Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought
and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
-- Rabindranath Tagore
This was what Rabindranath wrote as a prayer to God. Well, we all know that, and being a Bengali, I know the actual bengali poem as well...we know a lot, we hoist our National Tricolour and shout "Jai Hind", we watch the Republic Day parade...but we dont DO anything!!!
I was watching the movie Rang de Basanti...I think this is the 3rd time I watched it and immaterial of where or with whom I am, I invariably cry while watching it. Those are the same tears that well up in my eyes when I hear about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose or about the young revolutionaries, the Nationalists during our Freedom struggle, or when I hear about the death of our MIG-21 pilots...it's the same!!!
When I think a bit more, I find that NO, it's NOT the same!!! The freedom fighters were killed brutally, no doubt but they were killed by a foreign government. The MiG-21 pilots are falling prey to our own corrupted politicians who are busy filling their bank balances with money got by selling the brightest and the best of the Indian citizens.
I am not in a mood to write today. Staying away from my homeland, this distance is bothering me today, I am having many conflicting thoughts...my mind is again working faster than my fingers and I am writing in a confused and clumsy way I guess.
I have been hearing much about an all-loving, all-powerful God who forgives our sins and who is changing me for the better, making me patient and kind...but today, my homeland's calling!!! "Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab humare dil mein hai!!!" My thoughts are following Rabindranath's poems again...my everlasting source of strength and compassion, the poems that show me the way when I am in a dilemma. But now, I am remembering not a prayer, but a question...the "Question" he asked God...I cannot forgive the terrorists, nor the corrupted politicians, the state-sponsored criminals of the Communist Party of India, the cruel inhuman people who are scattered all over the globe. God, I dont need anything now, just give me strength so that I can vanquish them once and for all. It is a tough task God, but I need to do my part...show me my purpose, show me my way. I will have to be your warrior Princess..."hum Bharat ki beti hai, ab utha chuki talwar..."
And I'll end this note and my thoughts about it with a line from Kaji Nazrul's "Bidrohi"..."bidrohi ronoklanto, ami sei din hobo shanto, jobe utpiriter krondon rol akashe batashe dhonibe na, atyachari r kharga kripan bheem ronobhume ronibe na, bidrohi ronoklanto, ami sei din hobo shanto..."
1 comment:
Rabindranath, a golden name in India's history is the most happiest man. Why?
The land he wished from the almighty, is the mirror image to his dream. As there is no more copyright to this poem by Viswabharati let me act, which no one else would dare. Let me edit it...
Where the mind is in fear of terrorism and the head is looking for bombs;
Where knowledge is business by educated to uneducated;
Where the world is broken up into infinitesimal parts based on religion and caste;
Where words come out from the depth of flattery;
Where tireless striving stretches its arm towards hopelessness;
Where no reason counts or matters as they are considered dead without any reason;
Where mind is full of greed, lust, anger, selfishness closing innocent way to act as a human--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country bleed.
Rabindranath the happiest man, as he never had to write this unpleasant words.
The MIG is one of the small incidents which came to limelight due to a movie. Millions of incidents happen everyday in all blocks of India, countless die and our economists say we are the 6th largest nation with a GDP of over 3 trillion. What's the use of it?
Having everything we have nothing. We have food which we export, have shelter which is overpopulated, cloth which we hate to wear as we love "fashion". 28 percent are officially uneducated and maximum of the rest are internally uneducated, blindfolded by religion... all adjectives used in above poem. Technocracy and Bureaucracy comes of no help to us anymore as Politics is the new godfather after we achieved freedom in 1947.
I don't have any solution but still love my motherland. Hope if i go back to my roots could be proud of it.
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