Revolution (Wikipedia): A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turnaround") is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.
I disagree!
A revolution, I believe, is an idea that is implemented with or without the motive of fundamental changes but certainly as an act of assertion in one’s own values.
However, one of its effects may be changing the way of life for an individual or a community or a country.
If we limit our vision to history books, it may seem that in order to bring upon a ‘successful’ revolution one needs an oppressive ruler, a distressed population (community or country), lots of arms and ammunition (not so in the Indian case)and action! However, if one happens to peek thoughtfully in the pages of life the smudges of revolutionary changes can be found all over, guised as nothing more than the blots of ink. But since change is accepted as the underlying requisite for evolution, the vitality of the idea behind this change is forgotten. And thus the inertia that has to be overcome for this ‘revolt’ to succeed is elapsed just as old books are rendered useless once they have been read over and over.
Revolution, thus, is no legacy of history books but belongs to life as we see it and as we live it. It may be coined for the Boston tea party or signing the Declaration of Independence or for the demand of complete independence by Congress or Quit India Movement but that does not necessarily mean that it could not apply to actions and ideas of one man against and for a system.
It is a revolution, thus, when a man clings to the stem of trees in hills of Uttaranchal to stop them from cutting, when a young IAS officer goes to inspect a government hospital in the middle of night, when another of his breed dips his hand in a stinking naala to remind the municipal corporation of their work.
It was a revolution when my mother shed the traditional pallu and more of it when my grandparents supported and defended her. When a small kid plants a sapling in front of his house and vows to take care of it throughout his life, when a teacher goes beyond the conventional meaning of lessons and enlightens his/her students to realms of life, when a young woman in Noida breaks her engagement simply because her ‘would be’ in-laws were asking for dowry, it is a revolution. A teenager born in slums promising himself that he will not die poor is an idea that will change his life.
The change that this idea may bring upon in one’s life may simply not be the end of this revolution as the word itself may imply. The revolution is actually a process of evolution that may go beyond the actual process of change of principles and certainly the realms of time. And that is why though America declared its independence from Britain in 1776 but it was not until Abraham Lincoln that it truly became United States and for the same reason, India truly became a republic in 1950 though independence had come 2 ½ years earlier.
And for this idea is clad in steel of fortitude protected by the will of his impassive mind, it becomes impossible to contain this revolution even though the action that follows it may be shelved for some time. As they say, an IDEA can change your life…
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
To Sir, With Love
May be I should change the title – To Sir(s) & Ma’m(s)! But I continue to live in this world shamelessly subjugated to male psyche, where even those (all males & females) who herald the banners of women liberation suffer pangs of guilt deep inside consoling themselves that nothing is going to change in this hypocrite world of theirs despite all their valiant efforts.
But then that’s not what I was going to write about; the subject was my teachers who were desperate to pull me out of plume of ignorance and anti-social cataclysm throughout my span of life.
The first ones to teach me would always be my parents but like all infants I have no memoirs of the early days. The first lessons of walking, talking, drinking, eating, touching, identification etc. are so natural and inherent in nature that we refuse to acknowledge them as lessons at all. I disagree! Left alone, we all would have been Mogulis of Rudyard Kipling.
It’s only after a certain bit of maturity (I hope, I have that) that perhaps one admits the difference between education and teaching. While the former may be entirely facts – strands of formulae, loads of structures, reactions, laws, dates, maps-locations and other things, the latter is beyond all facts. (Though they may be facts themselves) If, may be, it was never said to us verbally; it was always between the lines - the codes of conduct, laws of world, laws of behavior, adjectives and virtues. And it is for this latter part, that I am most thankful to you.
When you told me that air exists beyond its invisibility barrier as a matter and has weight, I learned that there could be things where we see none. When you directed me in the laboratory, I concluded that rationality was the underlying principle of all things in world and if not then it must be questioned however blasphemous it may sound. In chemical reactions I saw the balance of nature; re-saw it in Newton’s third law and understood that to achieve a high placed goal I had to strive even harder because some energy was always lost.
After getting used to gravitation for more than 10 years (I was taught gravitation and atoms/molecules in class 3 because I found other concepts in the book boring, lolz), Einstein’s relativity was a blow for one of its points concluded that gravity was nothing but a byproduct of space-time warp and for this reason - hypothetical. And it proved to me that a man’s biggest enemy was Inertia – resistance to change. When I was introduced to algebra, I knew that the power of imagination was infinite. When I was taught the concept of system, surroundings and universe in my first thermodynamics class, I was literally told that a parallel existed between mechanical systems and the universe, between the creator of systems and that of the universe.
When Indus dwellers vanished along with Egyptians and the Chinese I saw how the things that once reached their zenith had to, willingly or unwillingly perish too. Rome followed suit with Constantinople and I knew that life comes a full circle. British ran across half the globe waving first the East India Company flag and then the Union Jack mocking the territories that had never heard of the concept of nation, sovereignty and union. Karl Marx propounded a theory and it became evident to me that success would always be incomplete if it was exclusive. A man in Meerut triggered a mutiny and I knew that a revolution had to be started by one man alone, if not more. A lawyer from Gujarat marched across the nation perspiring yet untiring, and I knew that leadership could do wonders to people.
But what you taught me was not in the books alone, it was and is in the world out there, glaring in the eye – acknowledged or not; for you taught me that ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’ and if for the greater good, it should be manipulated. That it was alright to feel depressed and dejected on having failed but was even more important to learn and rise again. It was almost natural to feel jealous but you were the ones who told me that I had to direct my anger the right way to profit from it. That even my friends could turn against me and I could find some where I never expected was taught by you. You were the ones who taught me that in a country where empty stomachs gave a stronger lurch than the mal-fed morality, corruption and crime were almost natural and in order to combat them a multi-pronged weapon was needed.
I love you all for those lessons that you taught me and even those that you did not because I went through them the hard way and know them by heart. For all the good that you did to us, you were always jeered behind your back and you kept on, still. Because even when you were firing all cylinders at me in the class, there was a fun in it (and I was silently laughing, face down); for I knew that it was all for a reason. Premchand once wrote in one of his stories that teachers see new batches every year, new boys and they forget them; but the boys never forget those who teach them, sometimes looking up to them as ideals.
Now that I am on a break from classes, I miss your voice ringing the classroom (and the figures that I carved on desks too). But then, you taught me that life itself was a continuous learning process. I may sometimes let you down, but please don’t give up on me for it is only on the citadel of your wisdom that I will ascend to the pinnacle of existence.
But then that’s not what I was going to write about; the subject was my teachers who were desperate to pull me out of plume of ignorance and anti-social cataclysm throughout my span of life.
The first ones to teach me would always be my parents but like all infants I have no memoirs of the early days. The first lessons of walking, talking, drinking, eating, touching, identification etc. are so natural and inherent in nature that we refuse to acknowledge them as lessons at all. I disagree! Left alone, we all would have been Mogulis of Rudyard Kipling.
It’s only after a certain bit of maturity (I hope, I have that) that perhaps one admits the difference between education and teaching. While the former may be entirely facts – strands of formulae, loads of structures, reactions, laws, dates, maps-locations and other things, the latter is beyond all facts. (Though they may be facts themselves) If, may be, it was never said to us verbally; it was always between the lines - the codes of conduct, laws of world, laws of behavior, adjectives and virtues. And it is for this latter part, that I am most thankful to you.
When you told me that air exists beyond its invisibility barrier as a matter and has weight, I learned that there could be things where we see none. When you directed me in the laboratory, I concluded that rationality was the underlying principle of all things in world and if not then it must be questioned however blasphemous it may sound. In chemical reactions I saw the balance of nature; re-saw it in Newton’s third law and understood that to achieve a high placed goal I had to strive even harder because some energy was always lost.
After getting used to gravitation for more than 10 years (I was taught gravitation and atoms/molecules in class 3 because I found other concepts in the book boring, lolz), Einstein’s relativity was a blow for one of its points concluded that gravity was nothing but a byproduct of space-time warp and for this reason - hypothetical. And it proved to me that a man’s biggest enemy was Inertia – resistance to change. When I was introduced to algebra, I knew that the power of imagination was infinite. When I was taught the concept of system, surroundings and universe in my first thermodynamics class, I was literally told that a parallel existed between mechanical systems and the universe, between the creator of systems and that of the universe.
When Indus dwellers vanished along with Egyptians and the Chinese I saw how the things that once reached their zenith had to, willingly or unwillingly perish too. Rome followed suit with Constantinople and I knew that life comes a full circle. British ran across half the globe waving first the East India Company flag and then the Union Jack mocking the territories that had never heard of the concept of nation, sovereignty and union. Karl Marx propounded a theory and it became evident to me that success would always be incomplete if it was exclusive. A man in Meerut triggered a mutiny and I knew that a revolution had to be started by one man alone, if not more. A lawyer from Gujarat marched across the nation perspiring yet untiring, and I knew that leadership could do wonders to people.
But what you taught me was not in the books alone, it was and is in the world out there, glaring in the eye – acknowledged or not; for you taught me that ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’ and if for the greater good, it should be manipulated. That it was alright to feel depressed and dejected on having failed but was even more important to learn and rise again. It was almost natural to feel jealous but you were the ones who told me that I had to direct my anger the right way to profit from it. That even my friends could turn against me and I could find some where I never expected was taught by you. You were the ones who taught me that in a country where empty stomachs gave a stronger lurch than the mal-fed morality, corruption and crime were almost natural and in order to combat them a multi-pronged weapon was needed.
I love you all for those lessons that you taught me and even those that you did not because I went through them the hard way and know them by heart. For all the good that you did to us, you were always jeered behind your back and you kept on, still. Because even when you were firing all cylinders at me in the class, there was a fun in it (and I was silently laughing, face down); for I knew that it was all for a reason. Premchand once wrote in one of his stories that teachers see new batches every year, new boys and they forget them; but the boys never forget those who teach them, sometimes looking up to them as ideals.
Now that I am on a break from classes, I miss your voice ringing the classroom (and the figures that I carved on desks too). But then, you taught me that life itself was a continuous learning process. I may sometimes let you down, but please don’t give up on me for it is only on the citadel of your wisdom that I will ascend to the pinnacle of existence.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Abhhisht
(I wrote this one, when I was ‘still’ in search of a good job)
Anant neela aakash
Athah gehra saagar
Badalon ke woh
Bante-bigadte chehre
Sab tumhare liye.
Barkha ki pehli boond
Mitti ki sondhi-si gandh
Aam ka woh pehla baur
Sab tumhe arpan.
Apne ek abhhisht ke badle
Mera saara kanchan
Kya doon tumhe, jab
Sab tumhara hi to hai,
Mere karm aur
Mera dharm, sab kuchh.
Yun to main jaanta hun
Ki tum jaante ho…
Phir bhi, mere ek isht ke badle
Mera sab kuchh,
Tumhe arpan.
Anant neela aakash
Athah gehra saagar
Badalon ke woh
Bante-bigadte chehre
Sab tumhare liye.
Barkha ki pehli boond
Mitti ki sondhi-si gandh
Aam ka woh pehla baur
Sab tumhe arpan.
Apne ek abhhisht ke badle
Mera saara kanchan
Kya doon tumhe, jab
Sab tumhara hi to hai,
Mere karm aur
Mera dharm, sab kuchh.
Yun to main jaanta hun
Ki tum jaante ho…
Phir bhi, mere ek isht ke badle
Mera sab kuchh,
Tumhe arpan.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Jaspinder and her kids..s
Jaspinder meets a her school friend after 20 years and tells her how her life has been great and that she has 10 children.
'Wow!' says her friend. 'What are their names?'
'Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep and Mandeep,' she answers, smiling proudly.
Her friend looks at her dubiously. 'Really?' she says. 'So what if you want them to come in from playing outside?'
'That's easy, I just shout Mandeep and they all come running,' answers Jaspinder.
Her friend is not convinced. 'And what if you want them to come to the table for dinner?' she asks. 'Again,' she says, 'I just shout 'Mandeep, dinner's ready!''
'But wait a minute,’ says her friend. 'What if you just want one of them to do something?'
'That is slightly more difficult,' says the woman, nodding. 'Then I have to use their last names.'
'Wow!' says her friend. 'What are their names?'
'Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep, Mandeep and Mandeep,' she answers, smiling proudly.
Her friend looks at her dubiously. 'Really?' she says. 'So what if you want them to come in from playing outside?'
'That's easy, I just shout Mandeep and they all come running,' answers Jaspinder.
Her friend is not convinced. 'And what if you want them to come to the table for dinner?' she asks. 'Again,' she says, 'I just shout 'Mandeep, dinner's ready!''
'But wait a minute,’ says her friend. 'What if you just want one of them to do something?'
'That is slightly more difficult,' says the woman, nodding. 'Then I have to use their last names.'
Loser...(pardon the language though)
Do you know how it feels to be a fcuking loser?
To hate yourself, your skin, your soul, every min of your existence?
And to love it all @ the same time, to the same fcuking extent?
Have you ever felt so sick to your stomach, so disgusted @ your own being?
Have you ever wanted to kill yourself and felt ashamed @ your desire to live, even after having proved not just to your own self that you are a fcuking loser?
Have you ever cried your heart out, in silent sobs, in darkness, too ashamed of your defeat inlife, of your own uselessness?
Have you ever felt like you are a constant burden, walking this earth, shitting all over the place, leaving behind your stink?
And felt the world wrinkle its nose, look @ you with the utmost contempt and disgust for you are a loathsome being...
Felt it all even though you do not have the fcuking guts to turn & look for the stench is too bad even though it is your own...
Have you ever showed your finger in your mind, to "whatever it is that brought you into existence", for it is a fcuked up job and you know it well coz you are that job?
Have you ever felt like a fcuking loser, right in the middle of the world...
Blocking the path of everyone near and around you...
Making them hate you every min though they might not be able to say it all to you...
Have you ever screwed up every time, every time a person tries to clean you up, tries to make you over... And right at that moment when they try, you shit again, stinking more than before...
Have you ever ever ever felt like a fcuking loser?
Well...I have not!!!
To hate yourself, your skin, your soul, every min of your existence?
And to love it all @ the same time, to the same fcuking extent?
Have you ever felt so sick to your stomach, so disgusted @ your own being?
Have you ever wanted to kill yourself and felt ashamed @ your desire to live, even after having proved not just to your own self that you are a fcuking loser?
Have you ever cried your heart out, in silent sobs, in darkness, too ashamed of your defeat inlife, of your own uselessness?
Have you ever felt like you are a constant burden, walking this earth, shitting all over the place, leaving behind your stink?
And felt the world wrinkle its nose, look @ you with the utmost contempt and disgust for you are a loathsome being...
Felt it all even though you do not have the fcuking guts to turn & look for the stench is too bad even though it is your own...
Have you ever showed your finger in your mind, to "whatever it is that brought you into existence", for it is a fcuked up job and you know it well coz you are that job?
Have you ever felt like a fcuking loser, right in the middle of the world...
Blocking the path of everyone near and around you...
Making them hate you every min though they might not be able to say it all to you...
Have you ever screwed up every time, every time a person tries to clean you up, tries to make you over... And right at that moment when they try, you shit again, stinking more than before...
Have you ever ever ever felt like a fcuking loser?
Well...I have not!!!
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