Dwandh – The Conflict

Some place amidst lush green trees, by the side of a calm lake where a gentle breeze blew and silence was broken only by occasional tweets of little birds, was sitting a man… still like a statue as if trying to absorb as much serenity as he could. He took an advice and slowed down to smell the roses which brought him to this paradise. He wanted to let the nature sink in… fill every pore of his body bathe his soul with the tranquility. Unfortunately, the situation in his beautiful mind couldn’t be more contrast than the surroundings he was sitting in. He was tormented, as if desperately searching for ever eluding answers; crying out silently to the Universe in a hope of getting some response.

Let us take a peek into his world –

“What is going on?? Why is it happening to me? Did I take the right path? What am I supposed to do?? Of course everything is going fine… There is nothing to complain… I have a great job, great family and great friends; what else one could ask for…

Ah and yet you have doubts… you are impatient… you are looking for answers to some inexpressible questions… you are doubtful about the future and questioning your past decisions.

Yes but that is not it; most important question of all is; am I on the right path?? What was I supposed to do with this life?? What is my purpose?? Am I heading towards right direction?? Who will tell me that and don’t say ‘GOD’. I don’t understand that concept completely or more accurately I don’t want HIM to intervene now, if He at all exists… I must figure this out on my own… I would rather fight and get an answer rather than surrender to whims of uncertainty and fate.

Ha ha ha… isn’t this amusing… here sits a man talking to himself… questioning and answering his own doubts about the purpose and refuting any higher help. Adamant, arrogant and ignorant: all at once. How can you be sure that this voice of ‘Self’ you are talking to is not the ‘voice of GOD’? The guiding force, the mentor thou seek so desperately.

Ok let us make one thing very clear… I know who exactly you are. You are the smart mouth who doesn’t know when to shut up, who is as incomplete and ignorant as I am. You are the one who adds to the chaos and confusion by proposing an alternative path while I am trying to make a decision. You are nothing but my alter ego whose knowledge and understanding is as limited as my own. A man plays innumerable roles in his life and his mind is so beautifully designed that it adapts to new roles and situations almost instantaneously. So you are one such entity or facet of human personality who develops with an individual as his experiences grow; so your knowledge could not be more than that of an individual but yes there is one quality which gives you an upper hand. You are more like an observer or analyst who can look at the current situations and past experiences objectively. Evaluate them and draw unbiased conclusions while I am free to curse the heavens and fate when I fail at something… Your clarity of thought and ability to draw unbiased conclusions makes you the ‘Wise’ one while I stay free to willow in pain and angst when some of my dearest dream shatter, like an innocent child who hates his mother for not giving him the candy. So cut the crap of playing ‘voice of GOD’ and stay focused.

 Ok; as long as I am the wiser one I will play along… :-) . So what is troubling you today?? You are in such a beautiful surrounding instead of enjoying that why are you tormenting yourself with silly questions?

Well it is not all my fault… These kind of serene surroundings just make you realize how chaotic ones daily life is. And the cycle of thought process kicks in leading to more philosophical questions like “Why is there so much of chaos? What is my role in this grand plan? What is my life’s purpose?”… Care to answer a couple of them?

Hmm… answer to this question is much simpler than one could imagine but that is not what everyone wants to listen. We humans are obsessed with ‘complexity’ but at times complex solutions are no solutions at all rather they complicate the original problem. At this point one would expect answers like “creation, leading, contributing to society etc.” but no, this is not the real purpose. The real purpose is much more fundamental than this.

“The real purpose of one’s life is – attaining Singularity”

Bringing the ‘dvandh’ – the conflict to an end by virtue of unity is true purpose of one’s life. As you mentioned earlier human mind adapts and evokes multiple personalities in a response to a situation; more often than not these facets are in conflict with one another. All these facets are parts of a whole but interfere with each other’s role and lead to never ending chaos. Bhagwat Geeta states “The mind acts like an enemy for those who do not control it” on similar lines Robin Sharma quoted “mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master”. The day when all these facets merge into one seamless ‘Whole’ Singularity will be attained and this ceaseless ‘dwandh’ will also come to an end.

 … … “

– With this there was a visible change in his demeanor, his face radiated with a peaceful smile and eyes sparkled with determination. It seemed he found the answer he sought. For him one of the many 'dwandhs' ended and now he seemed determined to end them all…

We - The Living...

While reading an article a phrase caught my attention “Stressful modern lifestyle”. The phrase seemed to be paradoxical and made me wonder. Shouldn’t it be the other way round? As we evolve as we progress shouldn’t our lifestyle promote more harmony and peace; leading to more stable and relaxed life? So why is it not what we expected? What would we need to do to end this paradox and strike the balance?

Before we do that we need to look at an example where life was much more fulfilling than now. Let us take a peek into the past and see how the Ancient Indian lifestyle was. A person’s life was divided into 4 phases/ashrams and the intention or purpose of each phase was explicitly stated. Those can be named as Bhramhacharya, Ghruhasthashram, Vanprasthashram and Sanyasa. These phases were well thought of and helped in leading a very stable well thoughtout life. The purposes of each stage are as follows:

1. Bhramhacharya: This is the “student” phase of life; starting right from the birth to 18yrs-25yrs of life. Normally, boys would leave their house of parents to go and learn from a teacher/Guru in hostel called as Gurukuls. Here a boy gained knowledge according to his aptitude, ability and need. The core principles of this phase of life are to build discipline, health and follow celibacy. The purpose of this phase is to gain knowledge, learn about the spiritual, social and family life.
2. Ghruhasthashram: This is the phase of life after Bhramhacharya and spans from 20yrs–45yrs of life. This phase of life is to be spent in starting and maintaining a family. This is the time when a person fulfills his duties towards his family and community. The main focus is towards doing a trade/profession, earning money and involving in social & worldly activities. Spiritual and religious activities are done considering the worldly life and social conduct.
3. Vanaprasthashram: This phase follows Ghruhasthashram starting from 45yrs–65yrs of life. The beginning of this phase of life marks a shift of focus in the person’s life from social to more spiritual purpose. The individual starts learning the way towards spiritual growth and starts distancing with the worldly matters. Here the person assumes a role of teacher or mentor to grownup children by providing guidance in their worldly pursuits whenever necessary. The person may stay with the family or move to other quieter place for spiritual practices.
4. Sanyasa: This is the last phase of life where one no longer indulges in worldly goals; their sole purpose is to pursue spiritual goals. In this phase the elder assumes the role of spiritual teacher to others or community and keep on increasing their spiritual knowledge with regular practices.

If we look at this breakdown of a person’s life then each phase in itself focused on personal growth while taking the person from one phase to next. A person evolved in his every phase of life by learning what was required and preparing for the next phase. With equal emphasis on each stage of life a person lived a wholesome life. Keeping in mind this shift of phases and changes in lifestyle a person had a sense of contentment. Also this lifestyle somehow instilled an understanding that life is not about being fixated about one particular thing but a constant flow towards improvement and acquiring excellence in whatever needs to be done. In spite of being a very self centered lifestyle, clubbing it together with the “Joint-Family” architecture; promoted a sense of stability within every family. Every family would have members who are in each of these life phases thus making each family a self sufficient unit which assisted, supported and promoted every individual’s growth. This leads us to think that at an individual level everyone was more stable, content, relaxed and happy.

Now let us fast forward to the present times. To understand present individual lifestyle it is important to note that the “Joint Family” concept has almost vanished and is now replaced by “Nuclear Family” architecture. Though this provides a sense of freedom to family members it comes at a cost. With less number of family members the pressure of maintaining and growing a family fell upon a few with little or almost no backup and guidance. This increased the importance of financial stability over other things. A new thought process of heightened emphasis on earning more money for “Better Life” grew. Over time it became a well established social norm and even the social interactions started getting biased with this concept. This also impacted purest of professions like teaching and medicine; reducing them to mere means of acquiring more money. Knowledge which helped earn more became more sought after thus declining interests in more humane studies. A measure of one’s success or social stature changed from the individual’s ability or knowledge to more of person financial status and worldly possessions. The concept of commercialization grew; though it provided a person with more options and opportunities it also led to a sense of uncertainty and dissatisfaction. The technological advances though promised healthier and easy life; commercialization and undue importance to materialistic things changed the use and intent of technology. This changed the focus of a person towards more fixated intent of acquiring more and more worldly possessions than anything else. The drive may be with the concern of other family members, thus a more selfless life style; but lead to more stressful and dissatisfying way of living. A sense of dread and fear towards the uncertain future; mostly overshadowed the joy of the moment and sense of adventure of life itself. A person spent majority of his life striving to achieve the ever shifting goals and never having the satisfaction of actually achieving them. No wonder now people lived more stressed, misbalanced and dissatisfied life in-spite of being wealthier & healthier than their ancestors.

The picture doesn’t seem so bad after all. A few stitches here and there can fill the embroidery of life with its sense of fulfillment and happiness. Maybe a simple way to achieve this is by giving right emphasis to right things. Though difficult to rejuvenate the culture of “Joint Families”; being more connected and involved can help a lot during difficult and needed times. Instead of sending parents to “Old Age Home” or letting them to stay alone; having them around can be more fulfilling and beneficial with their life long experience and understanding of things (especially kids). Instead of struggling for high paying but less satisfying jobs; converting ones’ passions to professions could be a more rewarding experience. Shifting the focus from what is expected, to start doing what one likes to do; being more self-aware than self-conscious and being open-minded or flexible can bring more satisfaction than expected. Bringing up next generations with right set of values, right sense of fulfillment, right concerns and guiding them in light of right ideals could be a start to pave a way towards a wholesome life and instill the feeling of “We - The Living”…

I – The Selfish…

I cannot express the satisfaction and pleasure I feel to pronounce the word ‘I’. How can anyone be anything but “Selfish”?? I feel PROUD to say “I AM SELFISH!”. Contrary to normal belief about "Being Selfish" it does not seem to be such a bad idea after all; on other hand it could be much more rewarding than the conventional idea of "Sacrifice".

I have toyed with ideas and challenged the traditional believes since childhood. I refuse to accept these believe the way they are preached until I see a reason to it. It is said everything has its reason and everything has its time. Over the time I have come to believe it because I have experienced it and lived through it. I always had a problem with the categorization of Good and Evil, of Boon and Bane, of VIRTUE and VICE and I am still trying to piece it up for myself. It might be in a way reinventing the wheel but who knows from these attempts one may discover that the best design for a wheel is NOT circle but a sphere.

This struggle was silent for a long time till I read a comic-strip created by my friend Arun Shreekumar with the title “Selfish Love”.

I couldn’t agree to it more; from a perspective LOVE can even be a synonym to BEING SELFISH. As usual there were comments and disagreement to use the word ‘Love’ alongside ‘Selfish’ and my friend is guilty to this crime according to a few. This conflict just added fuel to my fire of “What makes something a virtue or a vice?” “Why being SELFISH is SATANIC?” and I had to reason it to myself. Call it a chance or right time I happen to pick “Anthem” by Ayn Rand to read and it silenced the dispute of SELFISHNESS being a VICE or a VIRTUE.

‘Selfish’ is an adjective mostly used to describe “a person whose actions are driven by love for oneself” while ‘Love’ is a tender feeling that one person feels for the other, which can drive people to their limits and beyond. People are sure to question that how can a feeling as pure as love even remotely be SELFISH? But on a closer look they may not be so different after all... 

Of every kind of love known to man there is no love greater than that of a mother for her child. That love is compared to what GOD feels for HIS children and I have no qualms in saying that this motherly love is nothing but purely SELFISH. A mother loves her children without any conditions; without any restrictions; without any bounds; not because the child asks for it or needs it but because SHE wants to. She does it for her own joy as it gives her the satisfaction and peace that no other thing in this world can ever give her. She does it even without being aware of it. When a person loves other truly and deeply it does not matter whether the other person loves back; for the joy one gets in loving other is already his; nothing not even the rejection or hatred or demise of the other can take it away. Who knows this idea may have given birth to the phrase “being madly in love…” for this emotion is beyond Reason.

Another word considered as the biggest hurdle in one’s spiritual growth is ‘I’. The words ‘I’ and ‘EGO’ are disowned and scorned upon by many spiritual/truth seekers; also considered to be the root cause of all evil and born out of man’s ignorance. People try so hard for years to curb this ‘I’ by living lives for others to attain the ultimate peace and satisfaction; but maybe the right path is not in abandoning the path of selfishness, the path of ‘I’ but walking through it towards the Realization of Wholesomeness of ‘I’. Had the word ‘I’ (a sign of singularity and individualism) been so unholy, the GOD would have never been proclaimed to be ONE. Had the ‘I’ been so unholy Advaita Philosophy would never go by “Aham Brahmasmi” (I am GOD); [wouldn’t it be the most EGOIST statement ever proclaiming self to be a GOD]. The only reasoning I can give for this is “Do things which brings YOU happiness. Do things towards which YOU are drawn. DO things ONLY for YOUR happiness. DO things which YOU believe to be right or have faith in. ONLY thing to drive you to do things should be YOUR OWN LOVE for them or happiness directly or indirectly derived from doing it and not some fear. A service done to the underprivileged for the sake of one’s own happiness and satisfaction is a true service else it might even qualify to be just another bribe to get into “Good Books” of ALMIGHTY. The only and biggest disservice one can do is to NOT follow one’s own heart.

Of course merely stating my belief does not prove anything so let me put down a line of thought for you. Let us take an example of any reolutionary person maybe Mother Teresa, Lord Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Bhagat Singh, Subhaschandra Bose etc.; take your pick. Most of them left their worldly lives, their homes and the blood relations behind. They did not leave because someone told them to but because the thirst, the urge to seek the truth, to achieve the peace and calm, to realize their dream was stronger than anything else in their lives. They did it as it was the only thing that they wanted in their lives. They did it for no one else but for themselves. And in their personal quest for satisfaction for realizing their only dream; they transformed the world. Had they stayed back with their families living the lives the way their loved ones wanted them to; was it ever possible that Mother Teresa would ever be called “Mother” by the whole world, was it ever possible for Prince Siddartha to become Lord Buddha? Would Narendra Nath be able to grow to be Swami Vivekananda; who inspired and guided millions and whose works still continue to inspire the youth even after a century of his demise.

Some may argue that we are simple people living simple lives and not great like the ones quoted above. The only difference between the exemplary people and normal people is that those people devoted their lives to do things in which they have conviction while most others give up on their own convictions because others don’t believe in them; thats ironic... If everyone has conviction as these exemplary people have, this world would be a transformed place. Maybe the only way to achieve it is by being ‘Selfish’ towards one’s own convictions and dreams.

Finally, the vice and virtue is not in the quality or emotion itself but the way it affects other lives. By preserving the essence of ‘I’ and being ‘Selfish’ towards one’s own dreams while giving space for others growth and nurture seems to be a key to bring harmony at every sphere. Be ‘selfish’ and indulge your own sense of being of ‘I’ as if everything in this universe is yours while letting others enjoy it too. Just enjoy the feel of being and be “I – The Selfish”…

Philosophy of Philosophies

The Thinker or a Philosopher in Action...

Definitely not a cherished topic for many; even utterance of the word ‘Philosophy’ can disperse the otherwise gleefully debating crowd. The trigger to write about this topic was like always a harmless meaningless chat. Some of my modest friends shy away from any debating or thought provoking topics by saying “these high thoughts are simply out of my league” or worse “my pea size brain in incapable of comprehending these thoughts” and every time I am like “what is the matter with you guys!!??” (and that's putting it mildly/nicely). The other day through one such chat I stated "Philosophy is not about explaining things but more about understanding and a way of living..." and instantly came a reply “Kindly explain it in simpler words…. With some examples…”; at least this person showed some willingness to explore the mystical realm so here I am trying to explain the Philosophy of Philosophies.

If we try to find the meaning of this word in dictionary we would get many results like “a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means” or “an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs” or “love of wisdom”. These results instead of simplifying the problem seem to complicate the situation. So let us take another approach to understand the meaning of 'Philosophy’ by having a look at a few philosophies and the philosophers.

There are innumerable philosophers and philosophies so let us talk about Socrates, Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi considering my limited knowledge and time.

Socrates^[1,2] was a Greek philosopher a giant amongst the philosophers. Coming from the city of Athens and a real humble background wherein his father was a sculptor and his mother was a midwife. I am not aware how he came to trod upon the path of philosophers but somehow he did and his love for philosophy was unmatched. He never wrote anything, most of his work known to generations is due to his disciple Plato who documented all his teachings/philosophies. Anyway coming back to his teachings; his philosophy was that of quest for knowledge. He questioned the very reason of the ‘existence of humans’, the purpose of life not only in the larger scale but also on small terms as what is purpose of his life? What are real causes for happiness?  What makes people good? His quest was to find answers to these fundamental questions of life. He lived his life by trying to answer these questions. He was of the opinion that we already know the answer to every question just that we have forgotten them at the time of birth. His way of teaching was not preaching but rather engaging in discussions. His most of the discussions or dialogs are on the ethics and life. And the way of his life became his philosophy.

Lord Buddha^[3,4] is venerated by millions and is the originator of the religion ‘Buddhism’. Lord Buddha never called himself a GOD but he rose to that level because of his quest for the knowledge to relieve people from their sufferings. His story goes by as follows:

He was born as a prince and was known as ‘Prince Siddhartha’; at the time of his birth a sage prophesy that this child would become a Great King or a Great Spiritual Leader by finding answer to misery and sufferings. As any caring father would do, the king made strict rules so that the prince is never exposed to the reality of life, the Prince was shielded from all the truths of life about any pain or misery. Anyone growing old or having disease was not allowed in the palace; if the Prince ever left the palace to walk in the city all the necessary preparations were done beforehand. All went fine till the prince was 29yrs old. Once on an impromptu ride to the city the Prince saw a procession carrying a dead body. Since the prince had never heard of ‘Death’ he was curious and asked his charioteer where are these people taking the man when he is asleep? The charioteer told the Prince that the man is not asleep but dead and made him aware of the reality. The Prince was shocked and perturbed with this revelation. He couldn’t understand the reason behind all the misery and sorrow and as predicted years ago the prince left the palace in search of the Truth; in search of an answer which will liberate people from their misery. When he achieved enlightenment he came to be known as Lord Buddha. If anyone sought answers for the misery in their life, Lord Buddha explained them and told them a way of life which could relieve them of the burden of sorrow and pain. As lord Buddha’s followers grew, as people started to accept his way of living, his teachings and his philosophy took the form of religion and came to be known as “Buddhism”.

M. K. Gandhi^[5] fondly known as Mahatma Gandhi; used the philosophy of Non-Violence or Ahimsa for fighting against British Rule in the freedom struggle. Though people have different opinions about this philosophy but nonetheless it was used extensively in the freedom struggle of India. Gandhiji lived his life by these principles and believed that there is nothing which cannot be achieved by non-violence. His way of living, way of thinking was adopted by millions and was used to fight for their rights. Though it was not a philosophy developed by Gandhiji rather he lived by this philosophy and successfully promoted this philosophy. He promoted this philosophy so well that it came to be known as “Gandhi’s philosophy of Ahimsa” though it is an integral part of many religions like Hindu, Buddhism, Jainism etc. Not only people of India were influenced by this philosophy but it even created waves in the Western countries. Many leaders of those times adopted this philosophy for their struggle; the best example to quote would be Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now from these few examples if we try to find out the common things then that would be; some people were troubled by certain questions and it bugged them so much that they dedicated their life in search for those answers; (in a way these ‘men of thought’ does not differ much from the ‘men of science’ just the domains are different). When these men got their answers it had already changed their way of life. These philosophies are nothing but the explanations or details of how these men (now tagged or recognized as “Philosophers”); lived their life and by what principles. These men had some problem to which they found a solution and followed it throughout their life. People asked them to explain and when they did, it became a philosophy. Whatever we read as a 'Philosophy’ is just more distilled and refined content of pure knowledge that philosophers acquired through their quest. So any philosophy is more about understanding the relation of cause and effect and finding a way best suited to live with it. So it can be safely concluded that "Philosophy is not about explaining things but more about understanding and a way of living..."After all said and done I have my own philosophy; what is yours?? J J

References for more interested readers:

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/17/socrates-philosopher-man-for-our-times
2. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/athenians.html
3. http://www.bhutanmajestictravel.com/buddhism/lord-buddha
4. http://www.iep.utm.edu/buddha/
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa

Dreams...

Today a question came “what’s job of your dream?”
In the minds of many their past streamed…

All the passion that they felt,
Caused their silence melt,
Everyone came up with their first loves,
That was lost in this world’s moves…

As a child we all were sure,
This is what we were born for,
But between this worldly lure,
And childhood passion we all got torn…

Now as the time passes by,
Do I try to avoid childhood dreams of my,
With all the time at our disposal,
Do we try to meet our proposal…

Some say my dreams were meant to be dreams,
But inside I hear that someone screams…
Some say I didn’t get what’s my calling,
But isn’t it about time to stop drifting…

All say wake up wake up,
But I would prefer if we all go back to sleep,
For once dare to see all the dreams that ran deep,
Refresh those memoirs,
That were our heart’s choirs.

Find your dreams of past,
Time is running out very fast,
Before it is too late,
Unlock your dreamland’s gate.

We all have set out on a journey,
That should end with many more things than money…
Reach to the depths of your heart,
And find that one dream which is your very own part…

Dedicated to MY FRIENDS…

void main (void)… Not really…

I read a status update on Facebook by my friend stating “void main ( )” and it triggered a train of thoughts. For people who thankfully are not Software Engineers; “void main (void)” is simple piece of code which marks the beginning of a program in C language but its correctness is disputed; from standards to standards this might be true or false. Frankly, I am not writing about the technicality of this code line but the philosophy it reminds me of. This code line brought together my two planes of thought, scientific and philosophical; seemingly disjoint but not really.

Amongst many other categories in which the entire world population is classified; there is one worth mentioning here. The classification goes as under:

a.       “Men of Science” who believe only in the scientific facts and for whom GOD is a mere figment of imagination

b.      “Men of Religion” for whom science in itself is UNHOLY and should be abolished

c.       “Men of Reason” for whom GOD could be a science which is yet to be properly understood

d.      And “Men of Whatever”… the people who can’t care less…

If we believe in the above classification then I am one of the “Men of Reason” so its obvious for me to relate things from science to philosophy. And this notation “void main (void)” seemed so strikingly analogous to the principle of life that I could not resist penning down my thoughts.

Before I trod into the philosophy let us have a little background and a walkthrough of this piece of code. According to latest standards of C coding “void main (void)” is incorrect way of declaration and would generate a warning or error on compilation. What this line of code actually means is “main” is a function which does not accept any input “(void)” and does not return any value (indicated by “void”). It is quite possible that there are no input arguments to the “main” function but it always does something and should return a value to mark or indicate that this function was executed. So according to new standards the declaration for the function most generally used or by default is “int main (void)”; indicating that the function returns a numeric value.

Now let us take a break from this coding and move to literature. I recently read a book “The Five People you meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom. This is an amazingly simple and entertaining book (there is also a movie based on this novel). The book is about a man who dies and goes to HEAVEN. He has to meet 5 people who were affected or who affected his life so that they can teach him something that he missed to learn through this tenure on EARTH before he enjoys his stay in HEAVEN.

The Five Life Lessons to be learnt were:

a.       Everything that happens has a purpose. Every life is connected even the strangers are Family which we haven’t come to know yet.

b.      Sacrifice. It’s the noblest deed we as humans could do. It should be cherished and honored instead of carrying a sense of loss and holding grudge because of that.

c.       Forgiveness; just Let it go. Hatred is a curved blade. The harm we do to others by hating we do that to ourselves too. Hate is built over the years from the things we don’t say; with the things we bury. In the end you need to just let it go.

d.      Love never dies. Love lost is not really lost it just changes from one form to other. Life has to end love doesn’t.

e.      We are where we are supposed to be. Each life affects the other and other the next. The world is full of stories but the stories are all one.

 These five lessons do ring a bell. But how do these relate to the programming function protocol “void main (void)”; and what is the common principle between Philosophy of life and this code line?

Suppose each and every life or person is the “main” character and his entire life is the function/program that executes till the person is alive. As the life comes to an end, it has affected some or the other life and has “returned” something knowingly or unknowingly. Just as there cannot be a warning/error free program with a declaration of void main (void); similarly there can not be a single life that does not affect someone or the other. Even the life which ends even before coming to this world affects a lot. There are loads of people who are “Nobody” but have made a whole load of difference to “Somebody”. Had there been no “Nobodies” in the life of the great men like Alexander the Great, Lord Buddha, Sir Isaac Newton, Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Genius Einstein; they might not have been this great and this world would not have been as we see it today.

So all in all, “void main (void)”… not really… J

Are we ill???

Today I woke up pretty early for a Sunday and according to latest habit checked the comments/status on Facebook. One thing evident from comments on facebook was the complete chaos. Every passing day the chaos is increasing that it is smothering. It is kind of suffocating to just listen to the news these days. Every channel is flooded with some or the other crap. I had forgotten the reason why I stopped reading news papers and watch the news and for that matter even cricket after the great match fixing. This constant chaos and unconstructive discussions has made me wonder “Are we ill?? Are we suffering with some sort of serious disease; is it Cancer??”

From the times I remember about myself I was pretty serious about contributing to my country and I am even now. A patriot, serious about everything, passionate about almost everything I talked about and mostly my country India. I felt so proud about INDIA; the legends right from Lord Ram, Lord Parshuram to Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose. As a kid I felt yeah there are a few things wrong in my country but those can be set right. I have to prepare myself for that, I was born for a purpose; it would be just a matter of time that I sort it out and till a few years back I felt I have sorted it out. But now suddenly I feel so powerless, suddenly every Indian great achievement seems so mythological so fictional so insignificant in current situation.

Every other day there is new NEWS from some part of India about corruption, about blasts, about politics, about wastage of money, about wastage of time, about hooliganism, about price hikes, about inflation; it is as if whatever can go wrong is going wrong and whatever was not supposed to go wrong even that is going wrong. Where are we as a country heading to? What kind of leadership do we chose for ourselves when we get a chance every five years? Why is it not possible to live an honest and peaceful life? Why can’t everyone do their jobs with sincerity with honesty? Why can’t we smile at the fellow Indian standing besides us in traffic jams? Where are we heading where are we heading?

Have you seen people when we won against Pakistan or world cup in cricket a few months back? They were simply jubilant and celebrated as if we were in a war since centuries and finally won it. It felt so good to see people coming together every stranger on road was coming together even Indians abroad were celebrating it making rest of the world know about our achievement. But where does this enthusiasm goes when it is time to vote when it is time to stand for a purpose, to be together to drive a change. Are we so shallow that our patriotism surfaces only during cricket matches?

Why is cost of education so high and increasing day by day? Why cost of living spiking every year? Why is it becoming difficult for a middle class man to keep frown away from his loved ones beautiful faces? Why medical expenses sky rocketing? Why doctors are becoming apathetic to the pains and discomfort of their patients? Doctors were regarded next to GODS why are these GODS now reduced to mere businessmen wearing masks?

My country was not this a few years back. I grew up with so much pride in my country, the Land of Greats, ‘Sone ki Chidiya’, a future Superpower, Land where people from worldwide come to find solace. What a paradox!!! I feel the reason why rest of the world looked up to India was because of our customs our traditions our family values those were the subtle things which gave us the real power to face any adversary. Where is that now? Why are teachers becoming nightmares? Why are kids becoming disrespectful of elders? Why aren’t elders capable of coming with wise decisions? Why are maximum politicians, senior citizens or criminals? Why we have to go to World Bank every time begging for a loan? Why in spite of Indians being the brains behind most of the technological advances we are falling back? Why Indians have to leave their land to earn the merit to get the recognition for their work? What have we really achieved since freedom? Why do we still have the constitution, laws and reservations based on caste which was made 60yrs back? Are those even valid in today’s date? Are we truly a free nation?

We boast of being the largest democracy. Are we really democratic or whole of the nation is just disillusioned by this while a select few RULE the COUNTRY. Is the anger of masses of India just being used for some illicit benefits? Are the masses of India taken for a ride? As a citizen of democratic nation how many of us are aware of our Rights and how many of those Rights we truly exercise? Is the ignorance of Indians being used by a few for their own benefits? What are we going to say to the next generation? Or will the next generation really give a shit about it?

The tide that has risen against corruption is really appreciable. But the real question is whether the people involved in this revolt this upheaval really aware of the intentions and are they able to take right decision when it really matters? Is this ignorance, this inability, this tendency of the crowd being carried away blindly the disease we as a nation are suffering from? Does this disease have a cure?

Could we as individuals and as a community really contribute to really rebuild our nation brick by brick? There is no doubt that today’s youth is eager to set things right and they are completely capable of it. The thing is the revolution required need to come in such a manner that it covers each and every sector, right from politics to education system, the health sector. This kind of revolution is not possible unless people with like thought from different sectors come together and starts the movement. The need of the time is to educate ourselves about our broken system find the loopholes and fill it up. The time calls for all the educated fraternity to be united and take steps towards finding the problem and fix it. It is time we returned to our roots our fundamentals and develop the resistance against this disease. India is not Egypt where the things need to be taken to the extreme of violent revolts but yes we need to start acting now!!! Each and every individual needs to be strengthened to stand together with the sole purpose of restoring the glory of our dear country. We are the pillars of the future India. It is our attitude today that determines the future tomorrow. It is time to reevaluate on which path we are trotting. What is it that we want to leave for our descendants? Just stop just stand still and ponder over this and see if there is a calling for you.