aday’s blog

Hi,

Ladakh is high on my texts. where I stand largely affects my choice of words.

what is it that we want
to be, where on the map of history, we wish to stand, who we wish to be.

history talks, how we interprete it is a choice that we make.

cont.

Hi,

To the Moderates

…I ask you to accept my evidence that the country as a whole is sick of the drink curse. Those unfortunate men who have become slaves to the habit require to be helped against themselves. Some of them even ask to be helped. I invite you to take advantage of the wave of feeling that has been roused against the drink traffic. The agitation arose spontaneously. Believe me, the deprivation to the government of the drink revenue is of the least importance in the campaign. The country is simply impatient of the evil itself. In no country in the world will it be possible to carry on this traffic in the face of the united and the enlightened opposition of a people, such as is now to be witnessed in India. Whatever the errors or excesses that were committed by the mob in Nagpur, the cause was just. The people were determined to do away with the drink curse that was sapping their vitality. You will not be deceived by the specious argument that India must not be made sober by compulsion and that those who wish to drink must have facilities provided to them. The state does not cater for the vices if its people. We do no regulate or license houses of ill fame. We do not provide facilities for thieves to indulge their propensity for thieving and perhaps even prostitution. Is it not often the parent of both? I ask you to join the country in sweeping out existence of drink revenue and abolishing the liquor-shops. Many liquor-sellers would gladly close their shops, if the money paid by them were refunded.

 What about the education of the children? May be the question asked. I venture to suggest to you that it is a matter of deep humiliation for the country to find its children educated from drink revenue. We shall deserve the curse of posterity if we so not wisely decide to stop the drink evil, even thought we may have to sacrifice the education of our children. But we need not. I know many of you have laughed at the idea of making education self-supporting by introduction of spinning in our schools and colleges. I assure you that it solves the problem of education as nothing else can. The country cannot bear fresh taxation. Even the existing taxation is unbearable. Not only must we do away with the opium and the drink revenue, but the other revenue has also to be very considerably reduced if the ever-growing poverty of the masses is to be combated in the near future.

 And that brings me to the existing system of government. The country is the poorer for the reforms. The annual expenditure has grown. A deeper study of the system has convinced me that no tinkering with will do, A compete revolution is greatest need of the time. The word revolution displeases you. What I plead for, however is not bloody revolution, bu a revolution in the thought-world, such as would compel a radical revision of the standard of life in the higher service of the country. I must frankly confess to you that the ever-increasing rate of salaries paid to the higher branches of the Civil Service fairly frightens me, as I hope it would frighten you. Is there any correspondence between the life of the governors and of the governed millions who are groaning under their heels? The bruised bodies of the latter are a standing testimony to the truth of my statement. You now belong to the governing class. Let is not be said that your heels are no softer than your predecessors or your associates. Must you also rule from Shimla? Must you also follow the policy that, only a year ago, you criticized severely? …..I would gladly think that , as I really believe, that you are not responsible for the atrocities that are at present being perpetrated in the name of peace and justice. But you will not let the public or me to day that you are helpless, where you are not hood winked. That, however, would being me to a discussion of our ideals, which I must not enter upon at this moment. If the country can only get your assistance in stopping the drink traffic, you will certainly add to the many services that you have rendered in the past, and, may be, that one step will open your eyes to many other possibilities. (Young India, 8/6/1921)

….It is criminal to spend the income from the sale of intoxicants on the education of the nation’s children or other public services. The government must overcome the temptation of using such revenue for nation-building purposes. Experience has shown that the moral and physical gain of the abstainer more than makes up for the loss of this tainted revenue. If we eradicate the evil, we will easily find other ways and means of increasing the nation’s income. (Mahatma Gandhi. Harijan. 21 September 1947)”

Children dressed as martyr,
not lesser but younger than the one
playing football across the sphere.

children dressed as martyr.

loaded, not with sacks of grain,
or with books of law,
or with harvests of apples and all,
loaded but with weapons, with pain.

why? children dressed as martyr.

People far away, preach,
a new world, filled with dollars, rupees,
luxuries, love, opportunity
and promise not what more?

what do them have to say,
about,
children dressed as martyr.

So burdened their corpse,
carrying load, 
that is what they are told,
carrying load for generations ahead.
forced- to die but not live,
for a purpose
greater then their need.

why? children dressed as martyr.

has anyone tried, telling them for once?
the world in whole is crashing down,
the so-highly placed rich clowns,
all are falling down.

has anyone tried, telling them for once!

them, the children dressed as martyr.
when and where has blood brought,
returned life’s green?
when and where has red taught,
helped in shaping dreams?

children dressed for prayers,
that is what I ask for.
children dressed as martyr.
is not His doing.

……with love

“it is not certainity in our decisions that makes us the envied beings that we are; but it is, and only it -the uncertainty- that creates history.”

Once you have seen a lot of blood, lived through a lot of screams, screams that are innocent- it is hard to calm down. nobody’s fault.

i remember a story, and only a story it is. ‘it was a time of drought; fields were dry and so were the windows of the faithful, for them had either left in search of bread, else had been swallowed by hunger.

it was in these desperate times that a bird, tiny and brown, hungry as all (or may be more that day) found a grainery, empty till each corner yet filled with grains, when searched in the cracks.

was the bird not happy. yes, he was. but more then happy he was hungry. so he laboured hard and found her feed for the day and for the day’s to come.

it was only after he had devoured a few, that he realized -each grain made her weaker & feel stranger; but hungry she was, so she ate her full. alas, the blessing, for soon he was out of breath and went sick.
soon, as the time passed, he regained consciousness, and was horrified. what hath he found was poisonous.

so, it left to not to return, but alas! eventually it did return; hunger has it’s pain. from then on it came back regularly, searched & ate the poisoned seeds, shuddered with pain and possible death. thus stayed alive, it grew weaker each day. each day more of a skeleton.

high above, winds changed and thus also changed the fortunes.
the lands were again provided with. moist winds whispered to him of fields and fresh grains.

it heard the winds, felt it’s drying feathers and felt her weak skeleton. did it feel at peace?- i know not; but alas! it looked back at his cursed little treasure; collected at great cost.

i wished if i could lift him over my invisible wings and take her away from the dungeon of death but it was not to be.
—

it is hard to believe that the dark has fallen. it is harder to get up when you are weak in body and bruised in spirit. but it is not impossible, and it is, now, necessary to get up. else the crumbling darkness will swallow you in forbidden ways.

for the generations, the souls and people who now flower and plough the fields of the valley, i would again say- what you see around and feel horrified about is nothing more then a stain if we were to compare it with the floods of red that drenched the state. blood-floods that spared none.

i say now, what i say now is not to some, but to all - the protectors, the protected, the hunters, the hunted, the governors & the governed.

The war has long been won, the war is over now. Today, what we need to -is to -fight for peace. And the rules of winning peace are not the same as rules of a bloody battle.

To the executive and to the lawmakers and the keepers i wish to ask, else plead, if i must -
‘we have won the war and now you have to lead us out of it’ [quote- General Grant, US civil war]

so what is freedom?
we, the, so called, educated people, need to learn the basics again.

so what is freedom?
you can not hold anyone, even if the person is your own daughter or son, with force. let you be the most correct person, let you be the only correct person, still you cannot hold your family in peace with force.

freedom, it is a bird with wings; wings that grow stronger every moment.

i am not that old to say this but i must quote the elders here ‘once your son has grown enough to equal your height, you can no longer treat him a boy, he is a man, treat him a equal, treat him as a friend, and you will have a son forever’.

you can’t protect a house by restricting the residents, even if you are true in your intensions till the lord’s name. allow the bird to breathe and thus it shall sing.

a lot can be said, but more needs to be done.

apurva

a few farms rested here around,
and i am talking a decade behind.
you’d come this far;
to be away,
to escape
or to find.

a few farms rested ’round here,
today, all i see
is pillars,
pillars plotting the land,
boards warning with
a constructars name.

there still are
a few trees left behind,
barren with leaves,
mangoes out of their might.

a few homes too are left,
farmers with their dress,
labours with their hand,
richly-poor all around,
a bike, a satellite dish,
drinking water half a mile miss.

a few farms rested ’round here,
so close, yet far
from the social mess
now there are
houses, large and bright,
cars, buses, malls,
easy at hand.

you can buy all, find all
but not smiles, peace or solace.
for that you have to travel, ’bout 5 miles ahead.

yesterday, i heard a woman say,
’setting tables, on longer cheap, around’,
i could not help but remind,
there were a few farms
’round,
and i am talking a decade back.

apurva

hi,

today is 15th. six years old that is what this blog is. by grace of coincidence, today is also a friday. a holy day in itself.

when i had begun, this blog was, not that i don’t do the same today, but i was a person filled with anger, a soul yearning for a different world, not ready to accept the world, wishing it to be replaced with a better one.

do i not wish the same today?
i don’t know, earlier i was certain, this world, this country will never change. but i was wrong. how i don’t know but the world is different around me.

it does not mean that everybody around me have changed, or that world has become ‘all roses’ for me. it certainly does not mean, i haven’t taken any loses. i have, i guess, lost everything that i had known or had dreamt of.

but yet i feel more at peace with myself. less in anger with the world. like, for an instance, yesterday itself, i lost the only window, i had of reclaiming the only part of myself left around. but i lost it.

reasons, you see, trying to figure out who or what is responsible, help not much. they do provide a window for venting anger but they do nothing more then that.

venting anger by hurting somebody else is like calling saying that the other person is responsible for the misery you are in. venting anger. doing harm to the other, calling them responsible for your problem, is like saying- ‘i don’t own my life, you do & you have messed it up.’ That is so wrong.

i don’t say that the other may not have caused it but the moment you put the blame. you have given him the upper hand, and missed an opportunity.

the later is a shame. for you have just lost a chance given to you by nature. and the former has given another scar on your skin. that too is a matter of shame.

i guess, this is what i have learned during this time, nature never wishes to hurt you. whether your go ahead or step back, there is a new chance. what i have learned is that the one you are holding responsible for
your misery, himself is powerless (the way you feel). the innocence of them, i used to call devilish, has amazed me a lot. even the ruthlessness of a killer, amazes me, how powerless they are against the forces of time.

i know, i am talking about acceptance of situation, as it is. but that in no way means, i am talking of giving up.

it is important to first find out your real purpose of your life; important to not to react but to act. do the right thing. know your real shoes.
“the moment you put responsibility on others shoulder you have lost it yourself”

“you have just given power to somebody else to make you feel hurt.” that is so so wrong.

i wish you all best of the day. have a peace filled friday.

Cheers and smiles,
apurva

It is hard to take sides, but it is harder to not to take sides.