60 yrs and counting...part II

Well I thought I will break the post...

I saw "Gandhi my Father" last night...but this is not about the movie - though in a line the movie is good. What this post is about the few grainy scenes near the end of our PM making that historic speech. The speech that a lot of people know about without having ever bothered to read it - Jawahar lal Nehru's speech made in the Constituent Assembly, on the eve of India's Independence.

I once asked a few friends about the speech. Three of them gave me this WTF kind of look...asking me what is wrong with me...:), two others said it is the greatest piece of oratory everrrrr...and when I asked them if they have read the speech they said they hadn't. Some others were at least aware that the lines they hear the most often are all part of just the first paragraph. Its a long speech so I wont copy it here, those who want to read can do so here - Tryst with destiny .

When you read it, it makes you realize the job our first PM left us. The dream he outlined for the country that he and millions others together envisioned. I thought I wouldn't put it here but I can never put it better than this...

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially... It is fitting that at this solemn moment, we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity."
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"The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?"
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"And so we have to labour and to work, and to work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart"
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"The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour?... to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman."

"We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be...And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service."

I think it is not difficult to judge how far we have come and how far we need to go. Is it??

JAI HIND.

60 yrs and counting...

India as we know it will turn 60 soon...pretty young considering so many people who were there when we gained independence are still around. What an occasion that must have been - especially for those who were closely associated with the movement. But it was a time of mourning as well for most of the people in Punjab and Bengal - people who were caught up in the sectarian violence; people who were uprooted from the place they called home. It seems our country has been perennially caught in the middle...happiness accompanied with sorrow.

I am today reminded of the book "Freedom at Midnight" - filled with little stories of ordinary people amidst the main plot of India's independence. The story I remember the most is that of two brothers - Yakoub Khan and Younis - both part of the then undivided Indian army. Yakoub, the elder one decided like so many other Muslims that his future was in Pakistan. He broke the news to his family. The mother was left shocked. She couldn't imagine moving away from a place where they had lived for at least 200 years. The younger brother too had decided what he wanted - he was going to stay. The arguments were futile though, Yakoub had made up his mind - he was sure that once all the things had settled, it would be easy to move between his two homes...he left the next morning, with his family and his two Hindu servants biding goodbye to him. He promised to visit soon - but that's not what was in store.
A few months later, Yakoub Khan was leading a battalion of the Pakistan Army on a slope in snow bound Kashmir, going on an offensive against a position held by men, who a few months earlier had been his mates. One of these men was a Muslim, unaware that his elder brother was the one he was trying to thwart. The battle that ensued was fierce and then they met - one mortally wounded. Younis rushed to his elder brother and broke down. Yakoub consoled him, saying that they both did what they should have and asked Younis to tell their mom not to think bad of him...

Was it worth it??

Sometimes

The simplest way to say I am around...but I noticed these for the first time today...

"Sometimes I know, sometimes I rise
Sometimes I fall, sometimes I don't
Sometimes I cringe, sometimes I live
Sometimes I walk, sometimes I kneel
Sometimes I speak of nothing at all
Sometimes I reach to myself, dear god"

Sometimes by Pearl Jam from the album No Code (but I am not writing any these days...sorry bad joke)

...am feeling bluesy today...Clapton anyone??

"If you got bad news, you wanna kick them blues; cocaine.
When your day is done and you wanna run; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine."

Cocaine is a powerful psycho-stimulant. It induces a sense of exhilaration in the user primarily by blocking the re-uptake of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the mid-brain.

Dopamine is commonly associated with the pleasure system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person pro actively to perform certain activities.

I knew it was a pointless post...but I still need more dopamine!