My tryst with patriotism started 15 years ago on a chilly December morning in 1991. West Indies were chasing a modest target of 126 set by India in the World Series Cup in Australia. Miraculously, India managed to tie that match. This, really, was the day when I was introduced to professional cricket and one more term known as “Patriotism”. This was, consciously, the first time that I came head-to-head with the term “My country”. It was a time of my life when I didn’t know much about our national leaders. I was one among those innumerable people in my age group who thought Mahatma Gandhi was the father of Indira Gandhi. J
It was precisely this time that I left Raina’s Kindergarten school and joined Om Vidyalaya High School. I was a regular in the weekly elocution/debate competitions in the new school. I am sure my school friends remember that. Impressed by my ability to speak on stage, the headmistress of my school asked me if I would be interested to enact the role of a national leader on Independence Day. I was more than happy to take that up. When she asked who my favorite leader was, I said it was Jawaharlal Nehru, unhesitatingly. Nehru and Subhashchandra Bose were my favorites then. I liked Nehru because he sported a ROSE on his Kurta and I liked Bose because he wore Police dress. (Later on I came to know that in fact he wore military dress J )
My Maternal Grandfather was a freedom fighter during the days of the Raj. He was and is a staunch supporter of Mahatma Gandhi and Gandhian principles. As a kid, I always used to irritate him with my illogical logic. ( All my friends know about the type of logic I have J ). Just to irritate him, I used to indulge in Gandhi-bashing. This would spur him up and we would continue arguing. Giving me company would be my cousin. In fact, it was my cousin who embedded some theory in my mind regarding Gandhi’s assassination. He said that Gandhi had some family feuds with Godse and Godse assassinated him in retaliation. I believed this theory for so many years. It was so foolish of me.
Then came a period when there was a lot of frenzy about Bhagat Singh. A lot of movies were made based on his life which increased my confusion to newer levels. Most of the movies showed that if Gandhi had willed then Bhagat Singh’s execution could have been averted. This really made my Anti-Gandhi feelings reach its pinnacle. But somewhere inside me there was something which used to say that my prejudice regarding Gandhi is uncalled for. But to be on the safer side and to be in synchronization with the feelings of my friends I too resigned to the fact that after all my feelings towards Gandhi are justified.
All this changed on the fateful evening of 21st September 2006. I went to watch the movie ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ with my project mates just to watch the histrionics of Munna and Circuit. But fate had something else in store. I was touched to the innermost core of my heart by the portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi and his principles in that movie. The principles are pretty simple but very difficult to follow. Take for example the terse principle : Speak truth. I have been trying to follow this for the past few days and I tell you this is very very difficult to implement, at least for me. I am not saying that I have become a complete Gandhi vaadi but still I am trying with some simple things initially. This movie has flustered many of the misconceptions that I had regarding Gandhiji. Now I think my mind is more stable than it was some time ago. I also like Bhagat Singh a lot for his great deeds towards our country. I think both these leaders are inherently of different mindsets but a great vision. Both had a vision to see a glorious India. It is upto us the youth to take it forward. We need to inculcate the patience of Gandhiji. We need to imbibe the courage of Bhagat Singhji …. The resoluteness of Gandhiji…. The fearlessness of Bhagat Singhji….. The patriotism of these two great souls which India is fortunate to have been blessed with.
I know some of you might not be in agreement with whatever I have said but please do understand that every person has good as well as not so good qualities and so did Gandhiji. One of the greatest qualities of Gandhiji was that he had a lot of charm and charisma. It is pretty difficult to get the entire country follow you without some good qualities and indeed Gandhiji had those. I would like to quote Abraham Lincoln’s famous saying here – “One can fool some of the people all the time. One can fool all the people some of the time. But one cannot fool all the people all of the time.” One of the qualities I learnt from the movie is to SPEAK OUT YOUR MIND and this is what I am doing through this blog.
