Independence in "New India"!

When I came into being, our beloved country was 38 yrs old, & in its infancy .. 34 yrs fast forward when I’ve already lived half of my life ( according to current life expectancy limits, though my mother thinks I’ll live for centuries), it is still a toddler. Yes, 72 yrs in the life of a nation is not too long, and in the prism of history for a country that has recorded chronicles of over 4000 yrs, it is on a relative scale, shorter than 15 minutes if all of it were to be squeezed in 24 hours. Given that, what we’ve achieved as a nation is nothing short of admirable .. we must stand in respect for all of us because each one of us has contributed in our own unique ways in making it, what it is today! (applause .. applause)

Much like our own life .. our country is also in every way imaginable our own making, completely!

For all that is right .. we can pat ourselves on the back and for everything that doesn’t feel quite the same .. we need to look ourselves in the eye and question why? Irrespective of our political affiliation, religious identity, regional recognition or personal belief systems .. we are just as much responsible. 

The question that we need to really ask ourselves is what is India to us, today if being independent means anything .. what is it and what is that we’re willing to do to make it work; to our taste and liking. We will need to take a break from living between reportages and phases of festivities to create time and atmosphere needed to confront ourselves with this important question.

Our septuagenarian nation has come of age; in words of our Prime Minister, from fragile five we have undertaken the journey of becoming the 6th largest economy in the world. Such a progress couldn’t have been possible without hard work and selfless service of many unsung heroes. The tale of India is an unending series of untold stories of struggle, glory, pride, and devotion .. details that will never come to the fore but its cumulative impact is seen and felt by all. Both successes and failures are relative, and so is freedom!

Our great nation is free .. a lot more than many Arab and South African countries and a little less than the western world ; we aren’t any less sovereign than any recognised country of the world, the comparison that I bring here has got more to do with utility of day to day freedom and openness that we get to exercise. It is not always a bad thing to be wherever we are. Our transformation has been every bit so as much dramatic as it has been wholesome, from being an agrarian economy, we had our little affair with industrialization for a few decades and lately we have been making great strides in information technology and services with a very solid backing of start ups, mostly internet based and into consumer market. India in the last decade has created more billionaires than it has ever done in the past. However, what Dr. Tharoor once said in his famous speech in the UN is also true. He had said India is such a diverse country that for anything that you say about it .. opposite of it is also true.

As a country, we are also among nations with the highest concerns on infant mortality, malnutrition, poverty, lack of healthcare and sanitation, social inequality, economic disparity and gender bias. Latest world hunger index houses india’s name at a position that is nothing to be proud of; but then for an infant to have achieved what it has is not all that bad. When you have a landmass that is 7th and a population which is only 2nd to the most populous with a ton of diversities, to lead - it is not easy to bring uniformity and make sure that everything keeps progressing at the same rate. Some indicators will move ahead at a greater pace than the others and we have be to accepting of that. As long as nothing is being ignored willfully or mistakenly forgotten.

India is what Indians will make of it .. it is a choice that you and I make everyday .. when we think and also when we take actions.

Vast majority of leaders: political, bussiness and even spiritual (yes, Baba’s have a view too and why not?) since last general election have given the idea of “New India” a lot of time and mention in their public speeches. Because I’m a student of history it is my cardinal responsibility to bring facts to the fore. The term “idea of India” was coined by freedom fighter, writer, poet, statesman par excellence and India’s first prime Minister: Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. In fact, the term “New India” is also his. He has written extensively about it in his correspondence with the great Mahatma, Sardar Patel and Rabindra Nath Tagore. Pandit Ji also wrote many letters to Englands’s contemporary leaders, on one occasion even to the queen, elucidating the Idea of India and also the new India! Little mention is given to him for having acted upon on his ideas ( IIT, IIM, ISRO etc) .. but we all understand why is that so, don’t we.

The architect(s) of modern India beyond doubt was Pt. Nehru’s himself, his cabinet, the constituent assembly and everyone else who took Bapu as their moral guardian and worked on his ideals and principles - to give our glorious past a way into the future and most of what we see today is an extension of that, actually a hell lot of it, 95%! 

"The Idea of new India" is a valid, vital and also a powerful concept, anything and everything that is alive needs reproduction to remain in life ..it is true for a nation too. We do need to renew our commitment towards our motherland, every now and then to see which way are we going to steer this nation into. I’m not someone qualified or even capable of giving the idea of new India .. its complete contours, but because I’m as much an Indian and therefore, must have a view.

In the new India .. we must have these from the old India continue, is what I'd like to argue!

Regard: For our glorious past, we must make concerted & continuous effort to protect our history .. the generation ahead of us deserves to know the truth, whole of it. They need to know about Gandhi, Chandra Sekhar Azad as much as they should know about Mughals, & the Ashokas. History must not be allowed to be retold to make a political argument or emboss someone’s contribution beyond his deed or to silent the others. You may choose to not follow or like Nehru but you can’t take him out of the textbooks, that will be an injustice to the Idea of new India. Because we became a nation on the principles of truth and non violence. So we gotta tell the truth! 

Respect : We have to respect everyone, even our opponents. Gandhi ji once said, the kind of freedom that disallows or disincentivizes my opponents from airing their difference with me when I’m in power .. such freedom is undesirable and I wouldn’t want it. ( these weren't his exact words, I’m telling the story with my own expression but the meaning has been kept intact). So, we gotta respect difference of opinion even in the new shiny India. We do not have to agree with whatever we do not like or find not right .. but we must not gag others.

Responsibility: All of us have the responsibility to live up to the ideals on which India was formed. We became one on the guiding principles of plurality. "Progress can be peaceful" should be pursued as a core belief, it doesn’t have to be strenuous and fierce at all times. And to make it happen, we only have to accept that the dignity of humans is sacrosanct. Civility has been relevant in the old India and will be useful in the new India too, must be continued with. It is upon us to be welcoming of change, accepting of diversity that surrounds us in all directions. No nation can exist without conforming to a set of laws, therefore we must remain lawful, in all that we do, big and small.

Democracy is an entrant from the Modern India and it is an amazing thing ; we must take it forward to all shapes and corners of new India too.

With these thoughts .. I’d like to wish each one of you a very happy Independence Day.

I leave you with a video message from Indians who have to say what freedom means to them 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lT16PIhAak) 

See you in the next one!

Kanhaiya Laal, a living legend!

The only thing ordinary about this man is perhaps his appearance, behind his humble attire, clam being & sweet smile, lives a man who has been saving human lives for 47 long years, as many as 486 lives saved on record and perhaps many others which would have remained unregistered, untold and thus unknown - story of real-life hero Kanhaiya laal ji is anything but ordinary. Height is not the only thing he has in common with the great Mahatma Gandhi, this is not an exaggeration, he also is a firm believer in God, subscribes to the currency of goodness and is genuinely rooted in kindness .. he may have a few earthly possessions but nothing as compared to what he could have accumulated if he lived a life like most of us do, his presence is saintly. He comes from a place that has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons these days, Chittorgarh, the place where many believe Rani Padmavati once lived in flesh and blood .. historians do not agree but she has become so relevant to a large section of our society today that historical fact based following may seem losing relevance to many like you & me.

Yesterday, on the eve of Republic day, our workplace was buzzing with excitement, people were dressed in ethnic clothing and generally, the mood was happy and upbeat. Moving from one meeting to another, I did catch, murmurs about someone really special coming to our workplace. Little did I then know that the man who would come will have such huge screen presence. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much .. but boy, I was so wrong!

The stage was set, the camera began to roll, people stopped farming on their keyboards and stood to face the projector which had Shuttl banner beamed on it. I was in a meeting with team members .. trying to cover a few items. That is when another co-worker began to test the mic, I knew it was time to close the discussion. We walked out on a promise to gather again, after the event. I let my Mac rest on my workstation and stood like everyone else in amusement unaware of what was to follow. Till then, all I knew was that one of our business associates was to come over and share with us his story and then in walked the man himself, followed by his wife, his only daughter, and younger son; quietly ...almost unnoticeable.

We welcomed him with thunderous applauds, he came and occupied the seat that we had set for him, right in front of the camera, our Co-Founder, Deepanshu, extended warm welcome to him on behalf of all Shuttlers and began to tell us who he was and what were we up to - the slide said 486*

In the following moments, we saw on the projector image of the president medal certificate, a couple of newspaper clippings, a book dedication .. enough pieces of evidence to know that he had saved those many lives, all strangers in last 47 yrs; all of us were awestruck, surprised, speechless & stunned.

Let’s accept this - we’re a generation that spends our time debating, Donald Trump and Modi, iOS Vs Andriod, Indian holiday or vacation overseas, the new car, the new tech, the awesome bike, low carb - high protein - these constitute 80% of our non-work related discussions! Here we had a man who had saved more people than we actually knew, speaking to us... telling his tale. I had not expected this!! I was touched, moved beyond expression, I felt emotions that I had not felt in a long time.

He narrated his stories to us, reluctantly, he is a simple man with lofty ideals; he doesn’t enjoy talking about the work that he has done. Doesn’t, count it as anything special. For him, saving lives, helping others selflessly and relentlessly are regular things unworthy of appreciation, let alone applaud. He has had a particularly tough childhood as he was an orphan, growing up in a village without the amenities deemed bare minimum and perhaps it is that special background that gives his character that strength and grit it takes for a normal human to become Kanhaiya Laal. He tells us that it all started in scout guard assessment session where he along with a bunch of classmates had gathered at a kund (water body) for swimming exam, and his teacher who he referred to as “Mastar Saheb” had made him the in-charge of the activity. He had instructions to sit atop and watch over the kids. Things were moving as planned and then suddenly, he says, he felt something was wrong, the intuition of someone drowning. He without applying much thought simply jumped into what was two and a half story deep dive and saved his friend. He took him out of the water and gave the victim mouth to mouth respiration, surrounded by other boys.His teacher happened to call him and without finding out why-why he may have jumped, wiped him thrice and hard.. it was painful but he did not quite reveal himself the reason for his unexpected disobedience and that is when a bunch of kids approached the teacher narrating how "Kanah", he was lovingly called that, had saved a life. His teacher was in tears and said things to him that he still remembers, clearly, so much so that while narrating he felt goosebumps.

That incident, he says, was the turning point of his life. He said that the joy he felt after saving his friend's life was unprecedented, he said .. it felt godly, divine in some sense. He had found his purpose in life, his higher calling. His teacher did not keep the incident to himself got him nominated for President’s bravery award which he won too. He migrated to Delhi, mortgaged the very medal and certificates years later to get cash to start selling coconut strips at crossroads of Delhi, he fondly remembers that.. from there on .. Kanhaiya ji, moved from strengths to strength, took many jobs, achieved stability, married a lovely lady, become father of three kids - but while all of this was one, his mission of saving lives ran parallel uninterrupted and unfettered.

He emphasized on the fact that he is an ardent believer in GOD and has unending faith in Ma Bhavani. He says God and God alone does all the good that is there in the world.Humbly, dismisses his great doings as those being mere acts of obedience to God’s will. On his Auto he started carrying anyone he would spot on the road hurt with an accident to the hospital, often returned home without any cash to pay for the food and other essentials for his family.Had to face innumerable humiliation and difficulties financially as well as socially. People doubted him, questioned his motived, confronted him violently, he even had to make many trips to courts and police stations. All of this when he was only trying to help, mostly selflessly, but he did not give up and his amazing family stood by him in the face of most difficult and demanding circumstances.

He shared with us many stories, how he kept doing the noble deed in 1984 when the infamous Sikh massacre happened to things more recent when he with others followed up the Apex court to get the ruling passed which doesn’t require those helping accident victims to reveal their identity and that medical aid is provided for without preliminary paperwork. He has won numerous awards and recognition but still lives a life of anonymity. Still has to struggle to meet the needs of his family. He surely has made progress, from having nothing at all to the owner of a couple of buses and cars and other things but his most prized earning is the lives that he has selflessly saved.

Books and numerous newspaper articles have been dedicated to him but saint that he is, he remains completely untouched by what people feel about him.

In him, I found a real-life hero, someone who is so rooted in the cause of helping others selflessly that he doesn’t care about anything else as much. He could have easily become one of us but he made the tough choice of remaining Kanhaiya Lal. One who is the true embodiment of caring, love, sacrifice, and humanity. Taking our questions he said, that the world is full of people like him ( you and I know, that is not true) and that all of us should do the right thing which is helping others selflessly and always. In 47 yrs old struggle he did not deter.

It was intensely difficult for me to continue doing what I was busy in before he started his narration after he had left .. he set us all aboard a very different thought ferry. 

His story .. poses a question to us all .. do we do enough for others?

Think about it. Happy Republic day.

Is being nice beyond business?

The human race has made significant progress since it came into being. We’re no longer naked creatures chasing animals barefoot with the hope of satisfying pangs of hunger. We're evolved and now have greater goals to go after, we’ve put man on the moon, many machines made by us circle celestial objects we still know very little about, we however still chase, not animals, but humans for quicker food deliveries sometimes and on other occasions one another for nothing of value.

We’ve not only devised language and formalized dialects but have also quite extensively defined the design of civility and organized most of our relations and contacts. We’re born under medical supervision, sent to institutions to gather education & know-how, we fall in love .. marry the person in fan fare and start another circle of life with our partner.

All of us want to succeed at everything that we do, we wish to gain, to accumulate, to rise above the rest, be known, be valued and above all, have all that we want right within our comfortable reach.

If this were to be told in fewer word, perhaps, saying that we wish to be profitable always won’t be an unfair representation. 

All of that is very good.

But have we in the process become a little less human? Have we forgotten to believe that passim isn't necessarily deep; nor optimism shallow? Have we become so insecure that we care way too much about things that don’t really matter that much? 

Have we lost the need to be in constant awareness of how short life is & how little we ultimately lose from risking everything?  

Let’s not forget, what the world now is .. is nearly a pale shadow of what it could be one day.. we are still at the beginning of history, in that sense. It is upon us to make that a reality - it doesn’t require much of an effort beyond the ask of being virtuous. 

It is perhaps easier for me to lecture on history, Indian independence, and even world history to a certain extent but "being nice" isn't really something that I have read but I deeply feel and care about, the need to be "nice" - so sharing.

I think, to be good, we really need to as step one shed the load of insecurity that we carry with us, by doing so the unpleasantness that it creates will on its own disappear making room for much desired "goodness".

To make it happen all of us would need our own little toolkits - below is mine. Disclaimer: May or may not work for you :)  

Resilience - The art of keeping going even when things are going dark, accepting reverse as normal refusing to frightened others with one's own fear, remembering that human nature, in the end, is reassuringly tough.     

Empathy - The capacity to connect imaginative with the sufferings and unique experiences of another person, the courage to become someone else and the desire to help.

Sacrifice - The ability to give up on something dear for the sake of others with a smile.

Politeness- It is going beyond having good manners and being nice it is the conscious desire to not hurt anyone on purpose.

Humour - The ability to see the funny side of situations of all kinds. It is integral to wisdom, it is our ability to softly locate the gap between what is and what should have been. Like many other human emotions, humor also springs from disappointment but only when optimally & creatively channeled.   

And at last, would mention Forgiveness and Most important- HOPE for a better tomorrow.

Those of you who know me would have heard this many a times from me .. let me repeat it here as well - being nice costs nothing.

On that note .. time for me to leave .. see you on another side.