Gandhigiri

“War seems to be part of the history of humanity. As we look at the situation of our planet in the past, countries, regions and even villages were economically independent of one another. Under those circumstances, the destruction of our enemy might have been a victory for us. There was a a relevance to violence and war. However, today we are so interdependent that the concept of war has become out dated. When we face problems or disagreements today, we have to arrive at solutions through dialogue. Dialogue is the only appropriate method. One-sided victory is no longer relevant. We must work to resolve conflicts in a spirit of reconciliation and always keep in mind the interests of others. We cannot destroy our neighbors! We cannot ignore their interests! Doing so would ultimately cause us to suffer. I therefore think that the concept of violence is now unsuitable. Nonviolence is the appropriate method.”

— Dalai Lama

Recently “Lage Raho Munnabhai” won the National Award for Best Popular Movie for the year. If you think about it, the movie belonged to a different genre all together. The movie brought back something from the past that we had forgotten about. It repackaged it and named it “Gandhigiri”.

The movie theme was based on Gandhigiri. The way they highlighted the use of Gandhi’s ideals was commendable. A lot of credit for this goes to the writers Raju Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra & Dr. Abhijat Joshi who happened to come up with such a good movie with a social message.

We all seem to have forgotten the “Mahatma” the Father of our Nation who seem non-existent in our today’s life. Except that we see his face on the hundred rupee note, his statues in parks and portraits in government’ offices under which officials take bribes.

His teachings of non-violence seems to have lost in history, as we stood ground to more than 50 years of independence of a country he fought for and died. The country now is in turmoil of corruption and violence. The movie happened to have brought back the Gandhi to life as people started to read more about his teachings and resorting to Gandhigiri.

The movie has its moments where a pensioner has to strip himself to get the government official to approve the grant of his pension fund as he does not have enough money to give bribe to him. Then there was this scene where a boy happened to lost all his father’s money and was contemplating suicide. Telling the truth to his father takes a lot of courage.

After the movie was released, there was news of people taking up Gandhigiri all around the country. There was news that flowers were being sent to the HRD minister Arjun Singh who seemed to be hell-bend on increasing the reservation quotas in IIT, IIMs where merit should be given a priority. Around 2000 debt-stricken farmers in India’s cotton growing Vidarbha region resorted to protest with flowers pursuing a bank to disperse loans.

Gandhigiri seems to be a hit with the youngsters who seemed intrigued with his teachings and simple living. You will find that there over 840 communities created on the Orkut site for Gandhigiri. If that is not enough, one can also do a search on google to find websites formed to spread the Gandhigiri and the teachings of the Bapu.

It is really fascinating to see how a movie can have its effect on the people. Let’s hope that this helps in eradicating the corruption and violence which has become rampant in the Mahatma’s nation. For now,

“GANDHIGIRI ROCKS”

Feeling Trapped

"I have always liked it, it is still my favorite book.
I do not like my writing,

but I like this book...

I wish I like my own writing more, but like all of us,
I am trapped inside my own skin"

— William Goldman

There are times when you have a lot to say but you cannot express it. You want to do things in a certain way, but you end up doing things differently something you don't enjoy. The way you think from inside is different from the way you act outside. You do everything and still no one takes notice of it except when you make mistakes. You have lot of anger vent up inside and don't know how to deal with it. Things don't work your way even when you end up doing the right things.

You are made to wonder what you did wrong when everything you did was right. You make things happen for others to have good memories for the rest of their lives, but no one does the same for you. You have been good to people, but when its their turn to help you out, they are quick to turn their back on you. No body wants to recognize you, making you feel like a loner. Though they want your help when in a catch-22 situation.

Still you take everything in your stride. You want to enjoy the gifts of life. You feel, you are surrounded by wrong people and want to change them. Even if you try, you can not do much about it. as they end up being the only source of a "company" to go out with (if you don't want to go alone).

Life takes it's toll and you begin to think where all this is leading up to. Will I be able to live my life the way I want to? Fulfill my dreams and goals?

There are no answers here, its for each one of us to find it out.

The Art of Writing

It is hard to imagine that I am doing good in my art of writing (even if I don't, I would like to think so). Never in my imagination did I thought I could write stuff. The adventure has been a good one and a learning experience too.

I started writing short stories in my school time just to pass time. Don't really know what prompt me to. They were horror stories where I made use of my imaginary world. Being a hyperactive kid, sitting and doing nothing would get me worked up. So I was always on to something. I never really shared the stories with anyone with the fear of being ridiculed.

Then there was a time when I had stopped writing. I resumed writing again in my T.Y. in the form of journal writing. My cousin had this habit of journal writing. We (I and my other cousins) enjoyed reading them and came to know a lot of secret stuff during our play days. One can find my journal lying around the house. No is able to read it as I have a real bad handwriting, so no one is able to make out whats written. Who said having bad handwriting does not have it benefits. In the beginning I used to get tried writing every day all the events that took place, what I did and thought and other stuff. I found my energy level getting drained by the act, don't know why. So I would end up discontinuing and restarting it again. It was again during my work stint that I started writing again and have maintain a good track record till now. It is a good way of putting your thoughts into words, I really enjoy it now. In fact I even ended up writing a half-completed story something that I thought could be canned into a T.V. Soap. The one thing that I have not told was about my interest in getting in the field of media. Some how things did not worked out and I ended up in other field but the interest is still there. There is more to this. I even ended up writing poems. It started with writing a birthday message for my sis which I got framed for her. The kind of feedback that I got was great. Made me feel good. There are people who write better poems than me. There is this colleague of mine who can write wonderful poems. She has the talent. I just wish that I could let her know that by publishing her poems.

Recently I have started writing maintaining a blog which I hope you might have read. I was not that active on this when I started as time acted as a big constraint. Nowadays I take my time out to write it. The journey of writing has been enjoyable and a pleasurable one. Its a good way of running away from the reality and being in your own imaginative world where you make things happen. Hope the adventure of writing has been great fun to you as it has been to me.