The Man in Khadi

vaishnav jan to tene kahiye je
peed paraayii jaaNe re
par-dukhkhe upakaar kare toye
man abhimaan naa aane re

I have always been a great admirer of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. No, my friend, this post is definitely not inspired by Lage Raho Munnabhai.:) It was 2nd October yesterday. Also a discussion with a friend of mine about Gandhiji sparked off this post. I felt that I had to write about this "larger than life" person.

Right from my primary school, I used to watch the film, "Gandhi" on October 2nd. The DD would telecast it every year. I never got bored of this movie. Every year, I felt that I understood the movie better. And then I got hold of "My Experiments with the Truth" five years ago. I was amazed by the truth and the honesty in that book. I also loved the way he experimented with everything and learnt lessons from his experiments. His simplicity fascinated me.

And then one day, I started reading about Bhagat Singh. The fact that Gandhiji could have saved the lives of the three brave revolutionaries was unknown to me. But Gandhiji did not do so. I also read about Gandhiji's family. I felt that his children were the ignored lot. There are also rumours about Gandhiji being partial to Jinnah. After reading all that, the impression of Gandhiji being a perfect person disappeared.

But when I think about it, I find that I have equal respect for Bhagat Singh and Gandhiji. Their paths were entirely different. But they were great personalities in their own ways.

The other day, my friend was telling me that Gandhiji was a great leader. True, he led the masses of India very effortlessly. And the majority of them trusted his abilities and leadership. He was a man who lived his life strictly bound to his principles. He fought the freedom struggle in a unique way. Certain principles of Gandhiji like Satyagraha and Ahimsa were instant inspirations with the youth of the country. Yes, Gandhiji did some mistakes. Unfortunately, they were major mistakes. But then he was not God. He was human after all. And the way he fought for freedom selflessly can never be forgotten.

I don't know how much of his principles will be followed by our and the future generations. But his simplicity, determination, and honesty will definitely continue to inspire me, as always.

Inquilab Zindabad

Today is the 75th anniversary of the martyrdom of the three heroes of Indian Freedom struggle- Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Raj Guru. Yesterday I received a mail about the same. And I religiously forwarded it to all my friends.:) I do not know how many people read it and how many of them discarded it as spam. Sometimes people develop so much of aversion towards forwarded mails that they miss out on some good content.:)

I got to know about three heroes for the first time through my history text books. Probably there were 2 paras dedicated for them. So they did not catch my attention then. In 2002, I watched the movie- The Legend of Bhagat Singh(yep, movies help some times;)). And since then I have been totally awed by Bhagat Singh. I googled for more information about him and I came across his letters, his lectures and so on. As someone told me the other day that sacrificing your life selflessly for your country is the greatest heroic deed. Yes, indeed! And even now I am amazed about the fact that these three heroes embraced death so courageously.

Some of the quotes of Bhagat Singh that I got from Web:

--> The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives. It is the inevitable consequence of the historic events and the existing environments. Our humble sacrifices shall be only a link in the chain that has very accurately been beautified by the unparalleled sacrifice of Mr. Das and most tragic but noblest sacrifice of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and the glorious death of our dear warrior Azad.

-->in a letter to his father:My life is not so precious, at least to me, as you may probably think it to be. It is not at all worth buying at the cost of my principles.

-the youth will have to spread this revolutionary message to the far corner of the country. They have to awaken crores of slum-dwellers of the industrial areas and villagers living in worn-out cottages, so that we will be independent and the exploitation of man by man will become an impossibility.

More information about Bhagat Singh on http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/

Inquilab Zindabad

A long weekend. Thanks to independence day.

I always buy a small flag on independence day every year( this time, I bought a cloth flag instead of a plastic one). I think of people who gave up their lives for our freedom. I hum patriotic songs. That is my way of celebrating independence.:-)

But I think Independence day is best celebrated in schools. In school, we started our day early on August 15th. We had to stand for hours listening to all the speeches before the flag hoisting ceremony. Pride swept over me when the flag was hoisted. We then performed march fast and saluted our flag.. At the end of the function, sweets were distributed. So we used to celebrate Independence day in a true sense.

But now, indepedence day is just another holiday. Most of us don't even think of the spirit behind this day. Probably we don't realize the value of freedom because we never had to fight for it. We were all born free.:-)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Speaking about freedom, isn't it true that most of the times, we shackle ourselves with all these customs and traditions in such a way that our freedom is curtailed? These customs, these traditions, that were made for the betterment of life, become suffocating when they become rules. Instead of understanding the meaning behind such customs, we tend to follow the procedures blindly.