जय हो अण्णा !!

I feel extremely privileged to witness the history being made and rewritten. It does not happen frequently when the entire parliament comes together to pass a resolution for larger goods of the nation, even if done when pushed to the wall by the public. Several key politicians have spoken in parliament during last few days.

The by-default future Prime Minister of our country Rahul Gandhi during his speech in Lok Sabha appeared largely arrogant, brash, defiant and totally unaware of people’s sentiments and expectations. How could he boast about his idea as a “game changer”?, just because it came from him? Let others say that and no one has said that yet. On the contrary his cousin Varun Gandhi showed tremendous grace and immense maturity during his speech/ deliberations. He, several times had put the people of India above everything else. He has showed as to how far he has come from two years back when his controversial remarks landed him and his political career in trouble. The unanimous clapping after his speech showed that it is all about growing in life and also about moving on. I think the speech of Sharad Yadav was very good, though at times, it looked a bit sarcastic. Even “Manuni” Mohan Singh broke his “maun”, though he sat stone faced and his words did not have anything inspiring.

Yesterday’s lower house and upper house sessions were culmination of true collaboration between representatives of public and public itself. The yesterday’s resolution would go a long way in restoration of people’s faith in parliamentary and political processes. The leaders of major political parties have displayed exemplary leadership skills in resolution of the impasse. I will cite a quote from Nelson Mandela “Quitting is also leadership” on situational leadership. Our parliamentarians have done just that. They have quit from their position of rigidity, they have quit from their position of protecting their turf.  As the yesterday’s collective debate in the parliament reached its culmination point, I could hear background chants following Vedic shloka in the air.

ॐ सहना भवतुः सहनौ भुनत्तुः सहवीर्यम करवावहे ।

तेजस्वनावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषामहे ।।

ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शन्तिः

During last few days, several other people, prominent in their own fields have expressed their opinions about Anna agitation.  I will cite a few, who I think have made mockery of themselves by opening their mouths.

Arundhati Roy: This lady only sees rights and sympathy for the criminals and terrorists so it does not make any sense for anyone to analyze her comments. There are always going to be some nuts in the system and we have to learn to live with that and we should leave it that way. She is another Rakhi Sawant and will do anything to remain in the limelight.

Nandan Nilekani: He is a person known for his integrity and intellect. I fail to understand what his compulsion to say whatever he said was. How could a person running a program called UID for larger public could question another movement involving people for the same larger public. He appeared a diehard congress party worker.  

Imam Bukhari: This bigot has crossed all the limits. His statement that supporting Anna is un-islamic because the people participating are chanting the “वन्दे मातरम्” and “भारत माता की जय”, is highly deplorable. My response/suggestion to him is that then go to Pakistan/Bangladesh where you belong to and live/settle there. What is wrong in Vande mataram and how can it become anti-religious for any religion? All it says that “I salute my motherland”. But it is not his fault; it is due to his upbringing, like father like son. Even some renowned people like Javed Akhtar from bollywoord, have very myopic views and see discrimination in everything and try to bring an untrue color during their comments even in regular TV programs. “Bukhar” in Urdu means fever and this guy bukhari has proved that he is suffering from some sort of mental and emotional fever.

Which country can be more inclusive than India, a country of 1.2 billion people with 80% Hindus (officially)? But look the power setup with president a Hindu woman, vice president a muslim, loksabha speaker a dalit hindu woman, prime minister a Sikh, leader of ruling party a foreign born (and current foreign passport holder) catholic Christian, leader of opposition a woman, defence minister a Christian, law minister a muslim. These are some undeniable raw facts that put the inclusiveness of our great nation above every other nation. No other country on earth had / has / will have and can have such inclusivity.

During last 2 weeks or so, there have been leanings for everyone, the civil society has learnt as how to deal with the government, the government has learnt that people’s movement can not be suppressed and had to be looked into, and the people have learnt as to what and how much they can achieve through united efforts. Anna has more learning to do. He has to assess his team and get rid of people who have ulterior motives. One such person is Swami Agnivesh (see 1m15s video).  He is no Swami but a bigot , congress agent and untrustworthy. The team Anna should completely dissociate from him and his actions. Anna has to also ensure that good people continue to support him. Mr Hegde is one such person. The other trait Anna needs to build is to show some flexibility.

Anna, an ordinary Indian, who has worked in Indian army as a driver, who does not have any formal degree, has galvanized the nation of 1.2 billion people, has created a sense of urgency in the minds of Indians that corruption pox has to be eradicated. Anna has solidified the position of India on the world map as a truly functional democracy. It is completely unbelievable that such a large people’s movement, spread across every nook and corner of our motherland, has not resulted into loss of even one rupee worth of property, forget loss of any life.

I want to cite an example from Kishkinda kand of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas. The entire monkey army is sitting on sea shore contemplating who can go across the ocean to Lanka to find out whereabouts of Sita. When all the warriors of the monkey army expressed their inability to cross the ocean, Jamvant approached Hanuman to remind him about his inbuilt and inherent powers.

कहहु रीछ्पति सुनु हनुमाना । का चुपु साधि रहे बलवाना ।।

We all know that Hanuman ji flew to Lanka and succeeded not only in finding out whereabouts of Sitaji but also in assessing the strength and weaknesses of Ravana the enemy.

Anna has proved to be the Jamvant of our nation. He has reminded people of their inherent and latent strength and awakened them. The nation is indebted to you for being the “Jamvant” of Indian public. Anna, my sincere and respectful salutations to thee.

Lets Eradicate This Corruption Pox

The corruption today is indeed a big menace facing our society. It has crept into and found place in almost all walks of our lives. The BSNL’s, the registrar’s offices, RTO offices, public works, BESCOMs, etc are a few entry level examples. Then, the high offices of judicial branches and armed forces are also corrupted/ polluted. Our political system and politicians sets the benchmark of corruption. Under the clock of current central government, one or more high level scams are always active. Our prime minister Mr Manmohan Singh, who is at the helm of the affairs of the governance, has transformed himself into  “Mauni”Mohan Singh and has maintained a prolonged silence. The real Prime Minister Sonia Maino has gone abroad unexpectedly for some medical treatment. Only God know her true motives as it is hard to believe that that she could not find a single good doctor for her treatment in a country which is capable of making nuclear bombs, a country capable of making fighter planes, and a country capable of launching satellites into space. Even the by-default future prime minister is not coming out with any comment as to what should be done to deal with this corruption menace. Our by-default future prime minister quickly comes out on national TV when he has to score points over rival governments in UP or MP or Gujarat but goes to hibernation when he has to deal with the issues faced by the national public.

There are many social crusaders fighting the corruption in their own ways. The Civil Society team under the able leadership of Shri Anna Hajare ji is fighting the battle to enact the Jan Lok Pal which will help in creating an ethical framework at public places. A few weeks back, Bharat Swabhiman Sansthan under the able leadership of Baba Ramdev launched campaign to fight the corruption. The present government in an extremely cruel manner suppressed Baba Ramdev and opened investigation against him using its investigative agencies. Also, the officials and ministers of the present central government have entered into character assassination of Anna as well. 

True that the parliament makes the rules but who elects the parliament, people, right? Who pays for the bills of the parliamentarians, people, right? True that the parliament has a role to play in democracy but democracy also says “for the people, by the people”.  It does not say “for the parliamentarians, by the people”. If the parliamentarians are called the servants of people, why can’t they listen to their masters who are people? Both Anna and Ramdev may have tens of shortcomings but that’s OK, they are human beings but their heart is at right place. They are fighting for the betterment of our country and trying to provide solution options to fight with the corruption leprosy.

Our nation is passing thru a tough ordeal right now where failure is not an option.  We as nationals of our country have to take sides.  The team Anna and for that matter whosoever is filling the vacuum of able leadership should be provided our active support.  We need to do whatever little we can to eradicate this corruption pox from our nation.

I want to share a couple of examples from my side which I have done and intend to do.

Last August (2010), I made the final payment to Kotak Mahindra (KMPL) of my Honda City car loan. That was a moment of pride for me as I could call the car my own from that point onwards. But, the RC book still had KMPL name on it. So, I took an NOC from KMPL and approached Yelehanka RTO office to de-hypothecate KMPL name from the RC book. In the RTO office, I was made to run around from one place to other place and was made to come to RTO office several times. The folks in RTO office came up with new set of documentation requirements during my visits there. I knew and realized very well as to why I was getting such a hard time from RTO folks.  But me being me, I was hell bent and determined not to pay any “suvidha shulk” to anyone, not a single paisa, and provided them the documentation whatever they wanted. Finally, after 4 visits to RTO office, the KMPL name was removed from the RC book. My perseverance and forbearance has paid off. I feel proud that I was not the medium of further corruption of already corrupted environment.

I have moved to my new house about one year back. In spite of my not liking, I have reluctantly paid thousands of rupees as “Suvidha Shulk” for registering my house. Now the next thing is to transfer the “Khata” in my name. As my residential complex comes under the jurisdiction of Panchayt, I approached the Panchayat office where I was told that I have to pay a hefty amount for “khata transfer” into my name.  Here also, I intend to be a tough cookie. If I have to go to the Panchayat office ten times, I will go. I will provide them whatever documentation they need from me. If need be, I will not hesitate in making use of RTI. But one thing I certainly have in my head that I will not pay any “Suvidha shulk” here as well. I have already started feeling proud about it.

It is my appeal to all of you to take this kind of tough stand on one or two things. I understand that there will be areas where tough stand will not help. But if we start picking one two areas, it will start showing positive results. There is a famous saying in Hindi

बिन्दु बिन्दु से सिन्धु बना है,

बिन्दु बिन्दु से ये बादल ।

बिन्दु बिन्दु से निर्झर झरता ,

बनता लघु सरिता का जल ।।

चक दे इन्डिया !! जय हो !!

Little could have anyone imagined and hoped when the God of cricket legendary Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was made to walk back, as the second man out to the hut, after scoring a paltry 18 runs, right after famous machine gun Virendra Sehwag went silent on the very second ball of the game, that he would be hoisted back on the shoulders of his teammates after Dhoni’s helicopter shot launched the world cup into India’s lap. What an amazing game it was all the way through?

It all began with the toss. The Lankan captain Sangakara has proved once again that he is not fair person and that he is a cheat. This is not the first instance of its kind from Sanga. Last August also, during tri-series in Dambulla, he manipulated his bowler Suraj Randiv to deprive Virendra Sehwag a cricketing milestone, a well deserved century. This time he went on to stoop to the extent that he invalidated the first toss, realizing that he had lost it. This was the final game of the Worldcup and the need of the hour was to accept gracefully the outcome of the toss, no matter what. Sanga is a disgrace to the game of cricket and should be penalized for his improper, unethical and unsporting conduct. The destiny has responded very well to Sri Lanka as to what the sporting cheating can lead to.

During the Sri Lankan inning, Team India’s bowlers had put together a terrific show for most part except the batting powerplay when thing went awry. Sri Lanka, who at one point was struggling to reach 225 could muster 274 runs, an above par score for Wandkhede stadium.

The Indian chase began or rather disastrous note. Sehwag’s second ball dismissal and Sachin’s 18 runs 7^th over dismissal were two great blows to India’s chances to reach the target of 275. I had almost lost all the hopes on Team India’s ability to reach target so I proceed to do my “हनुमान चालीसा” little early. Then Mr serious first with Kohli and then with Dhoni steadied the India’s run chase and never allowed the required run rate to go beyond ~6. Finally Dhoni sealed the fate of the game through a variety of shots including the last helicopter shot sixer.

It has been “a dream come true” for all Indians. The 28 years drought is over. It is my sincere hope and wish that we will not have to wait for so along for another WC trophy. These kinds of victories take the confidence of the nation several notches up. Over the last several years, our nation India has been performing exceedingly well at various World sporting events and have brought glory for our country. Keep it up. Chak De India!!

Since WC victory, there is non-stop coverage of the India’s WC victory on almost all the news channels. The news papers are also full of all sorts of stories from front to back. The BCCI has showered with an award of Rs 1Cr each. Many of the Chief Ministers have also handsomely rewarded the India’s WC players in cash and kind, all in an extremely deservingly manner.

But India is a big country with a huge population. Recently conducted census has counted upwards of 1.21B people in India. For such a large population, there have to be more sporting avenues available. The winners and heroes of other sports should also be recognized and rewarded in similar manner. The central government, state governments along with private partnership should come up with concrete, actionable and executable plans to promote other sports as well, in every nook and corner of India. The recent rise of India in sporting events such as Olympic, Commonwealth and Asiad should be allowed to go up further by creating conducive sporting environment.  India is slowly becoming a sports loving nation, though game of cricket stays way above any other sports. There is a need to convert this sporting craze as part of India’s economy which can open up news kinds of employment opportunities for lacks of people through out the depth and breadth of our country.

Also, there is need to bring some reforms in ticketing of all the cricket games. Currently, most of the tickets are taken by politicians and various other regulatory bodies. Most of the remaining tickets are sold for huge sum of money in black market. The games are for the common people and there has to be a fair way for the common pubic to have a fair share in number of tickets of the games.

Any way, these are some of my thoughts and I am sure many of would agree.

I conclude by congratulating again the Team India for their victory over Sri Lanka in WC final and bringing the WC Trophy home. More cricketing is coming on the way starting April 8. Many players of WC Team India, who worked as a cohesive team for last 6+ weeks, will be competing against each other. Gambhir who together with Dhoni was instrumental in India’s victory will be fiercely competing against him in IPL 4 opener. Then Sachin will be Mumbai Indian captain competing with Yuvraj, captain of Pune Warriors. In a way, IPL4 will further help each Indian player to understand other players very well from strength and weakness perspective which will help them in working together when they have to represent country for any upcoming sporting event.

I have a few quotes/phrases for the trio, Sachin, Dhoni and Yuvi.

Sachin

भगवान के घर देर है अंधेर नहीं है ।

Dhoni

Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.

Lead from the front — but don t leave your base behind.

                -Nelson Mandela

Yuvraj – Shawshank Redemption

चक दे इन्डिया !! जय हो !!

Team India Badhai ho Badhai!!!

When I am writing this blog, the Pak team must have been dropped at the Wagha border by one of our Tata mini buses and from there, the Pak players must be on the way to their homes either walking or on horse/bullock cart. Home Sweet Home for all of them.

Back to last night’s game, what an exciting, nail biting and emotionally draining the game was. Out of my own nervousness, I must have consumed hundreds of extra calories through chips, biscuits, soda etc. But that is not an issue and I can/will do extra workout to burn the additional intake of calories.

What a terrific game it was with each player chipping in their own way. It is rare to witness Team India excelling in all 3 aspects of cricketing, batting, bowling and fielding. But yesterday was that rare event. Our confidence was higher and our demeanor was better than our opponents. We outperformed our opponents in every possible way in all aspects of cricket including “Mind games”” where Pak team has years of experience and expertise.

Though Sehwag was out early, his hurricane contribution of 38 runs was a gift to Team India. It was due to those runs that the run rate of Team India never fell below 5, even when Pak had tightened the squeeze around us during middle overs. It was during those squeeze overs when I stopped watching the TV and went on to chant “हनुमान चालीसा”. Then, God’s 85 runs were exemplary. He proved once again as to why he is called God, who else can get so many chances, but Sachin did get the chances and made best of them. The end of Indian batting by Raina was phenomenal. It is due to him that team India had reached 260 otherwise 230 was the achievable target looking. Raina has proved yet again why he is a better player than Pathan. What is needed is a longer stay on the wicket and not a short lived glory of 2 sixers.

The entire Pak team played with a “Tantative”approach. Afridi, though looking confident through body language, was weak from inside and that was good for us. I had the hunch that Sehwag would take on Afridi and he did by taking his catch. One of the big contributors to our victory was Misbaha who stayed on crease for way too long without propping up the scoreboard numbers, and when he did decide to go for big shots, it was way too late. There is a saying in Hindi “का वर्षा जब क्रषी सुखाने । समय चूकि पुनि का पछिताने ।।”.

When the last missile fired from the muzzle of Zaheer was going to rest in the hands of Kolhi after hitting its target Misbaha, I could hear the soft Vedic Chants coming out of air.

ॐ पूर्णमिदम पुर्णामिदम पूर्णात पूर्ण मुदच्यते ।

पूर्णयस्य पूर्णमादाय पुर्ण मेवा विशिष्यते ।।

Why not, team India had offered its entireself in the game so the result had to be the Ultimate.

Beware Lankan Tigers; Indian Tigers are coming to hunt you.

Best wishes to team India in the final.

Go Team India Go!! Jai Ho!!

Although the Wednesday’s semi final match between India and Pakistan is still 40+ odd hours away, the battlelines are already and clearly drawn between the two cricket teams. The significance, relevance and excitement of this match will not be any smaller than the grand finale of this cricketing extravaganza which started about 6 weeks back. Cricket in India has assumed the role of “Second Religion”, which unites most people of our country. I have deliberately used the word “most” here and opted not to use the word “All” as using the word “All” would be tentamount to the falsification of the truth, at least from my point of view, based on my observations.  I am going to use an example from my college days of 20 years back in AMU Aligarh when victory of India used to get mourned and defeat of India used to get celebrated, to base my observations/convictions on. I’m sure things would not have changed much in Aligarh even after 20 years.

A victory of team India not only boosts the morale and psyche of the team but also takes the confidence of our great nation one notch up. The Pak team has already started playing the “Mind Games” and that’s the one area they are really good at. Why not, they have years of experience doing it. But, we also have the same number of years of experience beating them in World Cup games beating all their “mind games” as well.  

The Pak Team needs to look back at the records and see for themselves as to how many victories they have against India in World Cup games. A big “Zero” and that big “Zero” will not change in the Wednesday’s game either.  The team India is going to continue to maintain its winning streak and Pak is going to maintain its losing streak. Nice!

The Pak player Misbaha has probably forgotten as to what happened to his scoop attempt over the Joginder Singh’s ball in T20 final, just a few years back.  Misbaha is going to do something stupid again only to make him walk to the pavellion.  There is a saying in Hindi “विनाशकाले बिपरीत बुद्धि”.

And, this Sahid Afridi guy can overspeak in a boastful manner till he meets Sehwag and Sachin’s bats.  There is a saying in Hindi that “जब ऊँट पहाड़ के नीचे आता है तो उसे पता चलता है कि वो सबसे ऊँचा नही है”. This Afridi guy is going to get such a good “धुलाई” through our batsmen that he is going to remember it throughout his life. As it is, many players in Pak team are subdued and edgy by the charges of their involvement in match fixing so their expression of public confidence is “Fake and Farce”. They are pretty weak from the inside which will be exposed by our batsmen right infront of 30,000 strong match viewers.

We have Sachin. Talking about Sachin’s greatness, wow, he is a gem of a person, full of integrity, honesty, simplicity, commitment, determination, hard-work, focus and dedication. It is for that reason that he is called “God of Cricket”. His decision to walk off the crease during one of the recent matches, though I personally do not approve it, can be termed a Super Class by itself. The guy was standing on the threshold of his ‘Tons of Tons” , the team and country having high expectations from him, umpire not making call on him but referring to the third umpire instead. But, he listened straight to the sound coming out of his gut and did not wait at the crease which any other player would have done. I remember legendary Sunil Gavaskar doing that a few times during his tenure as a cricket player. But then, the technology was not so advanced at that time and there was nothing like third umpire.  So, Sachin’s case can and should not be compared with Gavaskar’s case.

India eventually won that game but Sachin should be more deligent this time. I would wish and pray to the Almighty to direct Sachin to take advantage of all possible resources in the upcoming game if the situation demands so.  He is too important a player to throw his wicket away like that. Even in great “Dharm Yuddha” of Mahabharat, the Pandava had to rely on things like “अश्वथामा मारा गया” to get rid of their opponent Dronacharya. I wish Sachin completes his “Ton of Ton” in Wednesday’s game and helps team India romp into the finals.

What to say about the performance of our crown prince (Yuv Raj) of Team India? He has been phenomenal in all three aspects of cricket: batting, bowling and fielding. What a fantastic redemption from just one year back, when everyone had written him off. The Punjab IPL did not keep him as Captain and even did not re-sign him. His place in Team India was dwindling and people started saying all sorts of things about him. But, he had goals set out for him and he was on continuous path of relentless pursuit of his set goals. Yuv Raj has shown the importance of individual contribution in a team game. He has shown that if each individual starts contributing to their fullest potential, the team’s delivery can be guaranteed.  The same applies for nation building as well. If each citizen of the nation starts contributing towards the national goal, it would not be long before we are found standing in the forefront of the nations of the world.

I believe that all the stars are aligned this time through for India’s victory over its arch rival. The team India is going to repeat the history of 1983 when it won the Cup under the leadership of Kapil Paji. All our team needs to do is manage the pressure well and maintain its cool, confidence and composure. Only a cool head can take sound decisions in pressure situations.  Each Team India player has to understand their roles and responsibilities and perform to the best of their abilities.  This team is the dream team that will bring the Cup for our nation. Whatever little gaps we have on bowling and fielding side will be compensated by the seven specialist batsmen. The Team India is going to remember that its strength is its formidable batting lineup and that it has to play from and around its strength.  The Team India is going to make good use of its powerplays especially batting powerplay. The Team India is going to remember learning from the recent matches that it will set target of 40 runs from batting powerplay and would not become greedy.

Then there are a number of things which in my opinion are handled in the worst possible manner. The two important ones are below.

·         The Cricket fans are treated very shabbily all across the nation at the ticketing counters. Inspite of having reasonable capacity in the stadiums, why are only a few hundred tickets left for the general public, just for namesake? Why are the cricket office bearers given huge chunks of tickets only to become available in open market at rigged prices? Last night, I saw one News channel reporting the ticket price of Rs 100,000 for Indo Pak semi final match which is more than double than the per capita income of our nation. How can we have and sustain such a situation? Why do so many people from political, law enforcement, city/town administration want to have the birth right to watch the cricket matches free of cost? Something needs to be done to streamline the ticket sale and also to increase the capacity. The general public and especially cricket fans should not be taken for granted and needs to be respected for the larger benefit of the game.  There has to be some ethics by-lawys which are enforcible, varifiable which the cricket officials should have to abide by.

·         Let the game be a game and should not have any influence whatsoever due to or because of our politicians whose judgement in general is questionable.  I am not sure why our PM Manmohan Singh has extended the invitation to Pak President and PM for coming to India to watch the game? Why are we dilly dallying on our stated stand? We had clearly spelt out our stand after Mumbai 26/11 attacks that no more talks with Pak unless Pakistan hands over the people responsible for 26/11 to us. For the past one year or so, we have started seeing the dilution of our stated stand. If we had to dilute, why did we take the stand to begin with? Why should anyone take us seriously?  It may be acceptable and that too marginally to have unscheduled bi-lateral talks at the corridor of common events of large forums such as UN, SAARC etc. But inviting heads of the states of a terrorism sponsoring country in this manner only sends a message that we are weak and that we can not take tough stand and if at all we take tough stands, we can not maintain our stand and that we can be easily bullied and that we have a very short memory. On a different note, not calling the Pak officials would have enabled a few more seats becoming available for our nation’s cricket fans.

I wish Team India all the best for the semi final victory. The team is motivated and is peaking at the right time. Of course the pressure will be high on Team India due to larger population of majority of nation. But that’s what the pros stand for, to deliver from the high pressure situations.  It is very apt that Mohali has been chosen for this semi final match. The Indo Pak Wagha border is not too far from there. The Pakis can take the passenger train which I believe still runs between Amritsar and Lahore. Alternatively, we can drop them on the Wagha border by a Tata Mini bus on humanitarion grounds. And from Wagha border, they can either walk or take their horse cart and go back.

Go Team India Go. Jai ho!!!!

Happy Republic Day – Albeit a Little Belated

I wanted to post this on Republic Day but could not do so due to my BSNL Broadband connectivity issues. Also, I got another feedback from my readers to keep the blog post short which I will try to incorporate right away, easy one.

Today, our Nation celebrates 62^nd Republic Day of our beloved Country. The day is significant in that on this day, our Constitution was adopted in/by our Country. This is also the day when in 1920, a pledge was taken by the freedom fighters of our Country in Lahore session of Indian National Congress (not today’s UPA congress) that only “पूर्ण स्वराज्य” and nothing less was acceptable to them. Also, the number 26 is significant in another way as it is the only single number sitting between a perfect square (degree 2) and perfect cube (degree 3). It is very fitting and appropriate that the day was chosen by our freedom fighters to take such a pledge to push our nation up by one degree.

This day also reminds me of my childhood days when all school children used to go to “प्रभात फेरी” in our village chanting slogans like “विजयी विश्व तिरंगा प्यारा, झन्डा ऊंचा रहे हमारा ”, holding Tiranga in our hands upright and subsequently participating in speeches, debates and sports.

Last year, I was in US on Republic Day but this year, I made it a point to find time and sit in front of TV to watch the Delhi Rajpath proceedings of Republic day. What a fantastic and fabulous program it was. The three wings of our Defence Forces, Jal Sena, Thal Sena and Nabh Sena, displayed their Might, with fighter planes and helicopters hovering in the sky singing their own “विजय गान” and with the “भीष्म” tanks making thunderous applause followed by exhibits from various states showcasing the cultural diversity of our great nation.

Might is a beautiful and equally motivating word. Mighty nations are able to put their point across easily and the Language of Mighty nations is easily understood by other nations. Some people may not agree with me when I say that “Pokharan-II” was one of the greatest things that has happened to our Country. While it is OK to disagree and I respect their disagreement, the fact of the matter is India has emerged mightier after Pokharan-II. If US was able to slap sanctions against India, it was due to US’s economic might. But at the same time, if India was able to defy the US sanctions, it was also due to India’s emerging economic might. Also, if India today figures on radar screens of all nations and if heads of States of all developed and industrialized nations are participating in a parade to India, it is due to India’s emerging economic Might.

We as a nation have to set goals for all of us to work in a way that can make our nation Mightier. History is the witness that we have never, and never means never, used our might to hurt anyone. But history is also a witness that only mighty’s survive. I am citing a Sanskrit Shloka which also talks on the same point.

अश्वं नैव गजं नैव व्याघ्रं नैव च नैव च ।

अज पुत्रं बलिं दद्यातः देवोः दुर्वल घातकः ।।

Not a horse, not an elephant, and never a tiger. It is the cub of a goat that is sacrificed. Even God is a betrayer of the weak.

Now it is up to us what we want to become, a kid of a goat or a tiger. Also, if we are strong, many phenomena which otherwise could result into adverse conditions start returning positive yields. The following Sanskrit shloka further solidifies this viewpoint.

वनानि दहतोः वन्हे सखा भवतु मारुतः ।

सः एव दीप नशाय क्रशे कस्यास्ति सौह्रदम् ।।

When it catches fire in forests, the wind is there as a friend to assist. But the same wind destroys a small lamp. Applying the true meaning of this in our national context, one will support us only if we are strong otherwise the same will turn out to be un-favorable for us.

People often compare the economic progress of China and our country India. While it is true that China has made significant progress over last 20+ and appear to be much ahead of us, we have one thing that China does not have and does not plan to have and can not have in foreseeable future. I’d use a Deewar film like dialogue “मेरे पास लोकतन्त्र है” to describe and I am allowed to think freely.

I’d like to cite another small story from Mahabharata to further support my point. It was the final and decisive battle between Arjuna and Karna. Both were Maharathis, equally brave and powerful. Lord Krishna who also happened to be the Saarathi of Arjuna was witnessing the un-paralleled fight between two great warriers. When arrows fired by Arjuna using his bow Gandiv were hitting Karna’s chariot, the chariot was going back by 20 feet. But, when the arrows fired by Karna using his bow Vijay were hitting Arjuna’s chariot, it was going back by 2 inches only. But, Lord Krishna was constantly clapping and saying “उत्तम अति उत्तम” on the performance of Karna as against Arjuna. For once Arjuna did not pay attention and let it go. But when Krishna continued, Arjuna could not stop himself and asked Krishna. “O Madhav, you are my Lord, Sakha and Saarathi, and as you can see, I am able to push my opponent’s chariot back many times more than what my opponent can push my chariot. Then, why are you clapping on his performance and not on my performance”. Krishna first smiled and then replied. Your chariot has me in it, who has to carry the burden of the entire world. So if Karna is still able to push your chariot back by 2 inches, even with my presence on it, he deserves appreciation and my clap. The same applies to the story of our country and our northern neighbor China. We have all sorts of problems, challenges and issues while China ruled by communist regime is run thru decrees. While we have a plethora of burden, China has very few compared to ours. So our progress whatever little it is in comparison to China has greater significance and needs accolades from all our countrymen.

There is a saying in Hindi that “अकेला चना भाड़ नहीं फोड़ सकता”. While it seems true on its face value, it also has a great degree of inbuilt myth in it. We can open the history books and see, not one or two but hundreds of examples where significant differences have been made by individuals single handedly. Take examples, Swami Vivekananda, Sage Aurvindo, Chanakya and even Gandhi. These individuals picked supporters as they moved along their path but they were all alone when they commenced their jouney.

So today on 62^nd Republic Day of our great nation, I pray to Almighty to bless People so as to set for ourselves stretch goals and work in our own individual capacities to take our nation to the pinnacle of glory, the glory which once we had, the glory which rightfully belongs to us and the glory which is achievable. I am citing a few lines from the great poem ‘Geetanjali’ of Tagore.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
…

….

…

Where the mind is led forward by Thee to ever-widening thought and action -
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.