Gandhi...and Munna...and me?

On Saturday, I had gone to see Lagy Raho Munnabhai (finally). And the movie, in addition to leaving me impressed, left a lot of random strings of thought, and questions in my mind. Let me try to share them.

The movie, on a broad front, tackles two issues. One is the fast fading principles of Gandhi. It seems that the only memory of bapu is left(as very correctly said in the movie) on all those MG roads, on our currenct notes, on those Gandhi Parks...and on 2nd October, that is spoon fed into our memories along with 15 August and 26 january, as a national holiday. Gandhi jayanti...it is called. But how many of us actually ask why is it a national holiday?

Bapu is everywhere, but in our hearts. We have forgotten his principles, his way of life, his teachings. I had many a friends in college, who used to hate Gandhiji coz he moved around with two young ladies. What they never saw was that bapu tested his self-control by being with two women, yet not being attracted to them.

There used to be an ad-film, that was aired on Doordarshan a long time ago. It said " The greatness of this man is his simplicity. " And yet we are nothing but simple today.

The movie highlighted one of Gandhi's favourite ways of protest, the satyagraha. A peaceful, non-violent way of protesting for your rights. And it does need a lot of guts, and willpower not to slap back when you are slapped. But does our generation believe in non-violence? No. We proudly call ourselves the RTB generation, where we do not believe in the power of non-violent protest. Or putting it in another way, we do not have enough patience to wait..wait for the result of our non-violent protest. The truthful path is always long, full of thorns, but victory is guaranteed. The path of violence, anger is always short..maybe you can win a battle or two, but you will always lose the war.

Will Lagey Raho....change our way of thinking? As much positive I want to be, I know that it will not. Because we have evolved into a very impatient generation. We want everything to happen quickly, waiting is a word not in our dictionary. And why should we wait, what are we going to get by waiting, is anyone ever going to listen? No...let us not wait, let us pick that brick, and throw it...whether the target is the police, or the house of our VC, or our own college for that matter. Why should we care?

Confused? No I am not changing the direction of my post. I am simply including those arguments that will come up against it. The question I ask is, why does no one listen? Not because they don;t want to, simply because they know that people will shout, take a protest march, make up for two minutes on the news and a day long breaking news on the ticker...and then fade away. They will listen if they are met with a bunch of protesters, who march non-violently, bearing the brunt of water cannons..but not giving up...day after day after day....

Let us accept it, we lack patience. When it be standing in a line outside the ATM when an old man is taking his time to withdraw money, we curse under our breath, but none of us volunteer to go in and help him out. When it be waiting in front of a red light( if we have stopped for it), we keep honking away to glory...You can just think of the last week in your life, and you'll realize how impatient you as a person have become.

This was one. The other topic, that this movie very subtely addresses, is our faith on astrolgy, astrologers and horoscopes. We will not accept that we didn't work hard enough in the office to get that promotion, but we will blame it on mars, venus or jupiter. How convenient. We will enforce irrationalities, taboos...things like being a manglik, or not being one. We will conveniently blame the planets and stars for all our problems, and think that adding that extra k will solve all our troubles.

Every day has a night. There are good times in life, and there are bad times. There always will be bad times. How do you expect me to appreciate light if I never know wat darkness is?

And yet, we believe in all this non-scientific mumbo jumbo. We believe that Ganesha idols can drink milk. We believe that wearing a gold ring with a pukhraj stone will bring us good luck.

What we don't believe is, that truth, hardwork, determination are the only ways to succeed.

Can Lagey Raho...change the way we think? The way we act? Can it make us more rational, more patient and more determined people?

I have tried my bit to spread the word. Now I'll request you, to spread the word, not only to others, but to yourself too. And as a mode of feedback, please let me know by commenting here how do you plan to do it. You can be completely anonymous...all I want is for you to write your committment down, and be firm on it.

I alone can't make a big change to things around me, but I can change myself. Can you?

Vande Mataram..

O my motherland, I salute you..I bow in front of you.

I am a patriot. I love my country, I love being a responsible Indian citizen, hoenstly paying off my taxes, even if they go to the pockets of corrupt politicians, to the homes of lazy government officials, to the bank accounts of tyrranical policemen. I take care not to throw any garbage on the road, or spit out in public places. Neither do I break any traffic signals.

But today, this honest, law-abiding citizen is saddened. I am saddened to see my fellow countrymen become selfish to immoral extents. What else should be said, when murder culprits are left free to walk your streets, o mother, but the wutnesses are imprisoned? What else remains to be seen after watching students murder their own teachers, in the name of student rights? What else remains to be heard, after listening to our chosen leaders speak in parliament, using the worst possible language? What more remains to be understood after witnessing quotas and reservations being doled out, just to appease vote banks?

What has happened to the country that gave the word Gautam Buddha, Guru Nanak, Lord Mahavira, Mahatma Gandhi? Nothing...nothing has happened to the country, but its citizens have lost all sense of responsibility. Every act of opposition, every rally, every morcha...is no longer a democratic way of protesting...its just a way to serve someone;s self-interests...

We have turned into a country of selfish people, who care for no one but our own self.

Though there is still a ray of hope...there always is a ray of hope. It lies with you, it lies with me. Let us just work at making ourselves good, try to be peaceful ourselves. No mass movement can cure this country, each and every single one of us have to change. Including politicians, including bureaucrats, including the police, including everyone. Let us just remember gandhi's talisman...to remember the face of the poorest man we have seen..n think how our decision touches his life.

Let us not shy in paying our dues to our country, so what if we won;t be able to afford those mercs and cadillacs...we'll make our country the best place in the whole world

vande mataram

This post was inspired from Melody's post on her blog.

Amazing Grace & Chuck

Just when you think that today's students know nothing but violence to get their voice heard, a refreshing movie comes by. No, I am not referring to lagey Raho Munnabhai, but I am referring to a little known movie called Amazing Grace & Chuck. Let me tell you its story..

In this small town of US, there lives a kid named chuck. He's the star pitcher of his baseball team, and his dad is a fighter pilot. One day, students from his school are taken to a trip of a nuclear missile silo..where chuck comes to know the killer power of nuclear missiles, when the scientist tells him " Imagine your sister dropping a spoon in the kitchen.If one of these missiles happens to land in a 30 mile radius, your sister will be vaporised before the spoon hits the ground"

This has a huge effect on chuck, who refuses to play in the little league match of his team. slowly, a major league baseball star listens to this, and teams up with chuck. Now chuck goes silent, vowing to talk only when all nuclear weapons are dismantled. subsequently, this catches on, and children all around the globe go silent.

Many twists and turns later, the movie has a happy ending, with both US & Russia dismantling their nukes, and the kids of the world talking again.

Now this could be a great work of fiction, but will it work in real life? I guess it will...a civil disobedience movement was launched by the father of our nation, that was absolutely non-violent..and yet it succeeded.

Violence always creates more violence. Hatred creates more hatred...

The world certainly needs neither of these. It needs love, compassion, non-violence...

Please remember, it is always easy to slap someone...but it is tougher to hold back..and even tougher to present your other cheek.

Whatever our civilization may be, whatever culture or religion we might belong to...we must remember that violence is not a reply to violence.

True salvation is always in forgiveness...in compassion...in peace...and in love.

Let us all make this world a better place to live in.

The author pays his homage to the countless victims of terrorist strikes across the world, on a day that has now been embossed in our memories as the worst day ever in the history of humankind. May all those souls rest in peace

I am back....

Hello good people...

I am back after a long time..and for all those of you guessing as to where I was, well I have a good news for you.

I have switched jobs..and today is my 3rd day in my new job..it feels good...the people are nice....but there's always the old friends left behind...

well life, in its own ways, does move forward...and i guess its better to flow in the current rather than put up a fight against it...

though there are times when a fight becomes necessary..and that is when the saying goes...

when the going gets tough, the tough get going!!

i'll end the post on this note..but from now on, it;ll be regular updating from me...

ciao