Long Live Mahatma

1st week of December, 2009: An avid Economic Times reader sees the last page of the news paper. Finds the statement of a man saying he doesn’t need publicity in India. His name: Ben Kingsley. This reader gets curious about such a proclamation by a person whom he has never heard about. Reading the first few lines of that article tells that in 1982, Ben played the character of Mahatma Gandhi in “Gandhi”, the film which won 8 Oscars. The reader, well equipped with modern technology, decides to download a free copy of this movie and find out what was so special about it that it received 8 Oscars. It takes a few days to download the movie, but finally it is there in the laptop of this reader.

12th December 2009: This reader, after finishing his daily chores and not in a mood to study, decides to kill the time by watching some movie. He searches his E drive and finds this moving lying there. With no other option, he plays the movie at 8:00 pm. Mind you, the reader is still connected to the internet, with another Indian epic, Sholay, being downloaded, and that too, a free copy. So, this reader now becomes the viewer.

8:00 pm – Titles roll.

8:01 pm - Nathuram Godse enters and the history is written.

8:05 pm – Movie Continues. The viewer doesn’t know what actually happened in South Africa that made Gandhiji so famous. He used to think it was some easy battle which he won and won the accolades of millions back home. Well, exactly at around 8:40, the myth gets busted. The viewer is amazed to see what actually happened there. The courage and determination of Gandhiji changed the lives of 100s of 1000s colored people in RSA.

8:40 pm – Gandhiji reaches India. He receives a warm welcome form his countrymen. Post that, Gandhiji goes on to discover the real India. Finishes this in some time and delivers his 1st speech in his homeland. “I could see the British shaking now” says one of the persons who interact with Gandhiji.

9:00 pm – The viewer takes a kit-kat break (he actually eates a kit-kat), which gets extended to dinner break and then, he thinks of checking his mails, catching up with a few friends online, viewing an amazing profile pic of one of the friends on facebook, talkin to his best friend, den his mom and then his sis… n yeah, also checking the status of Sholay. Finally, he decides to finish the movie that very night.

13th December 2009: 12:20 am – The best movie of his life, as the viewer describes it later, resumes. Gandhiji is invited to Champaran to solve the problems of the farmers. Again, Bapu shows conviction, defies the ruling of the court, and eventually, pulls the farmers out of troubled waters. During his Champaran visit, he gets the name – Bapu. Bapu’s back from Champaran in 10 mins. The viewer pauses the movie, opens Wikipedia and reads a bit about Champaran.

12:30 am – To protest against a new British law, Bapu proposes a day of fast and prayer, i.e. a strike (see how subtly he put that). Here’s when Nehru calls him Mahatma for the first time. The sequences take an ugly turn, which leads to the worst ever massacre in the history of India. After this, Gandhiji calls for Non cooperation movement all across the nation. Violence breaks out in various parts of the country. Gandhiji goes on his first of the two fasts-unto-death. And amazingly, it gives positive results. Violence ends and peace reinstates. After this, Gandhiji is sent to jail for half a dozen of years. In between this whole episode, there is an intermission. No, this viewer doesn’t get up, but an intermission which you usually get in theatres to buy pop corn for your girl, or probably have a smoke. 2 mins of soothing music and all the characters are back again. Yours truly listens to the full 2-min music clip.

1:10 am – After coming out of jail, Gandhiji now calls for Dandi March. Again it’s a big success. The primary importance of this 241-mile walk is very symbolic. (Please watch the movie to find it out. ;-)) Gandhiji is again arrested, Indians are beaten, but they don’t hit back. They observe non-violence. This act gives India a lot of publicity in western media and earns her a lot of respect.

1:35 am – Mahatma Gandhi is released and he’s called by British PM for Round Table Conference. He meets a lot of people there, including Mr. Charlie Chaplin. The British scoundrels (excuse me for these words) show their true colors here and sow the seeds of communalism. After coming back, Gandhiji goes to Aga Khan Palace, Pune – which is now a prison. His wife accompanies him. She passes away in the prison. Gandhiji moves on.

1:48 am – Last viceroy reaches India. India is all set to gain freedom. Jinnah becomes a victim of the British venom. He becomes adamant on a separate Muslim State. Gandhiji tries his level best to keep the nation united, but fails. The Nation gets divided. During the movement of public from India to Pakistan and vice versa, communal riots break out and many are killed. This is when Gandhiji calls for his second fast-unto-death. Again a big success. Both the nations are in harmony (not for long though, as we all know).

2:14 am – Nathuram Godse enters again and the history is written.

This is one of the greatest movies this viewer has ever seen. Exemplary performances by all the actors. This movie busts all the myths in this viewer’s mind. Gandhiji was truly a Mahatma, a person every Indian should know about, should read about and should follow.

LONG LIVE MAHATMA GANDHI…

2:20 am – The viewer starts writing his blog.

4:00 am – He finishes his write up and is all set to post it on his blog.
(N yeah, Sholay is still being downloaded.)

The Inevitable Doom

“Hello and welcome to the 15th Independence Day celebrations of our mother land – Khalistan. It’s been 15 years since the day our first prime minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Jr. hoisted our national flag for the first time in the independent Khalistan. I’d now request our Prime Minister Sardar Manmohan Singh Jr. to address the gathering.

Hello everyone. I congratulate you all on the 15th Independence Day of Free Khalistan. I’d also like to welcome Mr. KCR Jr., Prime Minister, Telangana , one of our neighboring countries. Our relationship with Telangana is very old, and very special. This was the state, which made us believe that we can achieve our dreams. On this auspicious occasion let me begin by walking down the memory lane and appreciating how it all happened. The battle for freedom of Khalistan was long fought, and we made constant efforts till late 1980’s to get freedom from the clutches of India, but to no avail. Post that, we got diverted from our mission for a few decades. A wave of patriotism spread in the whole of India after a few incidents of bomb blasts in quick succession across the nation. Sikhs thought that helping the central and other state governments was the need of the hour. Also, by the end of the first decade of 21st century, our great leaders, the torch bearers of Khalistan believed that since there was a Sikh PM at the center, Sikhs were getting their due respect. Though a few of them believed that it was the trick of the then Congress chief to keep Khalistan movement in check and it was a known fact that the PM was being used just as a puppet, Sikhs were blinded by the pseudo powers he had. As the PM gradually began to lose his grip on the politics of the nation, and Congress got assured that Khalistani movement had died down, PM was kicked out of the mainstream politics and Sikhs were again betrayed, the same way as they were cheated in late 1940’s, and again in late 1980’s. By 2011, Sikhs started feeling completely shunned and dejected.

But a few young leaders had already woken up by then, esp. after what they witnessed in December 2009. At the mid-night of 9th-10th December 2009, the central government of India agreed to think about a separate Telangana State. At that time, these Sikh young bloods realized that if some people from Andhra can fight for their separate state, why should they keep quite. But they couldn’t do much that time, since the Sikh stalwarts still believed that they were being treated equally. But post 2011, our protest began again and this time, we were inexorable. We knew that India wasn’t a tough country anymore, the government was always ready to yield to threatening protests, and this was evident from what had happened in Telangana in 2009. That incident made us realize that we can achieve our dream of our own country, our own motherland – Khalistan.

And as it was destined to happen, after 4 years of continuous struggle, we finally achieved our freedom on 15 August 2015, the historic day which later paved the way for around 30 other countries achieving freedom from the clutches of the erstwhile India. Earlier, all these countries were different parts of India and were first ruled for a few centuries by the Muslim kings, then came the English men, who left them to the whims and fancies of India, giving total freedom to only one country called Pakistan. Though Pakistan was a failure, even India wasn’t a big success. There were internal riots, regionalism, communalism, corruption, and what not. You name any social evil and it was there. But after freedom, we’ve come a long way ahead. We’ve…….”

Tring, Tring…. And my phone rang. I realized that I just dreamt about what I firmly believe is inevitable to happen in India. Looking at what is happening in our country, I could very well believe that this dream will become true in years to come. Each state will turn into an independent country. Maharashtra will seek to be a different country to protect her culture, states in South India will seek separation to protect their language, Goa will cite the requirement of more freedom of expression as the reason, and all the other states will come up with some or the other trivial reason to get separated. If the central government can’t take a stand against violence in the assembly of a state; if they easily succumb to the demands of a person sitting on hunger strike – unto – death, I’m pretty sure that that government would never be able to tackle the insurgency movements taken up by various states… All I could do now is to keep my fingers crossed, pray that the mistake that the government has committed a few hours ago doesn’t prove to be fatal, and that our country prospers and achieve great success ahead. Amen.
God Bless All.

Disclaimer: These are not my personal thoughts but just my dream. I pray to God that this dream doesn’t turn true, but if it does, I don’t take any responsibility.

Congratulations!!!

... Well, this is how I would like to start blogging… By congratulating myself. Congrats for waking up, congrats for being so late, and last but not the least, congrats for finally making a blog and posting on it. By now, blogging has become an ancient phenomenon and people are moving towards micro blogging.. The day doesn’t seem to be far away when a word would say it all. But, for the time being, let me get back to writing my first blog. Nothing important in this one (I dunno if there would be anything significant in my next blogs also ;-)), I would rather make myself comfortable by writing juz an intro in this one. I don’t know if there is any playbook, which defines the rules and regulations of blogging. Neither do I know if there is any authority which censors your blog. So I’d blog my way. Whatever comes to my mind, will be on my blog (only if it’s worth sharing though). Dunno if maintainin a daily diary is better than blogging (I wrote diary for some time but then found it too mundane)!!!

Also, I’d like to tell u ppl that it’s a very risky time for me to start blogging. I juz appeared for CAT last week; too many other xams in the offing; preps for GD-PI not yet started and I dunno where m I gonna be in da next few months. I shud rather be busy preparing for all this than tappin the keys of my key board at 12 o’ clock at nite… But, today, all of a sudden, I thought I should start blogging…. There are too many thoughts in my brains, due to which there is a shortage of space inside my head… so I wud like to dump a few thots in my blog so that my mind gets some extra space and it operates faster (this is wat my company deals with – Online Backup)… dunno if it’s really gonna work, but wat’s the harm in trying. I think, if my blogs are interesting enough, I might give competition to the likes of Mr. Bachchan or the Khans, in terms of popularity… n yeah, I’m not kiddin… B-)

Yeah, if there are any mistakes in the language of my blogs, please don’t quibble; but if there’s any mistake in my ideas or facts, feel free to crucify me (please don’t take that literally)…

Till now, I’ve proof-read this blog thrice.. Juz wanted to make sure it’s worthy of being posted on a website which hosts the writings of poets and writers and wizards of literature… Also, as they say, 1st impression is the last impression (which I totally disagree with!!!)… Hope this is good enuf for a start…

God Bless All!!!!