26/11 and 2012

A little late in the day I suppose, as we just observed... or celebrated?... one year of 26/11 and the movie is already a classic in today's 'next-is-what?' age. But I prefer to be a bit old fashioned in rather hopelessly stubborn ways. Therefore for me, both are still current topics, as hot as the winter in Bombay.

Is there a link between the two? ... both are about a disaster. One natural and another is fast becoming our nature. But beyond that, I feel, both underline a fact, a ruthless naked truth about life, it's biggest tragedy or it's ultimate blessing. The truth that everything comes with an expiry date including this very planet we live in.

2012, will it mark the end of man's super natural ego? his misery, his quest for happiness, his ever growing greed? Will it end his urge to destroy everything that's created by the GOD or man himself? I don't know. What we can assume however, is that it'll take a catastrophe to stop man on his path to self destruction on which he is rapidly progressing... or is he regressing?

Terrorism is a creation of man just as religion is. How intertwined they both are? you can't separate one from another. If there is no religion there is no terrorism and vice versa. Both threaten and survive and feed on each other.

We have no time in our hands, literally. This life this very life that we so beautifully plan for ourselves has no plan for itself. We don't plan our entry neither do we plan our exit. Those people who went out dining to The Taj and Trident on the eve of 26/11/08 had plans till they were brutally interrupted by AK-47s. In the movie 2012, an old Jazz singer who is nurturing a grudge for years against his son finally calls upon him but the sinking world denies him to speak two simple words "I'm sorry". Why do we take so long to say that many a times? A lifetime goes by but we dare to utter those simple words. How difficult it is, how difficult to 'let go'? When the reality is, there is absolutely nothing we can hold on to. 2012 for me was a different experience, beyond it's visual extravaganza, beyond it's breathtaking special effects, it was a learning, far deeper and far greater than what you see on the surface.

What the movie and the tragedy of 26/11 tell us is to live in NOW. Now is the time you have, now is the time to say sorry, to love, to celebrate life. If you have a dream, realize it now. Live every moment of this wonderful life as your last moment for it might turn out to be one. Everything comes with an expiry date.

POVERTY and US

Today, when I walked through the gate of my building, I heard a faint voice calling me out 'saheb!'... now that's unheard of, my ears are not used to anyone calling me by that adjective... saheb? No no it can't be me, so I ignored it for a few seconds but shortly I realised there was no one else but me around there and the person calling me 'saheb' was our old watchman. Yes, he is a watchman of our building, one old fashioned watchman with a bad uniform on him. He is no security guard as they are called these days. But why is he calling me? I have never spoken to him unless one of those very rare occasions when I came back home post 12 in the midnight and I had to call out for him to open the gate.... that's the end of my conversation with him. "Saheb vees rupaye miltil?".... Can I borrow 20 rupees? He broke the suspense. 20 rupees? My initial reaction was 'what for? what do you get in 20 rupees these days?' 'NO!' I said. My reaction wasn't really a well thought through one, it was a knee jerk reaction at best. There was something that made me so damn uncomfortable at that moment, I literally ran up to my flat.

When I reached home, I felt a terrible sense of discomfort, what was I so uncomfortable about? For saying no to that man? may be, I shouldn't have said no to him. But he is the same man I gave 200 rupees without him even asking for it during Diwali. So why did I say no to 20 rupees? The very next moment I decided to undo my action. I went down. He wasn't expecting me, I thought. 'Take this'... I gave him 20 rupees. "I'll return it tomorrow" he said. Why? Please don't embarrass me further... "no need, it's okay" I said and rushed out of the gate.

What must be his reason to ask for mere 20 rupees? Deep down I started feeling the pain... but the pain wasn't mine, it was his. What a 50 year old man must be feeling when he asks for 20 rupees from a stranger like me. Now I have nothing to do with what he wants to do with that money or whether he asked for 20 rupees from other 10 people or not, the question I had in my mind was about the pride. Everyone has it except the politicians may be... so what about his? What kind of a situation prompts a person like him.. who has a job... to ask for such a small amount? It depressed me more when I started thinking about him.

Is poverty such a difficult thing to wipe out? I guess not. Then why do some have so much that they don't even know how much they have and some have none? Karma theory is the easiest way out of such tricky questions. It's their Karma. End of story. What about our Karma then? Are we doing some great deeds by ignoring poverty? Many a times I see a long queue outside a temple... especially Siddhivinayak on Tuesday. Everyone wants to be rich and famous. Nothing wrong with it but no one knows what will make them that. The SiddhiVinayak Trust which is run by some politicians is super rich for sure. During Ganpati festival crores of rupees get transacted in a small lane in Lalbaug alone, crores are spent on meaningless movies every year... how many movies in bollywood really do business? 8,9 maximum in a year? what about the rest of them? Around 300 movies per year are commercially flop, but then the same guys are making them all over again... who finances such filth and how can they finance it? Don't these super rich financiers have no business sense? Disgusting it is... but the truth is they are turning black into white by showing that as a loss. Strange but true. And what about elections which even after spending crores of public money produce no results? Every other scam you hear about is a few thousands... sometime even a few lakhs ... crores of rupees...so much money is flowing around and here I have someone asking for 20 rupees? How cruel is that? How bloody unfair?

I decided not to think that he'll use it for some wrong purpose [ again who am I to judge that anyway? ] but may be he needed it to buy a medicine for himself and that very moment my 20 rupees felt much more valuable than those crores which can't even buy a simple joy to anyone. When I returned back, he wasn't around, 'may be he has gone to get that medicine', I told myself.

VOTE please.

Finally... the state of Maharashtra has a government. What a shame! This entire process has just exposed the sorry state of politics. And the saddest part is, the common man can do nothing... absolutely nothing!
I grieve, I cry and I hate myself for being just a mere spectator. I hate my helplessness.
In the recent times few advertisers and media houses started this drive of telling people to VOTE. And there are millions of people... who claim to be educated... who believe that putting that blemish on a finger is a solution for all the problems. We have been playing this game of voting for quite sometime now....more than 60 years. I feel sorry for my father's generation. What they witnessed as young boys on the 15th of August 1947 was magical. They grew up as young men in possibly the most optimistic period in the recent history of this country... 1950's. They had a leader with a world vision. But merely in a decade all their hopes crashed with his death. Nehru's death was the death of politics based on values and what started soon thereafter was politics of numbers, caste, religion and bribes. My father's and many of his friends whole lifetime went by hoping ... woh subaha kabhi toh ayegi... that morning star will rise one day... it never did.
Can voting alone be the solution? It's ridiculous to think it is.
What we need at the moment is a revolution of thought. A change in the way we think or are made to think about politics.
In a democratic system the most important thing is knowledge. And education is a path to reach that destination. Gopal Ganesh Agarkar was absolutely correct when he pronounced that 'we must educate the people of the country first and then fight for freedom'. Today, we are paying the price for ignoring that great man. In a country where majority of people are uneducated or called educated because they can merely write their names... democracy is bound to be a joke. It is bound to go in the hands of people who emerge from the sea of this deprived humanity. We are being ruled by people who can't even speak in their own mother tongue. They are the leaders and these are the voters, the so called VOTE BANK. You and I don't even account for 10% of that bank.Votes are up for grabs. You can buy them off the shelf, easily. Give your vote bank a reason, money, threaten their existence or create a threat in their minds and your job is done. You really think they want our votes? Really? Think again.
What we have to do is make sure we educate or help educate at least one deprived person. It could be anybody... your maid servant's or your driver's son or daughter. Make sure they get education in a decent school not a municipal school and in a language spoken worldwide. English is the language. This one donation you must make towards building the future of this country or else even after 100 years few educated will be voting an uneducated to power. Democracy will be be dead by then.