Can't Let This Memory Fade...

MH 505

While driving today, I noticed I was following a MH registered swift and I thought to myself, does the person driving feel awkward or embarrassed about it.

Would he feel uncomfortable or even unsafe driving with that number in a more northern state - say around Delhi? Isn't it ridiculous that these thoughts actually came into my head...Delhi is as much theirs as any other inch of India, then why isn't Mumbai mine or for a guy from Patna?

This growing regional jingoism has really begun to irritate me.

Election results

Long time no post...so a quick one here.

Election results will be out soon. Hope who ever comes in to power will help quicken our pace towards economic and social development. I suppose UPA is likely to return...time will tell.

I just get a feeling that Congress and BJP will increase their seats...which will be good as we need the national parties to be more powerful.

26/11

Oh my god...

UN Millennium Development Goals

...Why arent more people talking about these?? Especially in countries like ours...all governments whether at the centre or the states should be measured against these...

In September 2000, at the Millenium Summit of the UN, 189 leaders of their respective countries came together and adopted a set of 8 goals to make Earth a more welcoming place for the future generations...Of the 8 goals, 7 are time bound and measurable and the 8th is an ideal goal for our society.

The goals are -

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. The targets under this are -
• Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one U.S. dollar a day.
• Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.


2. Achieve universal primary education. The targets under this are -
• Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.
• Increased enrollment must be accompanied by efforts to ensure that all children remain in school and receive a high-quality education.


3. Promote gender equality and empower women. The target under this is -
• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.


4. Reduce child mortality. The target under this is -
• Reduce the mortality rate among children under five by two thirds.


5. Improve maternal health. The target under this is -
• Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio.


6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. The targets under this are -
• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV AIDS.
• Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.


7. Ensure environmental sustainability. The targets under this are -
• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources.
• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
• Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.


8. Develop a global partnership for development. The targets under this are -
• Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally and internationally.
• Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff-and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.
• Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States.
• Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term.
• In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth.
• In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.
• In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies - especially information and communications technologies.
  
  

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??

Vande Mataram - II

I had ended the last post by concluding that the National Anthem and the National Song were supposed to treated with equal respect. In fact to most people at the time of independence, Vande Mataram was a greater tribute to the nation. Then why the controversy around it?

For that let’s trace the song’s history –
The song is written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in what has been described as a highly Sanskritized form of the Bengali language. The song first appeared in his book Anandamatha, published in 1882; it was actually written six years earlier in 1876.
The song has five stanzas.

Vande maataram
sujalaam suphalaam malayaja shiitalaam
Sasyashyaamalaam maataram ||

Shubhrajyotsnaa pulakitayaaminiim
pullakusumita drumadala shobhiniim
suhaasiniim sumadhura bhaashhiniim
sukhadaam varadaam maataram ||

Koti koti kantha kalakalaninaada karaale
koti koti bhujai.rdhR^itakharakaravaale
abalaa keno maa eto bale
bahubaladhaariniim namaami taariniim
ripudalavaariniim maataram ||

Tumi vidyaa tumi dharma
tumi hR^idi tumi marma
tvam hi praanaaH shariire

Baahute tumi maa shakti
hR^idaye tumi maa bhakti
tomaara i pratimaa gaDi
mandire mandire ||

Tvam hi durgaa dashapraharanadhaarinii
kamalaa kamaladala vihaarinii
vaanii vidyaadaayinii namaami tvaam

namaami kamalaam amalaam atulaam
Sujalaam suphalaam maataram ||

Shyaamalaam saralaam susmitaam bhuushhitaam
Dharaniim bharaniim maataram |

.....and the translation by Shree Aurobindo -

Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.

Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.

Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When the sword flesh out in the seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Though who savest, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foeman drove
Back from plain and Sea And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nervs the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine In our temples is but thine

Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,
Dark of hue O candid-fair

In thy soul, with jewelled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Lovilest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!

It is obvious from the translation that the later stanzas of the song depicts the motherland as a goddess...a notion that the followers of a number of religions are uncomfortable with. Also a cause of concern was the novel itself...Anandmath - in which the chief protaganist, Bhavananda, plans an armed rising against the Muslims of Bengal.

These are the reasons often cited as to why concerns were raised by the Muslim community even before independence against Vande Mataram.

In 1937 the Congress under the presidentship of Nehru, took cognizance of the concerns raise and made a statement seeking separation of the song from the novel. Noting its usage over the years the statement said -

"Thethe use of the first two stanzas of the song spread to other provinces and a certain national significance began to attach to them. The rest of the song was very seldom used, and is even now known by few persons. These two stanzas described in tender language the beauty of (the) motherland and the abundance of her gifts. There was absolutely nothing in them to which objection could be from the religious or any other point of view..."

"...The Committee recognizes the validity of the objection raised by Muslim friends to certain parts of the song. While the Committee have taken note of such objection insofar as it has intrinsic value, the Committee wish to point out that the modern evolution of the use of the song as part of National life is of infinitely greater importance than its setting in a historical novel before the national movement had taken shape."

Of course a statement like this makes no difference in India. Most people in the past and even now continue to get swayed by the religious authorities. But the point is that even then it was recognized that the first two stanzas do not carry any religious connotations and are actually a beautiful depiction of the nation.

The Supreme Court has ruled that singing of the national anthem is not necessary as long as no disrespect is shown towards it. What is valid for the national anthem is obviously valid for the national song, so clearly no one can force anyone to sing it but Vande Mataram has been proclaimed as our national song and therefore no community can disown it. There in lies the current problem. Ignorance has fostered fear among the Muslim community that they are being forced to sing it because the song is Hindu in nature. Fatwas have been repeatedly issued asking muslim parents not to allow their children to sing the song, democracy has been cited to state that the individual has the right to choose whether to sing the song or not...(in that case maybe we should have the right to follow/not follow any law in this country...this we do anyways :)) parties like BJP have repeatedly tried to get mileage out of the issue and have projected the choice of not singing as anti national.

Obviously both attitudes are wrong...what is required is for each and everyone to understand the meaning of the song and I doubt if there will be any confusion after that. So lets go and get to know our national song better!!