Joining the Tolerance debate bandwagon.

So I was done preaching through my blogs. It doesn’t really work. Some people like it, some think I am weird. Others simply look at such things as a good piece of writing or something of the sort.

But now I am done listening to the word Tolerance, or its opposite or its verb form or its adjective form or some other form. The word has lost all meaning thanks to sheer repetition. I am sick of the word and as much as I would like to think of other things, it keeps ringing in my head or coming in front of me. And I can’t keep this down anymore.

We have got stop being just tolerant now! Just stop it! And start opening our minds for real. A broad, open mind does not have to be tolerant. It does not find the need to digest an opinion, view point or choice different from its own and then permit its existence. Nope! No need of all that work. Because an open mind just doesn’t care if other minds don’t work like it. It is jubilantly carefree of the choices or opinions of others and still has a firm and self-respecting one of its own.

There is no damn debate about whether India is tolerant or not. I love my country. I think it is a lovely, lively place with the heartiest people in the world. But even the best people have flaws. And when the flaws become their habits and get better of them, it becomes highly difficult to love them. And the flaws of pushing down our opinions on others and punishing them for not sharing ours and wasting precious time and newspaper and internet space on fighting over who is right and wrong, good and bad, Indian or Pakistani, RSS or AAPtard, and so on and so forth has become our habit and got better of us.

What happened man?

India is a tolerant country. It is a simple sentence we used in conclusion to History textbooks. India a rapidly developing country is what we find in conclusions of Economics and Politics texts.

It’s all true. We tolerate bribes, unjust references and out of the line admissions - left, right and center. We tolerate the fact that a lot lot more than just a half of the population is Male and thinks that the rest is always better at making a sandwich than driving a car. We tolerate sham schools and pseudo syllabi that give us useless degrees and rejoice at the apparent belief that we are educated. We tolerate gossip. We tolerate some people screwing other peoples’ lives for the most selfish reasons, we tolerate crime and fight tooth and nail for tolerance towards criminals. We tolerate the sham democracy we are becoming and we tolerate, no, we elect and support the very butts that make us one.    

We love eating a Sub and talking about some random social issue like it is the government’s problem alone. We’re a bunch of confused idiots who think they are doing their bit by working for the country or running a social organization, but the moment we get a chance at some overseas opportunity or a well-paying job, we’re moving on. We’re a bunch of sloppy young people who constantly want to click selfies and spend a major part of the day in self-obsessed oblivion but when something serious happens, we make sure to take the two minutes off our schedule and post on facebook about the event in a socially likable and ‘comment’able manner.

Truth is, what is happening in the world isn’t changing our lives drastically. It is only a blessed few who lose their sleep over the fear of rising tolerance to intolerance or waiting for a really explosive situation to take place only to shake up everyone, each and every one of us enough to really open our minds.

We just need to stop tolerating crap.

We need to stop tolerating the idiots who think our unity can be compromised a well orated religious rant. We need to stop tolerating the press and mass media who instead of doing an objective and unbiased job is hell bent of shoving its own opinion down our throats. We need to stop tolerating injustice for real, every single day of our lives. We need to stop tolerating dirt and slums and half naked children on streets. We need to stop tolerating people our age who do not have better things to do than get you a joint. We need to stop tolerating a healthcare system that makes us wish people rather died at times. We need to stop tolerating idiots who make a big deal out of a sentence popping out of an actor when actually we should be turning to ourselves and figuring out if there is anything even slightly wrong with us that contributes to all that is going wrong around. We need to stop tolerating anyone who thinks they can influence our choice to be ourselves. We need to stop tolerating all this bullshit and get down to what’s real, useful, meaningful and rational.

Stop tolerating. Start working.

August 2

It 's a lot of things today...

It is Dharmadhikari Sir's birthday today.
I feel too small to say Happy Birthday Sir..
I ll just say, we know what you would like as Birthday Present.. And will give my best to get it for you..

It's also Dada J.P Vaswani's 97th Birthday..
He was, is and will remain my spiritual guide.. I cannot be more nostalgic about the one time he answered my biggest questions in two words.
And it wrote the pages of the life I've created today..

It is also the last day of our UPSC Comprehensive Course, formally atleast...
We've got a long way to go though..

It is also Friendship Day.. (which I completely forgot, was reminded by Facebook)..
Time to prove my friendship with books and knowledge..

And because it's late night, and I don't care who's reading anymore.. I feel like I can type away...

It's like I've been on a crossroad for a year. And I finally have turned in the direction I really want to move towards.
It's been a tough year.. I've hated it and loved it at the same time..

But the final month has come.. And even as I know I am far from prepared, I know I can plunge into this one..
It's been a journey getting here and now that I have direction, it feels good to know I am trying..
It feels better to know that I could have chalked out a different life, an easier life and a happier one, but I chose this and I feel responsible for it..

I do not know what is going to happen 22 days from now. I know what is going to happen in these 22 days.

I've lost a lot, but time is what I've lost the most..

But again,
Nothing is lost and never can be lost.

Hehehe! I love ranting!

On Love

As a little girl, I do not remember wondering what it was to be alone. Solitude was a word I read in an English literature textbook, mentioned in the classic poem 'Daffodils' by Wordsworth. And I knew then, that I hardly understand it's meaning.
What is it to be alone?

Then I grow up and go to college. Life is a busy mess for teenagers. Classes, books, friends, food, clothes, crushes, dance, more classes, more dance, camping, more camping and who knows what's being alone?  There's no time.

But over the years, there comes a day when you stop on you tracks, look ahead and see nothing but a pair of eyes looking back at you in a way no one did. And the whole world you built zooms out of the picture. You are pulled into a space from where everything seems smaller, everything has little meaning, and the only thing that mattered was what was going on inside of you.
It is those eyes that show you that the world you built is incomplete without your soul.
And they show you that what you are, is what mattered most. They show you that everything is present, yes! But it all becomes real when there is a purpose inside you, that holds everything in place.

Those eyes force you to look within, to discover the person in this body, to protect it, mould it and every single time it is necessary, to give it pain and bear it, to break it and mend it, to drop it and make it stand.

Those eyes show you how precious you are, and how important it is for you to remain you; how you signify, justify the change for better and how necessary it is that you keep working no matter what.

It is those same eyes that make you look down at yourself, because they know the bad person that you are. But they also teach you to respect yourself because they believe in you. They reflect your worst but they also resonate your beauty.

It is those eyes that make you take decisions, that prepare you for tomorrow and provide a warming kindness on the coldest night. They are eyes that make you soft as flower and tough as a stone.

Those eyes teach you that giving is the greatest gift, that an honest heart is a rare treasure and that faith can literally change the face of the universe.

They taught you that people teach more than books, listening to your heart is more worth it than listening to your brain and that being weird was more important than being wise.

The eyes tell you that a touch of care is slice of heaven, a smiling face a universal cure and laughter a solution to any fight.

They make you see that when some people are concerned, there is no such thing as ego, where some others are concerned, there is no such thing as hate and where every person on the planet is concerned, there is no such thing as indifference.

Those eyes teach you to live. They make you live with yourself, for yourself and for every single thing that is meaningful.
Those eyes assure you that you would never, ever know what the hell Solitude is.
Because they are always watching over you.

Yes. Those eyes are love.

00:00

25/06/2015

21 years old, or, New...

It closed upon me one day in December last year: the prospects on being 21. 21 was the number my father used every time he had to say "NO" to me. 'You can do whatever you want when you are 21. Not now!' and I would accept. It was reasonable enough. But by the end of my teenage, I developed an unnecessary importance for the number. I thought my whole world would change with that one number. I thought I would feel free. I thought I would be really independent. 

It's been days since I got 21. My 21st birthday, which a few months ago had the highest importance was like any other day of the year. I could not meet my favourite people. I did not get any surprises and I did not even expect any. I realized that day that I did not need that one day to be told by my people how much they love me. I did not need that one day to grow up. In the process of waiting to grow up, I grew up already. I tried to remember all the things my father did not allow me to do because I was small. I realized, I had done all those things anyway. 

Birthdays are important because every year, I take that one day and introspect. I ask myself how much I have changed since last year. For the past five years, I have been a new person every year.

This year, I figured I was the same old me. I am only covered by a newer me. But really, I am only, simply and basically, just me.

They say you find yourself only once, for real. I, on my part, found myself, wore a few masks and changed a few clothes, and one day, beneath it all, found myself again.

Everything changes in five years. But I found a few things that remain constant. 

What changes is only choices. Five years ago, I made the choices I would not make today. Those choices define me today. Today's choices will define me tomorrow. And things will go on changing.

There is riot going on the mind. How do you plan and act and work when you don't know the full outcome of your choices? The conflict of the mind and heart does not always have a winner. And then there are some choices which you don't make, but make themselves. So there is the golden rule: "Always listen to your heart". A Paulo Coelho reader has her own misgivings thus. But Mr. Coelho, the heart is not always right!

I've got things to do. I've got happiness to spread and tears to wipe. But the ways of the world tell it is not a very easy task. Some say it is worthless and useless. The shit will continue. 

But I cannot get myself to accept that. The world is not such a horrible place. Even with all the shit going on, there are certain things worth living for, and worth dying for too. And in one way or another, they all have something or everything to do with love. I knew this all those years ago. And I know this now, after getting a bit of the shit going on too. Change is not the only constant. Whoever said that, did not love.

Being 21 has not mattered. Because I do not need a number to tell me to hug my teddy bear or not. I do not need a number to tell me if I am ready for taking on the world. I do not need a number to figure that I am finally independent. Being 21 has not made me anymore responsible or careless. Being 21 has not changed the way I love and care and it has not changed my dreams. Really speaking, it does not make a difference. And that makes me very happy.

Trees

He unceremoniously opened the door of the dining chamber, slightly sickened by the idea of yet another day of bolting down a laboratory made sandwich. There, in a corner of the room, sat his daughter, munching her food but looked lost in deep thought. He picked up his sandwich and a tumbler of water and sat down beside her. She looked at him sideways and asked in a dreamy voice, “Dad, have you ever seen a real tree?”

He knew it was time he started disappointing her with his answers. In the 4 years they had lived on the ship, he had strived to adapt to the closed atmosphere, to show his daughter, that the conditions they lived in were absolutely normal. But she had started taking school sessions in the higher laboratories. And he knew that soon, a whole lost world would be introduced to her.

“Yes, dear, I have seen a number of them.”

“I want to see one too! The robot down at the school said that humans would live close to trees. We are humans, right Dad, then why don’t we live close to any? The robot said they came out of the ground, then why can’t we have a tree coming out of our family chamber ground, Dad? Can you make a tree come out for me, Dad! Please!”

“My dear.. They don’t just come out. Trees grow. They grow out of soil towards the sun and take all the water and help from the soil on land so they can grow. Our family chamber ground is made of steel. It cannot grow a tree. A tree needs soil, land and the sun.”

“The sun? I want to see it too.”
The words hit him. She had not seen the sun in four years. And she was too small to remember how it was like before that.

“Darling, let me tell you this. I am going to the chief office now. Your mom is there now. I’ll tell them you want to see the sun and a tree. We’ll do what we can dear. We will.” He smiled at her encouragingly. Inside his head, ideas were forming plans. He needed to talk to other parents aboard.

Two weeks later, he came to the family chamber later than the usual time, but there she was, not asleep but sketching a virtual tree on the common doodle board he had made for the children.

“You can see a real one!” He exclaimed while she was still not looking. She turned, startled. But the innocent little face lit up with a smile immediately. She ran to his side as he bent down to talk to her. “And so will all your friends. My dear, we are going to go on land. And we are going to plant a sapling and see a tree grow.”

He had taken the child’s wish to heart. He was a scientist, like a number of people aboard. He was living and working with the best minds in the world, but he also knew, that one day, all of those would be dead and the young ones would have to continue the struggle for survival of the human race. They had two ways to do it: Either continue the struggle with newer and more technology, with their limited resources, or go back to the lost world and start building it again. The school sessions were preparation for the former, and planting a sapling, for the latter.

The next day, he set out with a team of 5 more members. They had to reach land. They had only last year, been able to connect with one of the satellites in the atmosphere, and it had taken a few months to actually make it get pictures for them. The waters had receded by a few meters. The ship was equipped with external devices, so they knew that the temperature was still high, meaning they had to wear the suits, he hated them. They were once meant only for people going into space. But now, to get out of the ship, one had to wear them. The conditions outside were too extreme for anything that lived a -100 MSL and above. The ship was stationed at the bottom of a water body once called the Indian Ocean. The vessel they had to travel in had to gain about 2000 meters to reach the surface and about a thousand nautical miles to reach the continent shelf.

The team got into the vessel, attached to the second highest level of the ship. The pilot, a friend, smiled at him. It was the first time in four years that the pilot could use his only skill: the one because of which he was allowed on the ship. He was the best pilot there was. And that had saved him.

The crew sat tight. The vessel detached. And off they went. Twenty minutes later, they were at surface. The crew then switched on the radar and newly installed GPS connected to the lone communicating satellite. They had to head north. The region once known as the Himalayas, the highest mountains on earth, was the one secure point they could reach without a predictable danger. The waters, having receded rapidly since the end of the rains, had first exposed these great mountains. The surface journey was an agony. With clenched jaws, the crew moved across the waters below which were entire cities, countless societies and more than a billion corpses.

The scientist was silent. After months of trying to forget the memories, these few minutes brought it all back.

It was the last day on earth. The temperature had reached its peak. The last ice cap had melted. The endless rain had started and he, with his wife and baby were on one of the last ships that had left the shores to never return, because after that day, there was nothing going to be left to return to. They were on the ship because they were inventors. They had genius and the last people who wished to survive needed them. But everyone else, everything that had mattered, everything they had built, was getting destroyed by the minute. The earth had spoken, and yielded its last weapon. But humans with their extraordinary gift had a grand plan made to even survive through this.

The ship was built in stages. It took years. It took the best minds of the world. And it was known to only those best minds. Over years of inventions and technologies, they managed to make a ship that would help them survive in the deepest corners of the ocean, using the water and minerals available there, coupled with the increased penetration of sunlight into the atmosphere. The world did not have the resources to make something like the ship available to all the people of the world. They all were seven billion. The ship was meant for 700: 700 of the cleverest people alive at that time, 700 people from literally all walks of life, irrespective of where they came from.

“We’re close.” The first words spoken in the last few hours broke the chain of the scientist’s thoughts. Back to the present, he held himself up. They had to get out on the land, and build an enclosure. The material they had was an improvised greenhouse fabric. It took the heat of the sun in, but kept the UV rays out. They also had to take back soil samples, if they got any left from the erosion.

36 hours later, the scientist-father walked into a hall crowded with parents and children. They were all waiting for the verdict of the team.

The tired scientist looked at the room. There were hapless adults and curious children, all silent as he put together his words. “Children! Get  ready to be a part of your first mission. Starting tomorrow, you shall be trained for a mission called ‘Trees’. We will prepare you for land and you shall be the first humans to plant trees back on our earth.”

The hall erupted. The steel walls vibrated as crowd clapped the hardest they could in four years. An engineer in the corner took note of this.

It was another eight weeks before the little girl walked out of the vessels and put her first step on real land. She carried with her a cascade with a small laboratory sapling. She carefully took it to one of the enclosures about a few hundred meters away. “But Dad, you told me about the Himalayas. Where are they? I see no mountains like your photographs.” The father smiled at her and replied. “They are farther east from here dear. It would take longer to reach them now. But trust me, your tree will grow better here than there.” The girl needed nothing more. “Okay Daddy!”

The father looked ahead at the enclosures. They walked inside and with the father’s help, the little girl planted her first sapling. As he watched her push the earth around it, he signed. The temperature was reducing. Soon, they won’t need the enclosure. The trees would actually survive. And the people of the ship would finally be able to come back to the lost world, and create a new world, a better world, right where the first men built the first civilization.

6/2/2015

Today's Politics in the eyes of the youth.

Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, selfies, parties, hanging out, treks, discos, photography…. The list of interests goes on. If time permits there are studies, except for the older youth, who manage to save time for all these things with the 21^st century job scene. The life of today’s young people is all about these things. So when I ask someone what they think about today’s Politics in the country, I get three kinds of reactions. First are the kinds that do not answer. They said nothing about it and changed the subject. Second are the kinds that stop for a moment and then tell me it is a subject of debate. And third are the kinds that answer immediately, in well-chosen words and sometimes even in elaborate ways. And interestingly, all the answers I receive from the third kind can be summed up in one single word: Cynicism.

We are a generation of enlightened people. We have studied the worst wars fought all over the world, we have read about the over stretched Congress Raj; we have seen how India has crawled, staggered and slowly reached the position it has today, as a sovereign entity on the globe. We have seen a few governments rise and fall. A lot of us even vote. We are not ignorant. For that matter, we are completely globalized and actually citizens of the world. And that is how we know what is going wrong in our nation. That is how we can figure something’s terribly wrong when direction in which the leadership of the representatives of the people of this very complicated democracy is going nowhere close to the desired one. This cynicism therefore, is understood and even justified. It may be close to pessimism but I believe it is a step closer to the solution too.

We, the technology savvy generation are dependent on the media to keep us updated about the political on goings, the developments, and going a step further, even in creating our opinion about various aspects of politics, national and international. Some of us just sigh at the news on T.V. or in the paper or on the phone and go on and about our lives. Some of us even discuss issues among our friends and families. And some of us also decide to get down in the dirt and clean the mess. The youngsters in rural areas are in fact more informed about how politics works today, they being practically closer to its failures. All of us can perfectly judge everything that goes on, which means all of us have an independent opinion. This is in fact a very important and promising situation.

From the Israel-Palestine issue, India-China relations, ISIS, to even the political motives of the ruling and opposing parties at the local level, we are aware. And we do have a voice. The only issue is making it be heard.

Today’s youth, as much as it is aware of today’s politics, it is not an active participant in the same. We have opinions, but we lack action. We know how this democracy works (or does not work) and we know its loopholes. But our reactions to it are popularly situation-based. We are generally passive and even discouraged to do anything about the way things are. Most times, we wake up from our stupors only when something extreme happens, something that shakes us to the core and leaves us restless and sleepless because somewhere the conscience still lives. We simply need a Nirbhaya Incident or a fasting Anna Hazare to finally get out of our daily lives and on the streets. We need something bad to always happen before we have the courage to stand up and point out to our very own representatives that they need to buck up.

And then about the representatives: the ultimate outcome of our opinions. These people, who win elections, are the face of our own interest (or lack of interest, seeing the general voter turn outs). The well-known statement “The people get the government they deserve” stands more true here than ever.

On the other hand, we now have a better face, as we have learnt to condemn those failures of democracy with their multi-crore scams and zipped mouths. We now have more people talking than ever before about what is good for us as a society and a nation. We now express our anger when we see those few at the top make false distinctions visible, who attempt to strangle the roots of our unity with the old, rusted chains of communal reservations; who would go to any extent to grab votes, stay at the cursed top and continue to exploit us all. Yes, we are now learning, we now know better and we surely are not about to repeat our mistakes. This is that step towards the solution.

The great leaders of yesterday have expectations from us. They see in us what a lot of us still do not. We are tomorrow’s promise. We are an emerging challenge to the present systems. We are an educated and energetic lot, but we often need a push. We know what is right or wrong, but we still have to be shown the way.

Nevertheless, in all optimism, the youth does have a very large part to play in the politics of today and tomorrow. No matter what career we choose, no matter what ideologies we have, we do have a voice today, and it is getting stronger by the day. As many evils our country might face, we shall overcome!

Written: Oct'2014.