The Endless pursuit of Identities...

What do you identify with? What are your identities???
Such questions have the potential to probe your conscience in more ways than one!

Identities have been there and are likely to remain. They appear to be a natural aftermath of the evolution society undergoes or perhaps the human race itself experiences. But, at times I can't help wondering if there were certain frames of reference where these identities dissolved completely. If there was a plane of existence where an individual identified oneself with one's own self and nothing else.
After all, the identities imparted by nationality, religion, language, gender, caste, profession...all change their dimensions with changing time and space. Even our identities as humans gets belittled in the larger scheme of things.
Then, why not, for once, lose ourselves to something unexplained by reason, and identify ourselves as ourselves?

Many attribute poor social indicators in India to her heavy reliance on the Soviet model for all these years. Partially true, however the subsequent non-reliance has yielded no better results either. Hence, there emerges a need for a more discreet and objective introspection, a certain level of conviction and a definitive plan of action.
The staggering economic growth of 3.5% per year shot upto 9% after the reforms were introduced and it was widely accepted that India took a bold, yet inevitable step of coming out of its cocoon. But, in the midst of all this hullabaloo almost everybody comfortably ignored the obscure, yet vital statistics that build a country's economy. These statistics, given the fancy name of 'social indicators', do not merely represent the jargon blabbered at human development conferences or crafted to vent out frustrations on coffee table conversations. These figures go a long way in creating a nation's destiny, laying foundation for the tomorrow we visualise for our future generations, if at all we do so.
When one talks of child nutrition or the problem of malnourishment, the premise does not remain limited to problems of acute poverty, non-availabilty of decent livelihood options or the lacunae in the public distribution sytem, in fact, it trickles down to the very soul of our socio-economic-cultural framework, evoking questions that are subtle, yet extremely vital. Questions of whether we can realise the new world of our dreams with a generation that was brought up with empty stomachs? Can we establish the foundation of a free thinking, free-spirited society with its youth harboring underdeveloped, poorly nourished bodies and minds?
Yet another set of disturbing questions....

Narmada movement and its tangible goals

They say it was ‘Moral victory’ for the struggle. Well, anything to salvage its wounded pride or perhaps its bruised soul, if there is left any. Moreover at this juncture there isn’t much left to lose, or to gain either. This struggle remains their only link to their long lost identity, which leaves them no option except continuing the same till an undefined milestone.

Does it sound too hopeless? Well, hopeless it is. Hopelessness inspite of the support the movement receives from different pockets all over the country. Whether it is the protest of 25 social activists outside the Madhya Pradesh Bhavan in Delhi on 5^th of this month or a mass rally a week earlier in which thousands of displaced farmers gathered to protest against lathi charge and illegal arrests of NBA activists at the Khandwa Collectorate.

Support, protests, agitations induce more of them and the chain continue, but ironically leading nowhere. There is awareness and plentitude of empathy which to a great extent continues to fire the movement. But, at the end of the day, it seeks a different dimension. Solutions do not arrive while we follow the beaten path.

One does not ask to compromise with the fundamental goals of the movement, but one does seek inclusion of new ones, a certain reprioritizing and revamping of the achievables in the light of immediate concerns and changes in the national and international economic and political dynamics. One seeks victories that are more tangible in nature and eloquent enough to fuel the movement in the longer run, sustain it till the fundamental goals are realized. Such an inclusion need not necessarily be a diversification; rather it ought to emerge from the existing set of challenges. We merely need to expand our horizons and shed our ideological myopia. The needs of the displaced are multi-dimensional and ever-morphing to the changing socio-economic and political equations. Some of these needs which might seem the most unhindered and simpler to achieve, might yield dividends that are most eagerly sought for. This simplicity of theirs must not be the reason for lack of focus, for it would amount to one of the gravest mistakes on the part of the struggle.

ज्ञान वीथी में दीप जलाकर
स्वागत है नवनीत कुसुम का
जिसकी सुरभि बाँध ले मन को
ध्येय बने वह अखिल विपिन का

जो अपने जीवन का मोती
इस पथ में बिखराता जाए
उसे नमन उस कालजयी को
जो यह गीत सुनाता जाए

गीत ज्ञान की अमित सुधा का
गीत विनीत समस्त वसुधा का
आज भारती के प्रांगन में
स्वागत है इस अजेय प्रतिभा का

Gandhi's India...I dont think I know it anymore!

Gandhi Jayanti remains one of the most significant days of the year to me. Not only does it remind me of one of the phenomena of all times that existed on this earth in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, but also it reaffirms within me the faith in the values he stood for, the values of truth, non-violence and love, the values whose presence in our hearts becomes more and more significant in this increasingly violent world.
However this year Gandhi Jayanti will remind me of the massacre in Khagaria, the massacre in which 100 gunmen, suspected to be Naxalites, mercilessly butchered 16 people, including 5 children. There are several questions that brutally follow this event. Are we actually becoming a violent society? Is armed struggle the only resort a common man finds in order to get noticed politically? Where does this road to violence and curbing violence with further massive forms of violence end?
The country has witnessed fresh attempts to curb naxal insurgencies in the recent times. An overall increase in armed forces to fight terror which includes additional troops, paramillitary forces and the state police force.
One can not help wondering if it would have been much effective to channelize these resources towards curbing the real causes behind this armed rebillion continuing for the past four decades, for this rebillion has been an outcome of an outright failure of government machinery, of social justice, of development. It is an aftermath of serious injustice incurred upon the poor.
There is a lot of mending to be done and it is not an easy task either. But the process has to begin somewhere.
I am reminded of the turmoil during partition. I am reminded of the continuous satyagraha Gandhi led against this violence, a satyagraha no less significant than the one he led against the Britishers. Only this time, to his great anguish, it were his own countrymen driven mad by the surge of hatred that swept away their entire sanity. Nevertheless, he continued his resistence without a hint of violence against this phase that symbolised one of the most bloodiest times of Indian History. And then it all ended, with Gandhi being shot dead by Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948. They say that 'Mahatma Gandhi achieved in death what he had striven for in his last months of life. His murder ended forever the insensate communal killing of neighbour by neighbour in India's villages and cities.'
I wonder what it was that evoked such an extraordinary sense of remorse in the masses, that brought back their sanity and their ability to look beyond the blinding fury of hatred? Was it the death of a man who led them in a manner unprecedented in the world history and whom they failed so miserably by the incessant killing of their own brothers? Or was it the values of love, peace and non-violence so deeply engraved in their conscience that resurfaced without much effort when they saw this messiah of love succumbing to death?
Are we not the same people? Have we not inherited the same values? Is there something fundamentally different in the substance we are made of? The questions are disturbing.

Clear Air Clear Water !!!

Have you ever tried pranayama? Oh no! I am not one of the Baba Ramdev followers (although he has become synonymous to it or vice versa!), neither am I asking you to be one. But, nevertheless, pranayama happens to be one of the wonderful forms of yoga which produces amazing results, increases your stamina, builds immunity, helps the body combat serious illnesses and (to cut short) keeps you healthy.

Well, I am not writing this article to reiterate the advantages of pranayama. What I intend to do is to recount my first experience with anulom-vilom. It is a type of pranayama in which you inhale from one of the nostrils, hold your breath for a while, let the air fill inside your lungs and then exhale from the other nostril. When I tried the above exercise, I could actually feel air entering each and every bronchiole of mine. Not only was it one of the most refreshing experiences I have had, but it also made me realize how valuable a gift is it to have a bountiful of clear air around you, and how often do we overlook its presence in our lives. Don’t we always take it for granted, the presence of clear air, clear water around us?

It is high time that we pause and ponder for a moment, consider a situation when we would cease to have these wonderful gifts of nature. Of course, the moment does not stand beckoning in the realms of the very next day. Neither does it in the near future. But, it is not too far either. But, obviously we remain so oblivious of the fact. Don’t we? After all we believe in living in the present! So we do not think for a second when we throw a polyethylene bag or a wrapper on the road, or drive alone in a car to the office instead of a car pool which seems so sub-standard.

We do not feel an iota of guilt while irreversibly poisoning the world, the world we are going to leave for our coming generations, a legacy we ought to be ashamed of. But, we need not have to answer anybody? Do we? We belong to a generation that lives in the present, lives life to its fullest. Is not it?

Fashion and me...:)

'Fashion' is one of the most ambiguous yet delightful concepts I have come across. Before joining a Fashion Institute, it was a term not only alien to me but also to an extent avoidable. Avoidable, perhaps because I knew it quite superficially, never bothered to delve into the nitty-gritties involved in it, for the only concept I had been fed on, or that was presented before me was that of a ' Simple Living High Thinking' and 'Fashion' appeared to me in an absolute contradiction with the same.
And so it is to some extent.
If we are in any way influenced by the egalitarian view of life, 'Fashion' would easily appear to be nothing but a pompous display of wealth by those who are in possession of an excess of it. A bourgeoisie system that mocks upon the hungry billions that comprise two-thirds of the globe.
But hang on, is that not the case with art, music, literature? Dominated by the bourgeoisie, dependent on the elite for its mere survival.
One might argue that art, music or literature have been there since ages, signifying the uniqueness of human civilization, thriving at the very essence of human spirit, regardless of the distinctions of class....
That is very true...and so is the fact that if we shed our inhibitions, widen our perspective a little we will find that fashion has accomplished the same feat...
Fashion has more than anything else, reflected the time it has dwelled in, its mood, its psyche, often to the level of the common man.
It was the indomitable urge to be independent in thought and action which reflected in the form of khadi and swadeshi during the freedom movement...
It is the inconspicuous but inevitable presence of sari in our daily lives that made a nine yard fabric the fashion statement of the country on the global platform...
Endless examples can be cited...but what makes Fashion the most relevant in the recent times is the role it plays in building our economy and the potential it possesses in terms of providing livelihood to millions.