July 2010
A school student commits suicide as his teacher slaps him in front of the class.
Media raises a hue and cry… Breaking news for 3-4 days…. Astounding and articulate arguments on live TV with all and sundry pitching in with their ‘expert’ comments…. Human rights activists ready to pounce..
A school student again attempts to commit suicide as his teacher reprimanded him for coming late to the class.
Media raises a hue and cry… Breaking news for 3-4 days…. Astounding and articulate arguments on live TV with all and sundry pitching in with their ‘expert’ comments…. Human rights activists ready to pounce.. And the story continues……!!!!!!
PICTURE REWIND
July 1995
A 12-year-old nondescript boy was struggling with the Chakrasana in his Yogasanas class in school…. He was not able to do it properly… He was trying hard but somehow was not able to manage it…. Suddenly, out of the blue moon emerges the PT sir… pulls the boy’s belt up and tries to lift him up in Chakrasana…. The boy, unable to bear the pain, falls down… The Sir slaps him then uses his trademark stick and bashes him on his buttocks…. Fighting tears, the boy tries again but does not succeed…. After the Sir goes away, he shares a joke with a fellow friend about how mean that Sir was…. Both have a hearty laugh and that was the end of that…!!!!!
The 12-year-old boy did not attempt to commit suicide just because his teacher beat him… Neither did his parents bother to inform ‘media’ about it…. Although there was not much choice at that time with only the good old Doordarshan being the only channel broadcasting quality news…. !!!! But nevertheless, the boy never informed such trivial things to his parents at home… He was too preoccupied with other wonderful things in life to complain about it to his parents…. Once when he did, his parents just told him that it was part and parcel of school life and one needs to just get on with it… And that’s exactly what the boy did every time he was beaten up …!!!!!
Just imagine what would have happened if this incident took place in these times… Channels would have had a field day…. Because there would have been a suicide every day in a school like the one mentioned above where students were beaten with a stick on their buttocks…. !!!! Now let me not overemphasize on the beating part in this old school… Yes, children were beaten up but only as a last resort…
I am quite sure that people of my age would have been slapped or beaten in their schools at least once… None of us ever had any qualms about it as we never allowed that slap to affect our heart… The slap on face was never assumed as a slap on our hearts…!!!!
But things are entirely different these days…. Children just don’t listen to kind words… More often than not, they tend to misuse their freedom…. And parents have to take a major share of blame for this… I have seen many a time parents coming to the rescue of their children and fighting with their neighbors although knowing that their child is at fault…!!! This somehow creates a sense of invincibility in the minds of children…. They know that they can do bad things and still get away as their parents would be there to shield them.. !!! This creates some sort of a false sense of invincibility around the child. This makes him/her feel as though no one has a right to scold him or her…!!
In every classroom, there is bound to be a section of students who are extra-sensitive and some who would be totally thick-skinned… And it is these extra-sensitive types who are more often than not overly protected by their parents…. Parents do not allow these children to be tough… They don’t allow them to get out of their shell as they keep on being extra-protective….!!! When such children are out of their comfort zone they tend to feel that the entire world is conspiring against them… They grow suspicious of the good intentions of their teachers as well… !!!
It is up to the parents to ensure that children don’t really get bothered by all the beating that happens in the school… Yes, agreed that even the teachers need to restrain themselves from resorting to such treatment… But then, there are circumstances where it is imperative to use the slap or the stick…!!!
Even the media needs to be slightly restrained when reporting such issues… It should highlight only genuine cases otherwise people are going to misuse their power… A case in point being the innumerable cases of small kids falling in the open bore-wells… It all started with PRINCE and it just went on and on….!!!!!
I am neither a proponent of the philosophy – “Spare the rod and spoil the child” nor am I totally against it.. But only thing that is needed is a bit more tactfulness and restraint because not every kid is like that nondescript kid beaten up for not doing Chakrasana properly…. Needless to say, that nondescript boy is none other than Mr. Manish…!!!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
UNDERDOG UNDERWEAR...!!!!
Well.. Well.. Well… I guess most of you must be curious about the title of this article. People who are reading this article just because of the title are in for big disappointment. That’s because this article is going to stress upon the ‘Underdogs’ rather than the ‘Underwear’.. I had this dubious title just to grab your attention…. All those filthy minds who want to read about underwear can better switch on their television sets. There you can see Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan flaunting their chiseled bodies whilst brandishing Dollar Club, Amul Macho, Macroman, etc etc… Others read on….
India won the cricket World Cup in 1983… When the world cup started, no one in their wildest dreams ever gave a chance to India… But miraculously, India pulled it off… Same was the case with Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup…. And may be, who knows, Netherlands might pull off an upset over a rampaging Spain and be the new World champions in Soccer… I am sure during most of the matches people would have wanted the weaker team to win in their heart of hearts… At least I did… There is a certain sense of romanticism associated with seeing a weaker team pull it off against the stronger team… Everyone wants to see a timid David pull it off against the mighty Goliath….!!!!!
Extrapolating these examples from the sporting field into real life would bring up some interesting observations. What is it with these underdogs that fascinate everyone? What is that extra something which catches the imagination of everyone?? What is it that makes everyone root for the underdog??? Well, the answer is pretty simple. In the heart of hearts, everybody thinks that he/she is an underdog. It can be any field. Some people consider themselves to be underdogs in studies. Some consider it in the sports world. Some consider themselves underdogs as far as financial matters are concerned.. That’s the fact of life.. Some of you may not agree with me forthrightly but I am sure there will be a tiny pulse in the smallest of corners of your heart which would agree with me…!!!! This holds true particularly with us Indians… Most of us are more emotional than practical… Let’s take the example of Bollywood.. Great superstars from Bollywood have something in common… Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan… All the three have one thing common… All the three were underdogs when they entered the industry… And look at where they are right now… Not many would have as much mass appeal as these three great superstars of Bollywood… Even down south, two of the biggest superstars Chiranjeevi and Rajnikanth were underdogs when they entered the industry… Agreed that all these individuals had immense talent but the biggest asset that these five individuals had was the support and goodwill of the masses… If it was not for the fans these superstars would have been anonymous individuals… What made the masses support them? It was the strong desire to see the underdog succeed..!!!
Most of you who are Harry Potter aficionados would appreciate this scene from the second book, The Chamber of Secrets… When Harry Potter goes to meet the Principal of Hogwart’s, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, he sees the mystical phoenix, Fawkes. Before his eyes the phoenix gets burnt and dies… But in a matter of seconds, it rises again from the ashes, ready for a new life…This is exactly how we wish an underdog to be… We always wish someone completely despondent to win against all odds just like the phoenix rose from the ashes…!!!!!
But there is a flip-side to this entire romance for an underdog… What if the Goliath is us? What if it is our team??? Well… honestly in such a scenario all this romance about underdog will go out of the window… I am sure no one will support Bangladesh to win against India in cricket.. That’s the fact of the matter… We would never sympathize with the underdog if we are at the receiving end. We would like to believe in the adage – “Every dog has its day.”. But equally true is the fact that we would never want this dog to have his day against us. So, what we can understand from this whole thing is that this basically depends on the situation. Situation is what dictates terms to us and we become slave to it and change our perceptions accordingly..
Underdog is good as long as we are not the “Overdog”…!!!!!
India won the cricket World Cup in 1983… When the world cup started, no one in their wildest dreams ever gave a chance to India… But miraculously, India pulled it off… Same was the case with Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup…. And may be, who knows, Netherlands might pull off an upset over a rampaging Spain and be the new World champions in Soccer… I am sure during most of the matches people would have wanted the weaker team to win in their heart of hearts… At least I did… There is a certain sense of romanticism associated with seeing a weaker team pull it off against the stronger team… Everyone wants to see a timid David pull it off against the mighty Goliath….!!!!!
Extrapolating these examples from the sporting field into real life would bring up some interesting observations. What is it with these underdogs that fascinate everyone? What is that extra something which catches the imagination of everyone?? What is it that makes everyone root for the underdog??? Well, the answer is pretty simple. In the heart of hearts, everybody thinks that he/she is an underdog. It can be any field. Some people consider themselves to be underdogs in studies. Some consider it in the sports world. Some consider themselves underdogs as far as financial matters are concerned.. That’s the fact of life.. Some of you may not agree with me forthrightly but I am sure there will be a tiny pulse in the smallest of corners of your heart which would agree with me…!!!! This holds true particularly with us Indians… Most of us are more emotional than practical… Let’s take the example of Bollywood.. Great superstars from Bollywood have something in common… Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan… All the three have one thing common… All the three were underdogs when they entered the industry… And look at where they are right now… Not many would have as much mass appeal as these three great superstars of Bollywood… Even down south, two of the biggest superstars Chiranjeevi and Rajnikanth were underdogs when they entered the industry… Agreed that all these individuals had immense talent but the biggest asset that these five individuals had was the support and goodwill of the masses… If it was not for the fans these superstars would have been anonymous individuals… What made the masses support them? It was the strong desire to see the underdog succeed..!!!
Most of you who are Harry Potter aficionados would appreciate this scene from the second book, The Chamber of Secrets… When Harry Potter goes to meet the Principal of Hogwart’s, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, he sees the mystical phoenix, Fawkes. Before his eyes the phoenix gets burnt and dies… But in a matter of seconds, it rises again from the ashes, ready for a new life…This is exactly how we wish an underdog to be… We always wish someone completely despondent to win against all odds just like the phoenix rose from the ashes…!!!!!
But there is a flip-side to this entire romance for an underdog… What if the Goliath is us? What if it is our team??? Well… honestly in such a scenario all this romance about underdog will go out of the window… I am sure no one will support Bangladesh to win against India in cricket.. That’s the fact of the matter… We would never sympathize with the underdog if we are at the receiving end. We would like to believe in the adage – “Every dog has its day.”. But equally true is the fact that we would never want this dog to have his day against us. So, what we can understand from this whole thing is that this basically depends on the situation. Situation is what dictates terms to us and we become slave to it and change our perceptions accordingly..
Underdog is good as long as we are not the “Overdog”…!!!!!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
TRAVAILS OF A TRAVELLER....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
‘Hum jo chalne lage… chalne lage hai ye raaste… ‘ – Humming this wonderful tune from Jab We Met, I embark on my rollicking journey to my office. Off late, I have been feeling more and more like Kareena Kapoor… now now now don’t get it wrong… What I mean is I feel more and more like her character Geet from Jab We Met… The reason being that in the movie she always dreamt of missing her train… And I too have been dreaming the same these days.. Only difference being that I dream of missing my BUS..!!
The most vivid memory of my day after I wake up is that of me dashing towards the overflowing road at Koti which unfortunately happens to be a Bus stop…!!! It is not surprising to find the entire road in front of the bus stop crowded with myriad people having myriad ways of ensuring that they catch their bus. Some people are waiting as though they are waiting for an impending enemy and ready to pounce on it. Some like me wait for it as though waiting for girlfriend in a park… As they say in Urdu – “Badi Nazaakat se hum intezaar karte hai…” But then this Nazaakat generally gets lost in the melee and we tend to be part of the marauding enemy more often than not…!!!!
After a Herculean effort, I board the bus. I think that my war is finished but hang-on. A new war has started now. I need to find a seat for myself. Otherwise I would just be crushed by a pummeling and intimidating crowd. But as fate would have it, I am left gasping for breath as I don’t find myself efficient enough to jump through the window or reserve my seat by throwing a handkerchief from the window…!!! Left with no other option, I stand there balancing myself on one leg and perilously hanging from the support-bar as I sense precociously closer to being trampled by a rampaging crowd…!!
Amidst this entire din, I notice two young boys, probably eight years old, trying to cling on to the bus near the foot-board. It amused me no ends when these guys were shouting chants of Jai Telangana…!!! I am pretty sure that they might not have an iota of idea about what they are shouting about but they seemed to be oblivious of it and just did things their way. This is the beauty of childhood. You do things which you like without any inhibitions… I was rudely awoken from my thoughts by an abnormally over-weight and obnoxious idiot who stepped on my foot. Ouch…!!! The fatso didn’t even bother to apologize and stomped away like an elephant trampling everything that dared come his way….!!!!
As I stand there writhing in pain, I notice a clutter of confused engineering students mugging up the program to print numbers of the Fibonacci series…!!! This brought to life the wonderful memories of my engineering life.. The time of exams… The gadbad to revise everything again… Well, I think I should write about the memories of engineering in some other article as I am pretty sure that one page won’t be sufficient to showcase the showbiz of our gang…!!!!!
Just as I feel happy about the sweet memories, the feel-good factor somehow helps me attain a seat…. And I finally assume my seat… I am almost half-way through my journey to office…. The moment I sit down a guy requests me to hold his bag… As I keep it on my lap, another guy comes out of nowhere and requests me to hold his bag as well… In a matter of a few seconds, I have three bags firmly placed on my lap…. !!!!!!
”Saar… Konchem Madhapur vaste cheppandi” - requests the guy sitting next to me. I oblige. Madhapur… This name is rarely used these days… It is now Hitec-City that is used for any place near to this village… Yes, it used to be a village some time back but not anymore…. I still remember my engineering days not long ago when we went to Durgam Cheruvu (Secret Lake) and there was absolutely no traffic…. Now we need to search for ‘Cheruvu’ in the concrete jungle… It has receded drastically over the years… Encroached by the gluttonous real-estate mafia, it is a sorry sight now….!!!!!
I am suddenly jolted as the driver slams a sudden break and the bus comes to a grinding halt… What the heck.!!!! Well, it seems like some stupid moron who in polite terms is referred to as an ‘Auto-driver’ suddenly swerved right and came in front of the bus… Nothing new for a Hyderabadi… We are used to the whims and fancies of these rulers unto themselves….!!!! A barrage of swearing followed in chaste Hyderabadi language… The bus-driver and auto-driver enquiring about each others’ mothers, sisters, etc, etc…!!!!! Finally, after the intervention of some good Samaritans, Bade babu as they say in Hindi movies, going on the road my driver decided to resume the journey…!!!!!
As the bus catches speed on the undulating roads of Jubilee Hills, I too try to catch a short nap…!!! As I wake up from my sleep, I notice that the bags on my lap no longer exist… Probably, the guys may not have thought it prudent to wake me up from my deep slumber…!!!! I glance outside and notice that we are almost nearing Madhapur… I inform the person sitting beside me that the next stop is Madhapur… He thanks me profusely and rushes towards the exit…!!!
A lot of people scramble to get down the bus at Cyber Towers … The bus is almost empty now… I feel like a king in this near-empty bus… I sit lavishly on my seat albeit for a few minutes…. I prepare to disembark from the bus as my stop Kothaguda approaches…. As I step out of the bus, a smile and a frown both appear on my face thinking about my impending journey back home later...!!!!!! Hum jo chalne lage, chalne lage hai ye raaste....!!!!!
The most vivid memory of my day after I wake up is that of me dashing towards the overflowing road at Koti which unfortunately happens to be a Bus stop…!!! It is not surprising to find the entire road in front of the bus stop crowded with myriad people having myriad ways of ensuring that they catch their bus. Some people are waiting as though they are waiting for an impending enemy and ready to pounce on it. Some like me wait for it as though waiting for girlfriend in a park… As they say in Urdu – “Badi Nazaakat se hum intezaar karte hai…” But then this Nazaakat generally gets lost in the melee and we tend to be part of the marauding enemy more often than not…!!!!
After a Herculean effort, I board the bus. I think that my war is finished but hang-on. A new war has started now. I need to find a seat for myself. Otherwise I would just be crushed by a pummeling and intimidating crowd. But as fate would have it, I am left gasping for breath as I don’t find myself efficient enough to jump through the window or reserve my seat by throwing a handkerchief from the window…!!! Left with no other option, I stand there balancing myself on one leg and perilously hanging from the support-bar as I sense precociously closer to being trampled by a rampaging crowd…!!
Amidst this entire din, I notice two young boys, probably eight years old, trying to cling on to the bus near the foot-board. It amused me no ends when these guys were shouting chants of Jai Telangana…!!! I am pretty sure that they might not have an iota of idea about what they are shouting about but they seemed to be oblivious of it and just did things their way. This is the beauty of childhood. You do things which you like without any inhibitions… I was rudely awoken from my thoughts by an abnormally over-weight and obnoxious idiot who stepped on my foot. Ouch…!!! The fatso didn’t even bother to apologize and stomped away like an elephant trampling everything that dared come his way….!!!!
As I stand there writhing in pain, I notice a clutter of confused engineering students mugging up the program to print numbers of the Fibonacci series…!!! This brought to life the wonderful memories of my engineering life.. The time of exams… The gadbad to revise everything again… Well, I think I should write about the memories of engineering in some other article as I am pretty sure that one page won’t be sufficient to showcase the showbiz of our gang…!!!!!
Just as I feel happy about the sweet memories, the feel-good factor somehow helps me attain a seat…. And I finally assume my seat… I am almost half-way through my journey to office…. The moment I sit down a guy requests me to hold his bag… As I keep it on my lap, another guy comes out of nowhere and requests me to hold his bag as well… In a matter of a few seconds, I have three bags firmly placed on my lap…. !!!!!!
”Saar… Konchem Madhapur vaste cheppandi” - requests the guy sitting next to me. I oblige. Madhapur… This name is rarely used these days… It is now Hitec-City that is used for any place near to this village… Yes, it used to be a village some time back but not anymore…. I still remember my engineering days not long ago when we went to Durgam Cheruvu (Secret Lake) and there was absolutely no traffic…. Now we need to search for ‘Cheruvu’ in the concrete jungle… It has receded drastically over the years… Encroached by the gluttonous real-estate mafia, it is a sorry sight now….!!!!!
I am suddenly jolted as the driver slams a sudden break and the bus comes to a grinding halt… What the heck.!!!! Well, it seems like some stupid moron who in polite terms is referred to as an ‘Auto-driver’ suddenly swerved right and came in front of the bus… Nothing new for a Hyderabadi… We are used to the whims and fancies of these rulers unto themselves….!!!! A barrage of swearing followed in chaste Hyderabadi language… The bus-driver and auto-driver enquiring about each others’ mothers, sisters, etc, etc…!!!!! Finally, after the intervention of some good Samaritans, Bade babu as they say in Hindi movies, going on the road my driver decided to resume the journey…!!!!!
As the bus catches speed on the undulating roads of Jubilee Hills, I too try to catch a short nap…!!! As I wake up from my sleep, I notice that the bags on my lap no longer exist… Probably, the guys may not have thought it prudent to wake me up from my deep slumber…!!!! I glance outside and notice that we are almost nearing Madhapur… I inform the person sitting beside me that the next stop is Madhapur… He thanks me profusely and rushes towards the exit…!!!
A lot of people scramble to get down the bus at Cyber Towers … The bus is almost empty now… I feel like a king in this near-empty bus… I sit lavishly on my seat albeit for a few minutes…. I prepare to disembark from the bus as my stop Kothaguda approaches…. As I step out of the bus, a smile and a frown both appear on my face thinking about my impending journey back home later...!!!!!! Hum jo chalne lage, chalne lage hai ye raaste....!!!!!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Aman ki Asha
Aman ki asha… This caption is everywhere these days…. In the newspapers… On the billboards… On the internet…. In TV advertisements…. At first look I thought that this was a movie’s name wherein the hero is Aman and heroine is Asha….. I thought this to be one of those typical Bollywood love stories and sighed… Oh No…not again…!!!!
A couple of days back, I was watching yet another India-Sri Lanka one-day match…This was the 20th ODI between these two teams in the last 19 months…!!!! Too much of anything can be too boring….. Anyways, let’s not transgress from the main point here….
It was the last ball of 43rd over I guess and the match was on an even keel… It was the last ball of the over and suddenly, thanks to Neo Cricket, there was this advertisement…
An elderly Muslim man, standing on a small pedestal, is playing dumb-charades in the middle of the desert and is cheered on by his friends… There is one more chap with binoculars who tries to decipher the name of the movie gesticulated by the old man …. As he finally decodes the name as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, there is frenetic activity all around…. People shouting around… One of them, asking another to call the radio station…. Then the other man calling up the radio station and making his farmayish
Finally, the good old All India Radio plays a song from the aforementioned movie…. And the entire village ecstatic that their farmayish has been accepted…. !!!!
Even until this point I could not decipher what this advertisement was all about….. Then came the message…. Aman ki asha - An India – Pakistan peace initiative started by the Times of India group of India and the Jang group of Pakistan.
As a proud citizen of India, I am really very happy that something of this kind has been started… Well, this is not the first time that a joint peace initiative has been forged between these two brothers but the sheer magnitude of this exercise is what impresses me this time around…. The biggest news group of India initiating this in association with a leading news group of Pakistan has immense possibility of hope…!!!!
Right from the day I came face to face with the term called ‘Nationalism’, there has been a marked polarity in the way I treated Pakistan… Although no one told me that Pakistan is our enemy but still there was enough going around me which ensured that I hate Pakistan…. This hatred entrenched in me deeply…. Be it a cricket match or a hockey match, I found happiness in Pakistan’s defeat…. I was happier seeing Pakistan lose than India win…. This feeling gradually seeped into me and spread like gangrene all through my body… I am sure my counterpart in Pakistan would have felt exactly the same about India…. !!!!
We in India think that we are always right…. People in Pakistan think that they too are always right…. And this has slowly but steadily put in place rigidity in the stand adopted by both the countries… Yes, politics is to blame partially but then it is pretty easy to blame politics for everything bad that happens…. Before we blame politics for anything, we need to keep in mind that all these politicians were at first common people like us… All the corruption or unaccountability over decisions is somewhere or the other rooted into our system.... So, rather than blaming politics it is better to introspect on whether we are following what we preach…. !!!
I vividly remember an anecdote that I read in my childhood in a children’s magazine called Gokulam.. The story goes like this:
Before independence, there was a small boy who had this habit of eating lots of sugar…His father did not approve of it and wanted his son to shun this habit but somehow his son didn’t leave this… So, he took his son along with him when he went to meet Mahatma Gandhi and told him about his plight… Gandhiji asked the man to come to him after some days…. The man agreed and came back after some days…. Gandhiji went upto the young boy and asked him to stop eating excessive sugar as it was not good for health… The youngster agreed to it and stopped eating sugar excessively from that day onwards…. The boy’s father was surprised that Gandhiji took so much time to tell this small thing to his son…. So, he went to Gandhiji and asked him as to why he took so many days to say this small thing to his son…. At that Gandhiji said that he himself had this habit of eating sugar excessively… So, he had to first control his habit before preaching to the young boy…. !!!!!
This to me is the best example of the saying – “Practice what you preach.”
A start has to be made somewhere… Someone has to take up the initiative… Someone has to walk that extra mile… Only then can long-lasting peace be achieved… India has always accepted artists from Pakistan…. Many of them are thriving in India… They have made big name and money for themselves…. Now, it is time for Pakistan to reciprocate…. I understand that a common man of Pakistan is no different from a common man of India… He is concerned about his Roti, kapda aur makaan rather than the number of nuclear weapons his country possesses… !!!
I think time is now ripe to forget all the bickering of the past and forge an alliance of long-lasting peace and tranquility…. And this initiative Aman ki Asha is a right step in this direction…!!!
A couple of days back, I was watching yet another India-Sri Lanka one-day match…This was the 20th ODI between these two teams in the last 19 months…!!!! Too much of anything can be too boring….. Anyways, let’s not transgress from the main point here….
It was the last ball of 43rd over I guess and the match was on an even keel… It was the last ball of the over and suddenly, thanks to Neo Cricket, there was this advertisement…
An elderly Muslim man, standing on a small pedestal, is playing dumb-charades in the middle of the desert and is cheered on by his friends… There is one more chap with binoculars who tries to decipher the name of the movie gesticulated by the old man …. As he finally decodes the name as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, there is frenetic activity all around…. People shouting around… One of them, asking another to call the radio station…. Then the other man calling up the radio station and making his farmayish
Finally, the good old All India Radio plays a song from the aforementioned movie…. And the entire village ecstatic that their farmayish has been accepted…. !!!!
Even until this point I could not decipher what this advertisement was all about….. Then came the message…. Aman ki asha - An India – Pakistan peace initiative started by the Times of India group of India and the Jang group of Pakistan.
As a proud citizen of India, I am really very happy that something of this kind has been started… Well, this is not the first time that a joint peace initiative has been forged between these two brothers but the sheer magnitude of this exercise is what impresses me this time around…. The biggest news group of India initiating this in association with a leading news group of Pakistan has immense possibility of hope…!!!!
Right from the day I came face to face with the term called ‘Nationalism’, there has been a marked polarity in the way I treated Pakistan… Although no one told me that Pakistan is our enemy but still there was enough going around me which ensured that I hate Pakistan…. This hatred entrenched in me deeply…. Be it a cricket match or a hockey match, I found happiness in Pakistan’s defeat…. I was happier seeing Pakistan lose than India win…. This feeling gradually seeped into me and spread like gangrene all through my body… I am sure my counterpart in Pakistan would have felt exactly the same about India…. !!!!
We in India think that we are always right…. People in Pakistan think that they too are always right…. And this has slowly but steadily put in place rigidity in the stand adopted by both the countries… Yes, politics is to blame partially but then it is pretty easy to blame politics for everything bad that happens…. Before we blame politics for anything, we need to keep in mind that all these politicians were at first common people like us… All the corruption or unaccountability over decisions is somewhere or the other rooted into our system.... So, rather than blaming politics it is better to introspect on whether we are following what we preach…. !!!
I vividly remember an anecdote that I read in my childhood in a children’s magazine called Gokulam.. The story goes like this:
Before independence, there was a small boy who had this habit of eating lots of sugar…His father did not approve of it and wanted his son to shun this habit but somehow his son didn’t leave this… So, he took his son along with him when he went to meet Mahatma Gandhi and told him about his plight… Gandhiji asked the man to come to him after some days…. The man agreed and came back after some days…. Gandhiji went upto the young boy and asked him to stop eating excessive sugar as it was not good for health… The youngster agreed to it and stopped eating sugar excessively from that day onwards…. The boy’s father was surprised that Gandhiji took so much time to tell this small thing to his son…. So, he went to Gandhiji and asked him as to why he took so many days to say this small thing to his son…. At that Gandhiji said that he himself had this habit of eating sugar excessively… So, he had to first control his habit before preaching to the young boy…. !!!!!
This to me is the best example of the saying – “Practice what you preach.”
A start has to be made somewhere… Someone has to take up the initiative… Someone has to walk that extra mile… Only then can long-lasting peace be achieved… India has always accepted artists from Pakistan…. Many of them are thriving in India… They have made big name and money for themselves…. Now, it is time for Pakistan to reciprocate…. I understand that a common man of Pakistan is no different from a common man of India… He is concerned about his Roti, kapda aur makaan rather than the number of nuclear weapons his country possesses… !!!
I think time is now ripe to forget all the bickering of the past and forge an alliance of long-lasting peace and tranquility…. And this initiative Aman ki Asha is a right step in this direction…!!!
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