Martyrs' Day

Le di hamein azaadi bina khadag bina dhaal

Sabarmati ke sant tune kar diya kamaal

On the 66^th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, I pay my heartfelt respect and homage to the great soul. I observed the customary two-minutes silence in the honor of this great departed soul as also all other freedom fighters who gave their all to fulfill the dream of seeing India as a free country.

On this day today, I would like to spend a little more time in reflecting on the legacy left behind by the man we call Mahatma Gandhi. He has been loved and hated, followed blindly and ignored blatantly, revered and reviled, and many a times misunderstood.

The most famous legacy that he left behind was his message of non-violence. He not only followed it in his personal life, not only preached it in words, but raised it to an unprecedented level by turning it into an active and successful strategy for gaining freedom. That he could do it with such great results was only possible because of his conviction in himself and his beliefs, his commitment towards his ideals and his undaunted spirit of perseverance.

Attributing the success of our freedom struggle only to one man and one strategy would be unfair to the multitude of people who had significant roles to play in this long drawn struggle. But judging just on its own merits, the novel concept and the unique strategy worked in a way that was second to none.

The efficacy and relevance of non-violence in the present times has been increasingly debated and questioned. It might not be easy to follow or guarantee quick results but is surely sustainable and effective in the long run. But its success will depend on the level of commitment and perseverance that is put into it. The battle for abolition of apartheid in South Africa, fought by Nelson Mandela on the principles of non-violence, forgiveness and peace is sufficient testimony to the relevance of these ideals in present times. The only hindrance in its path is the extra-ordinary amount of will-power and an ability to stay committed to it even in times of adversity that it requires.

Though Mahatma Gandhi’s name has become synonymous with non-violence, there are various other noteworthy characteristics of the man that attract attention. His personality was such that it was prone to be misunderstood, mostly by those wanting to be judgmental but on no sound basis and without trying to get to know about the various facets of his life. I also belonged to the same category of people for some time. But it rattled my peace of mind because I believed something without having any real reasons for my beliefs. Then, one day, my father suggested me to read Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography – “My Experiments with Truth”. I am thankful to my father today for his timely advice, for I am much the wiser today.

His autobiography is not about “Mahatma” Gandhi, but the man who was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and his journey from the man to the Mahatma. I might still not agree with all his ideals and beliefs, and the means he used to reach his goals, but all the same, I have heartfelt respect and reverence for the man today. The sheer grit, will power and courage of conviction with which he overcame all his weaknesses, is nothing short of unbelievable and is truly inspiring. His ability to stand by what he believed in the face of all resistance was exemplary.

Mahatma Gandhi died a disillusioned man. On the eve of India’s independence, he was fighting his lone battle in the village of Noakhali, trying to bring some order into the chaos. His dream of Hindu-Muslim unity had been brutally crushed by the creation of Pakistan. He could-not prevent it even with all the weight and influence that he had, and considered it his greatest failing.

His efforts towards abolishing untouchability bore fruit with the legal abolition of untouchability as per our Constitution. But the eradication of this ill from the hearts and minds of people still needs a lot of work to be done.

We might not concur with all that he said and did, but our real tribute to this great man will be if we at least make a sincere effort to understand and accept him for the man he was, with all his positives and negatives, and try to walk on the path he showed, if it appeals to our convictions.

Road (Non) Sense

My work place is just a 15-minute drive away from my residence. I commute daily through my personal car to my work place. Considering that I normally enjoy driving, this short drive should not even register in my mind as something out of the ordinary. But unfortunately, every ordinary has somehow found a way to get the prefix of extra attached to it.

This half-an-hour of daily drive has increasingly taken the shape of an ordeal for me due to various reasons.

In my view, taking a vehicle out on the road is a big responsibility, wherein the driver of the vehicle implicitly undertakes to be responsible for not only his/her own safety, but also of other vehicles and pedestrians on the road. A driving license entails with it the undertaking to follow certain rules and regulations. Following any kind of rules, regulations and discipline is increasingly becoming out of fashion. The treatment one is subjected to on the roads, can be termed as no short of hooliganism.

In this age of “Time is money”, everyone is in a hurry. There are no rules followed apart from survival of the fittest. When I got my driving license about 6-7 years back, I had come to understand a few basic guidelines to be followed when I was on the road. These, inter-alia included, Overtaking from the right, following speed limits, using indicators, maintaining distance from the vehicle ahead of me, following the signals, no unnecessary honking, using dipper at night, wearing helmet when on two wheelers etc. Some of these guidelines like overtaking from the right, limiting the usage of horns to a bare minimum etc. have long become extinct, whereas many others are quickly on their way to extinction.

I would like to recall a personal incident here. I and my husband were one day returning home at about 9-10 P.M. As we neared a traffic signal, we saw it turn to red and diligently stopped, switching of the engine of our car. Engrossed in our personal discussion, we suddenly heard loud honking. To our utter amazement, we turned around to see a vehicle behind us honking frantically. Undeterred, we stood our ground, and unfortunately for the driver of that vehicle, he could not find a way to pass us and had to wait behind us till the light turned green. No prizes for guessing what happened next….as soon as the lights turned green, he zoomed past us hurling a ton of abuses in the process! I don’t know what our reaction should have been, but this incident could evoke only amusement and laughter from both of us….

This incident is an apt and clear reflection of the state of affairs on the roads today. You will be mentally harassed and tortured if you dare to follow rules. Keeping within speed limits will attract blaring horns and staring and abusing people from all sides. The rights of the vehicles on the roads are directly proportional to their sizes. The driver of the vehicle behind you will not leave even a centimeter of space between his/her vehicle and yours. These are just a few examples. The list is long and difficult to cover here.

The pathetic condition of our roads only compounds the agony. However, this is a whole different area and would require separate and dedicated coverage.

So, is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Not wanting to let go of my optimism, I would say yes. It would again have to be the combination of two steps forward by the law enforcers and two steps forward by the law abiders. Rules and regulations are not meant to be just formulated and forgotten. They need to be implemented and implemented strictly. The space vacated by discipline is taken up by chaos, and if discipline does-not come from within, it needs to be enforced. On the other hand, there is no match for self-discipline and having to abide by certain essential rules should not be taken as a restriction but a necessity, in this case, for the safety of the one’s own as well as others’ lives.

Once again, I leave you with these thoughts to ponder over, and decide for yourselves what is sensible and right for you and what isn’t.

Estranged from Reason

God must have been a great engineer to design such an intricate entity as human beings. One life seems short to understand the behavior of individuals and its takes a lot of effort to realize and create patterns originating from a person’s thought process.

Based on my interactions with people around me, I have come to believe that most of us have a thought process that doesn’t even originate from our mind. The seeds of such thoughts are mostly sown in someone else’s mind as per their will but are reaped in our mind. There seems to be a herd behavior that prominently drives us into drawing a line in the sand, curtailing an introduction of rationality in our own thought process. What follows is the formation of a mass opinion that is not our own and we start considering it our prerogative to broadcast it with such confidence as if, it’s one of our own thought. Thus we, once trapped in other’s opinions, start trapping others resulting in creating a bigger trap called alienated opinion trap (AOT).

We live in a society and it’s impossible for us to be ignorant to others around us. While we do have our own thought process, sometimes when we find ourselves confused in a situation, it becomes easy for us to follow the actions / suggestions of other people around us. While it’s still justified as long as we have rational reason behind following other people’s actions, it becomes disastrous when we accept their opinion without seeking the logic behind it. This, is my sense, is the biggest mistake anyone can make, leading a life of a robot controlled by others.

The biggest irony is that the people entangled in AOT don’t even realize their own irrational state of mind and the way they broadcast it, poses a bigger threat to the society. Soon, this alienated opinion becomes a stereotype, a part of everyone’s life and a semblance of normality for the society.

We, as independent individuals must learn to free ourselves from the shackles we have created around us. We must not allow ourselves to become so vulnerable as to let others exploit our sense of existence. God has given uniqueness to all of us and we must maintain it till the end of our lives.

The only righteous way of living is the one that we decide for ourselves and we must always keep our mind stable and our weapons ready to take on anyone who’s a part of AOT and who tries to impose even a slightest piece of their estrangedness over us.

India's 64th Republic Day

Happy Republic Day!!.....64^th Republic Day of the Indian Republic……an eagerly awaited holiday…..a day to celebrate……a day to listen to patriotic music……a day for making and listening to speeches……or may be just another day for most of us…..But what if we take out some time today to sit back and reflect about the significance, meaning and a sense of responsibility attached to this day? 64 years back, on this very day, our newly independent nation formally adopted its Constitution and all its citizens pledged to abide by it. After a long and tedious process, the Constituent Assembly consisting of eminent personalities who had been assigned to this stupendous task, gave us this Constitution.

After 200 years of sweat, tears and blood, India had finally succeeded in gaining its independence on 15^th August 1947. The members of the Constituent Assembly had a momentous task ahead of them. They had to frame a Constitution suitable for a nation in the making, a nation in a nascent phase, taking baby steps towards establishing itself in the world. Bled for 200 long years by foreign rule and then disabled by amputating a part of it to form another nation, India was then a far cry from what it has been able to turn itself into today. Looking at its diversity in various spheres, it was confidently predicted by many that the existence of this “so-called nation” would be short-lived. These were the conditions in which our founding fathers were charged of giving this nation a befitting Constitution. Looking back, it would not be an exaggeration to say that given the circumstances and resources at their hand, our Constitution makers accomplished a near-impossible task in a praiseworthy manner. Given the state of the nation at that time, they felt it necessary and rightly so, to frame as detailed and voluminous a Constitution as they did. No doubt, India’s is the longest Constitution among all the nations of the world. They tried to lay down organizational structures, frame rules and regulations, provide frameworks and put forward their ideals and vision for the future of the nation.


But in no manner did they try to make it a rigid document. They were well aware that as times change and as the nation progresses, there is bound to be a need for updating the Constitution itself. They included suitable provisions for the same and relied on the Legislature and the Executive of the day to understand and use the same wherever and whenever required.On this Republic Day, let each one of us ask ourselves….Have we made a sincere effort in understanding and abiding by the aspirations and hopes of our founding fathers, laid before us through this document? Have we genuinely tried to understand the letter and more importantly the spirit of the Constitution? Have we been able to grasp the intent behind what was laid down? Have we been able to read between the lines whenever required?We won’t have to search hard for answers to these questions. They are right in front of us, if only we have the will and the courage to ask ourselves these tough but essential questions…. If only we have the courage to put ourselves in the dock. I leave all of you, the government and the governed alike, with these questions which all of us will have to answer for ourselves. Let us take some time to reflect today and who knows, this reflection may pave the road towards making our nation what its founding fathers had dreamt it to be. A few minutes of reflection and a sincere will for action on the part of each one of its citizens, may lead this great nation to its rightful place in the world.

A Golden Opportunity Squandered

I was reading an article in the Indian Express dated 20/01/2014, on how the Hampi Cultural Festival at Karnataka ended up in a complete disaster and a no-show. The festival organized by the government to promote the cultural heritage and tourism in Hampi could-not take-off at the scheduled time due to lack of audience and it could only begin when people were randomly picked up and forced to fill the empty chairs. The remaining days of the festival were an equal failure. This incident gains significance as it indicates our dismal track record in promoting tourism in our country.

It is a matter of fact and not exaggeration that India is the most unique country in the world in terms of its diversity in various spheres, be it geographical, seasonal, regional, religious, cultural, historical or spiritual. In my opinion, no country in the world has such tremendous potential for developing tourism as an industry as India has. We have all the raw materials in place and extremely favorable natural endowments. With not much genuinely focused and dedicated effort, we can reap the sweet fruits of these favourable conditions and in the process create huge earnings from the development of tourism industry. Unfortunately, this message has hitherto not reached those who are in-charge.

The efforts put-in by the central as well as state governments towards conserving our natural heritage and leveraging it to portray India as a major tourist attraction, have been lackadaisical to say the least. All the governments till date have failed to recognise the tremendous potential that this industry has in store for us. Or might we say that they are too busy with other “important affairs” that they neither have the time nor the inclination to pay attention to this triviality? Whatever the case, a golden opportunity is being squandered here and there is an urgent requirement for course correction.

The path is clearly laid out and fairly easy to follow. It only requires a sincere initiative and sustained support from the government. As is clear from the drastic failure of the Hampi festival, the government should not attempt to control and administer things in this sector. On the contrary, this is the most apt example of an area where it needs to act as a facilitator. Incentives need to be provided to the private sector to contribute towards the growth and development of this industry. New and creative initiatives need to be promoted. The archaeological, cultural and ecological institutes need to be encouraged and supported on a war footing. Preservation of monuments, cultural and heritage sites, ecological parks, etc. needs to be given the utmost priority. The cleanliness and maintenance of the tourist spots needs to be ensured.

Despite all this, all the efforts might still go in vain if another major factor is overlooked. For any destination to become a major tourist attraction, the foremost requirement is the presence of a conducive law and order environment. People need to feel safe in residing and travelling in their surroundings. This is an area where India scores extremely poorly. Maintaining law and order is, otherwise also, the first and the foremost function of any government. It will do a great service to its citizens if it performs this pivotal role efficiently and effectively.

This, in no way means, that we as citizens of this gifted nation have absolutely no responsibilities. The rich heritage handed down to us by our ancestors is our utmost treasure and should be treated and preserved in a befitting manner. The careless and callous attitude, with which we treat our surroundings, defiling and dirtying it with no qualms whatsoever, leaves a lot to be desired. Indian citizens have always been renowned for their hospitality, but the blatant fleecing of tourists and the increasing crime against women (including foreign nationals), are dangerous and growing trends and need to be dealt with appropriately.

It is not too late even now, for all of us to rise from our slumber and make a joint and concerted effort in helping our nation regain its rightful place in the world. Let us all take a pledge that we, as individuals, shall not turn a blind eye to our responsibilities and do whatever we can in our individual capacities, to fulfill our duties as responsible and worthy citizens of this nation.

The Intolerable Sin

I was mulling over what to choose to write on to kick-start my journey on this blog…and the choice finally did-not turn out to be a very tough one….I decided to write on something that has been bothering and disturbing me substantially for quite some time now – the inhumane incidents of rapes and sexual assaults on women. I would also like to purposely stick to this particular category of crime against women, because in my experience, it has had the ability of impacting me the most.

At the outset, when I started becoming aware of this issue and its magnitude, it generated a feeling of utter disbelief and numbness in me. I found it beyond myself to even imagine the state of mind of the victim after such a heinous act. And fathoming the state of mind of the perpetrators of such acts proved equally challenging. Till date, after reading about any such incident in the newspaper, that big “WHY?” raises its head in my mind. Is this phenomenon an offspring of the patriarchic set-up of our society? I used to consider this as a major cause, but my belief was challenged by the fact that this disease is rampant across the globe (and not just local to India), with not remarkable differences in degree and measure. Another fact which surprised me was the extent to which it goes unreported, and even if reported, unpunished. This is perhaps the only crime where the society chooses to treat the abused as the abuser. The social stigma which it attracts is so huge that the victim prefers to suffer in silence. This is the most unbelievable and contemptible part, which fills me with rage. In a way, such societal mindset creates a vicious circle wherein the perpetrator of the crime finds it too easy to commit such a blatant violation of an individual’s right to her body and not face any fitting retribution.

Are we comfortable with the status-quo? If yes, then God Bless Us. If not, what are we doing to change it? I, for one, am of the view that a genuine, meaningful, well-directed and sustained effort is required to tackle this phenomenon. It is high time for us to rise from our slumber and inertia and think and act with an intention to bring a positive change to the status-quo, and not just in short-lived spurts, but in a sustained manner. The first and the foremost step needed to accomplish this goal is also the most difficult. It involves a complete remodeling of the way in which we think. It involves dissolving the stereotypes created by us, which have tuned us to acknowledge another individual solely in terms of his/her gender, caste, class, religion and other such differentiators rather than his/her merit as just another individual irrespective of gender, caste class, religion etc. In a rapidly changing world and a fast-moving society, the temptations for quick-fixes and immediate gratification of sensual pleasures are also growing fast. It is compounded by the lack of effective, timely and exemplary retribution which such actions should rightfully entail. This is not only true for India, but is a disturbing reality world-wide. The flaw lies not in the enactment of laws, but their lax implementation. The dismal rate of reporting, the astoundingly low conviction rate and the excruciatingly long and painful durations of the trials don’t help in the least. In many of the cases, the victim is victimized over and over again by the very authorities and society, which are meant to respect her honor, uphold her rights as an individual and protect those rights if threatened.

In recent times, the print and television media have done praiseworthy work in highlighting the extent of penetration of this social ill in the society. The slow but steady trend of women empowerment has also resulted in loosening the strings of the tag of shame attached to this endemic disease. The awareness generated is instrumental in keeping the authorities on their toes. But these are just baby-steps and a lot still needs to be done.

Is there something that we, as individuals can do? The answer to this question is an emphatic YES. Society is an amalgamation of individuals and the responsibility for one’s own thoughts and actions lies with oneself alone. The most important contribution towards the well-being of society that each individual can make is to think and act responsibly under all circumstances. A change in the mindset of society simply means a change in the mindset of each and every individual that constitutes it. Once we do this, we could take further steps by creating awareness around us and adopting a zero-tolerance attitude towards such heinous crimes which plague the society. Each and every individual needs to pledge to educate oneself, his/her family members, especially women, and contribute towards spreading the message of an educated society in whatever capacity possible. Education here not only means just text-book education but a responsible, informed and balanced way of thinking.

It is high time that we give a serious thought towards building a more vibrant, free, fearless and livable world and follow it up with concrete, visible actions. It is the least we can do to fulfill our responsibilities as human beings gifted with the ability to think.