Pearls from Star Wars.

But beware of the Dark Side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever it dominate you destiny, consume you it will. 

Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.

Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.

Do or do not; there is no try.

These are few of the profound statements made by Master Yoda in different parts of the Star Wars , one of the very entertaining series and loaded with pearls of wisdom to guide us through the journey of life.

 

An eye for an eye !

 I started this piece on the same day Kasab was hanged. After this Afzal Guru was hanged. Today Mr. Yakub Memon  is going to be executed.  My views on the death penalty remain the same. I write this because I strongly believe that the solution to any  problem of the society anywhere on this planet has to come from much more fundamental level rather than seeking answers at the superficial levels and this act of death penalty is just one of the very shallow measures.

I just could not feel good or neutral  because Ajmal Kasab, 25 year old, a Muslim by religion, Pakistani by nationality, one of the most disliked/hated human in India, who killed many innocent people on 26th November, 2008 in Mumbai got hanged. Does it serve any purpose ? Does it make life better in anyway for those who were killed, those who survived, those who would be living with the nightmare throughout or will it act as a deterrent ? I think the answer to all these questions is no. I request you to keep your judgement in check for a few minutes or rather kindly let me have my opinion and ignore it in case you do not agree. Let us all learn to agree to disagree, life will be more peaceful!


A tragedy like this demands the following.
 1.) Taking care of the families of who got killed, specially, the forces(police, army, guards ) who laid down their lives knowing fully well that they may not come out of it.

2.) A serious introspection why this happened and how to stop it from happening again.

This needs to be done not only by the government or state, we all at our individual level have to contribute to it. I do not know how well these two important requirements are taken care of by our state or by us. I doubt if anything changed in your or my life after this ! Whenever we are under the grip of fear of any such thing happening to us, we cry hoarse what should be done by the government/state/bureaucracy etc..

Hanging Kasab was one of the things which is thought of as a step in the right direction. How does this help in achieving the above two issues is something which needs to be taken very seriously.

What did the families got ? A few days attention from the media, some award from the state. But does that take away/lessen the pain they would be undergoing ? I am sure again for a day or so this stupid question would be asked to the families- How do you feel now? Shame on all of us, who ask, who expect such questions to be answered, who listen and get a feel good factor.

Kasab, a young boy from a poor background, from Pakistan(can not ignore this factor given the fact how hostile, unfortunately, the two brother nations, feel about each other), brainwashed executed this horrible act. This is not any kind of  justification for what he did but what beats me is the following.

Such an act is unacceptable from Kasab but what about the rich, people with all means, planning in cold blood the killing of hundreds of innocent people, just for the sake of power /greed from the comforts of their drawing rooms ?  What about the perpetrators of 1984 riots in Delhi, 1992 riots in Mumbai,  2002 Gujrat riots and many other such incidents ? What stops us to ask for death sentence for all those responsible for these heinous crimes, where men, women and children were killed brutally ? But in many of these cases accountability is still to be fixed. And we, the public hardly care! Why it is okay with you and me to ignore/forget these incidents ? Just because in these cases we do not have a clear, defined enemy to shout against !  It beats me why ?  How can it be more painful when the life is taken by a so called enemy than a so called friend ?  Whatever the reason might be but it is utter hypocrisy on our parts to look at the similar incidents or rather with different order of heinousness(according to me the latter one is much more grievous), with two different looking  glasses. It would be a gross mistake to ignore the circumstances, events that led to such monstrous planned crimes !

My point is what Ajmal did along with nine others on 26/11 in Mumbai is something which is unacceptable and beyond any kind of justification from any one. What happened on that night, when almost 200 people lost their lives, Mumbai was under siege of terror and the entire nation watched this horrific ongoing for almost three days, requires much more to be done than hanging the lone surviving attacker and rejoicing it.  Kasab in this case was a miniscule pawn in the hands of some people with completely distorted understanding of life.  The incidents like this are external manifestation of  a metastatic stage of  deep rooted cancer of hatred, mistrust and greed and happen all over the world. And it does require urgency in the treatment at the root level ! I am certainly not in favour of hanging those responsible for the riots or other crimes also but we do require earnest efforts to change the mindset of such people suffering from extreme case of selfishness and greed.

Taking life of someone in any way according to me does not serve any purpose to anyone ! If it does appease to some psychologically and to some gives satisfaction of justice being done in exchange to the wrongs done to them, then there is something gone wrong very seriously with our judgements, our attitudes, as a race , which should be a serious concern for you and me. As Mahatama Gandhi put it very simply "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".

Life is fragile !

Life is fragile-first thought on my mind after hearing the news about serious illness of one of my friends, who is just thirty nine ! After struggling through a night of anxiety  over how it could not have happened or could have been detected earlier, how to be of help and comfort to them and at the same time feel less insecure about my own life, the only comforting solution to such an unpredictable situation in life that comes to my mind is that if instead of holding very tightly onto the small unit of family formed on the basis of blood relations, we have bonding and harmony with people around us, life will be less painful.  Let the feelings be less intense but with a long range. Life being just as unpredictable as it is, keeps throwing challenges big or small at us. In times like this I realise that it is just a random process, anyone any time can be next one to get hit. Also it is a matter of frame of reference again. From our frame of reference after all how much attention we pay when in a colony of ants one ends up crushing a few ! And from a much bigger frame- say top of the planet or some place further away - the entire human race will be just another such colony !! We, individually  may not matter in the grand scheme of things.  At the same time while we are in this colony things that happen around us, in our spheres of life, in our frames make an impact on our quality of life. But the only thing in our control is our reaction to the different situations. Most of the time we react much more emotionally and sensitively than required and the reason to act like that comes from our basic insecurities and fears. I feel that if we are genuinely bonded to each other based on the simple fact that we all are identical at some level and the differences between us are just on account of the diversity in nature and are here together in this journey of life with same basic needs and feelings, we shall fare much better in handling painful and disappointing events as a race as well as individually.  I do not know how much sense it makes to all but these thoughts invade my mind and give comfort and at the same time overwhelm me !

Small glimpse of the Mahakumbh 2013

One of the streets

Walking towards the sangam

View of a pontoon bridge

More people !

A difficult lesson to learn.

A time, when you feel hurt on account of the circumstances not entirely in your hands, when the ones you love, you care for unintentionally create and on top of that you feel their pain, is rather taxing. But then this is all part of being alive ! Though I would like to change many things yet again a situation where I can not fix anything but can only change the attitude to look at the scenario that makes it less painful.  It is a difficult lesson to learn but a lesson worth spending your time and energy on !  

Prisoner of my own thoughts

I am amazed at how much it has become important for me to have approval of others for what I do or say ! I did not realise it earlier so clearly that I have become almost a prisoner of my own thoughts initiated by the imaginary reactions of others.  And I can say for sure there would be only a few other such wasteful activities ! In spite of maintaining a strong external shell, the internal state has been quite fluid and messy. The consequences are becoming clear now. Being an advocate to look at life from a bigger perspective, how and where my own view became so narrow for myself is a bit puzzling to me. But then life itself is the biggest school for learning and thankfully you never outgrow it ! Now is the time to pick up a new lesson- to be happy and comfortable in your own skin.

New Year Wish !

 Here is my wish not only for the new year but the year throughout or rather all the times to come- let the life be without boundaries, boundaries of castes, creeds, colours, religions, nations. After all what life is ! Nothing but is just our stay in the transit area between the two doors- Entrance(birth) and Exit(death). Let us spend this time with the feelings of mutual trust, love and compassion, in harmony not only with ourselves but with everything and everyone around. Let us keep the life alive in us.