that they can learn from us. In fact, if we start listing all the things they can and need to learn from us, we can fill a library with the lists! This is not an exaggeration, but a notion which only those who have known India can vouch for!

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’.

Return to Roots

Attending an enlightening lecture-cum-interaction with Prof Bharat Gupt on Natyasastra opened up several cupboards in my household I had never bothered to unlock and see what treasures lie over there. I was found asking myself this simple question: how is it that all these years I had not ventured to know and learn more about some of the rich traditions we had been beholding for several centuries. It is no wonder, we may not be aware of many of the rich treasures of our homeland, which have found home in the West, even with adequate copyright and intellectual rights. On the one hand I felt so proud to be part of this great land of cultures and religions, and on the other felt embarassed not knowing the intricacies that this great literature transpose!

It would be beyond the scope of this little blog to enter into some of the salient features of Natyasastra, but it would be worthwhile to highlight one or two key aspects which interested me. This great classic has been popularly known as the Fifth Veda (the other four being Rg, Yajur, Sama and Atharva, which had been appropriated by the Brahmins), meant for the hoi poploi, the aam janta, the nothing-special about people. Is it a generous gesture on the part of Bharat Muni to hand this treatise to the common people, as a consoling factor? Whatever critics say, one thing is for sure: this can be appropriated by any one, especially the non-Brahmin!

The world today is moving at a break-neck speed to explore everything that is possible to harness the world's resources to the best way possible. Brain-drain has not yet become a problem that would disturb the developping nations, but the ancient traditions are slowly finding their place not in schools and colleges, but in archives of archaic manuscripts and museums. The great literature that had enlivened the literature and art of this great nation for several centuries has suddenly become a thing of the past, and we are looking for viable alternatives to replace them. Shame, shame! We have no qualms of conscience to bury alive living traditions, because we are not equipped to take a dip into them!

Some of the great literatures of the ancient India have been path-breaking in several fields, and many of the things that modern science and technology re discover have found mention in many of our scriptures, but who is there to really go through the palm leaves, scrolls to decipher the rich material that had been treasured for hundreds of years. If we ourselves bury these rich materials, then we shall be answerable to the future generations for burying living civilizations as a sign of our incapacity! It is time that we wake up, and unearth the scrolls and manuscripts which are fast eaten up by whiteants and moth! Who knows we may find remedy for many of the evils huanting the world in some of them.

But the responsibility to return to our roots lies with every one of the Indian citizen, who feels obliged to own up what has been our collective tradition, irrespective of culture, religion or language. If our children are taught to return to their roots, in the study of culture, language, literature and religion, then there would be less conflict and attempt from one section of people to assert their cultural hegemony. We do not need to swallow all that the ancient literature and scriptures teach us; we need to look at them critically, and study them at the particular socio-cultural context, and take them for what they are worth. But our lives will be quite different if only we take a close look at them, and shape our lives in the light of our discoveries!

Slumdogs to Skylarks

At last, many of the Indians are on the first page of most of the world's newspapers, and this time, not for something disgusting or horrifying, but noble and beautiful. Eight Oscar awards to Slumdog Millionaire has shaken the nation from its slumber, to reveal to the world that India is more than a land of snake-charmers and of hunger and thirst, where industry has not grown... The world has known India for all the reasons what it should not have been. Living in Philippines, for instance, Indians are looked down upon as people who are shrewd (thanks to the Gujaratis, who have a flourishing money-lending business), and know how to extract the most from the locals, and for Pinays India does not exist, all they know is Mumbai, what I used to call 'national ignorance'.

The picture is somewhat different in Europe; since there is a huge African population, often the Indians are grouped together with the Black, partly due to affinity due to color. For the West, the dark or brown skin is not something detestable, but something that need to be kept at a distance. Can eight Oscar awards change the most often distorted view of the great nation of cultures and religions in the eyes of the world fraternity? This is one question that I keep asking, even as the debate goes on if the movie is an Indian or a British one! Whether we like it or not, India has been put on the Oscar map, and it is there to stay, even if the future years do not find adequate talent to match the present generation!

The story of the Slumdog may come as a surprise to other nations, but to the Indians this movie has exactly the same kind of formula, with which most of the Indian films are made. The triumph of the underdog is one theme that is eternal in this land, because that give relief to the audience, even if it is only momentary, and takes them away from the humdrum reality that most of our men and women are forced to live. But the story is something that is too good to be true, and I only hope that the dalits and the marginalised tribals don't make futile efforts to reach the state of Jamaal in the film. Reasonable risks can bring in good results, and this film is a proof to it.

One of the most memorable moments at the Kodak Studio in California was the presence of the tiny-tots who made an integral part of the film; the early Jamaal and Salim and Latika are too good to be true, and they probably don't realize that they are part of history, and after a decade or two, they can share with the next generations that India is no less than any other nation in the world. We may be believing strongly in age-old customs and traditions, we may be worshipping cows, we may deny women their due religious rights and privileges, we may still believe in ploughing our lands with bulls, and worship trees and shrubs, like Tulsi... we may be superstitious, but we have a civilization which can show the path to the world in the years to come.

I do not want to float in the clouds, thinking and owning the success of one movie, which tells an imaginary story, well told and portrayed though; reality is what we need to believe in, and embrace whole-heartedly. I would like to pause for a while and own the land that I am born in, and accept her as she is, without attempting to force her change according to my whims and fancies. I would like to embrace her as A. R. Rahman attributed his success to his mother, and attribute all that I am and capable of to what this wonderful land of mine has given me. I am part of the great civilization, I am part and parcel of this great nation of varied cultures and religions, and it is only proper that I salute her saying "Jai ho" (hail)!

Might is Wealth

Luxembourg, tugged off between Belgium, France and Germany in the European Union fraternity, is not a big country or nation of great significance as its great and illustrious neighbors. Just as we need to look for a dot adjoining Malasia to identify Singapore, so too should we strain to locate Luxembourg, which has only about 25 km radius, and a population far below most of the metropolis of the sub-continent, with about four lakhs, a good majority hailing from other parts of the European Union, and one fourth from Portugal. Having said how insignificant this nation among the 26 other allies of the EU, let me give just one point, which may turn the boat topsy-turvy – Luxembourg boasts as the third biggest financial capital in the EU, and has over 200 banks in the city. Given the nature of the city then, every third or fourth building should be a bank. No wonder the steel tycoon from India Mittal has pitched his tent in Luxembourg recently as his capital.

A cauldron of several languages and cultures make this nation quite different from her immediate neighbors. Talking to the 95 year old Jesuit, who is a Luxembourger himself and had spent 40 years of his golden years in West Bengal, India, one gets the feeling that as a financer’s paradise, his homeland may soon defeat even Sweden. This brings to my mind the famous adage – might is right! Let me play with these words and see how they apply to Luxembourg. Might is right – we shall not debate on this axiom. Could we say the reverse too is a possibility? Right is might! What is right need not be something enormous; even a tiny little right can turn nations topsy-turvy. Right can be mighty, and so Luxembourg is truly mighty.

The problem with our world is that we often associate might with the powerful, and the haves, and the affordable. We cannot think of the unemployed, not educationally qualified men and women change the annals of our history. What can a school dropout in the United States of America do to the world? Microsoft Windows and Office still reigns supreme in all offices and personal computer systems, fruit of the labors of a school dropout! What can an Indian engineer trying to find his ways out in the States, struggling to make both ends meet do to our modern times – Shabeer Bhatia’s free first email service (hotmail) was born! In fact, the most noteworthy contributions to humanity were made by the people who were considered living on the margins of the society. They never thought they had the power and stamina to change the fate of the world, not even their petty worlds. If ever they had thought so, the very next moment they would have fallen from grace. I feel that the true sign of greatness lies in the fact that we are blissfully ignorant of it, and cannot even imagine such a state of grace bestowed on us.

It is said that greatness is thrust upon some people – and if Shakespeare is said to have made this statement, which is a corruption of Jesus saying on eunuchs (we shall not pause here to debate if Shakespeare really intended or not, or if it was merely an imagination of the author!), I would add that greatness is thrust upon someone, who does not consider himself/herself as being so, or deserve to be so! Looking at our society, in general we see two classes of people – on the one hand we have those who think they are great and behave so; on the other we have those who are truly great, but are happily unaware of it and living an altogether simple and frugal life; the latter are clouded incognito. I will go to the extent of saying that true greatness comes from the moral strength and conviction that we are but a spec in the sky; just a tiny little drop of water in the ocean.

Today I would like to read again those wonderful words of Mary’s song of praise and thanksgiving (popularly known as the magnificat), where she glorifies God for sending the rich away empty, for bringing down from their thrones, and filling the poor with riches. She talks about the reversal of fate. Today may be a good time for me to pause and ask myself on which side of the spectrum do I stand? Do I consider myself too high to be reached, too good for the people I deal with, too talented for the job I handle? Or do I feel unworthy to live in the company of beautiful people I share my life; fortunate to be given such responsible jobs I can hardly imagine? In fact, my heart will tell me how I feel just now! If I really feel so humbled and grateful, I cannot boast of being great and mighty and powerful, but the world will know that that is what I truly I am!