Discovery of Nehru

Remembering Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru on his 130th birthday. I write this particularly as we live in a time of hate, when he is the most “hated” and discussed figure in the Indian political arena. Vilifying Nehru with fake news and photoshopped images has become the favorite pastime of digital trolls and born haters. It could be jealousy or desperation that drives right-wing politics to ignore or even erase him from the pages of history, but the more they ignore him, the more he will be loved and remembered—because Nehru’s legacy is etched indelibly in the making of India. Gossiping about others’ private lives is like a national sport for us, and Nehru is perhaps the most misunderstood person and a convenient target for gossip-mongers. People never tire of speaking about his philandering or his relationship with Edwina Mountbatten, as if Nehru is defined solely by his relationships with women. A close relationship between a man and a woman need not necessarily be physical; it could be spiritual, emotional, or intellectual. But when you are frustrated and carry sex in your head 24/7, you cannot see beyond that. Platonic love doesn’t exist for you. However, an erudite, refined, and charming Nehru might well have attracted women, and as a widower he was committing no crime. Jealousy, after all, cannot be cured. Though I had a penchant for biographies of great personalities, as a stupid and rebellious teenager I was never keen to read about Nehru or even Gandhi—because Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, and Che were the flavors of the season, plus those evergreen Latin American authors. My discovery of Nehru began with Glimpses of World History, and I couldn’t help but adore his sunny personality. His intellect, varied interests, and vast knowledge of almost every subject are truly appealing, but his aesthetic sense and sensitivity are even more endearing qualities—and definitely a rarity among statesmen. Nehru might have made mistakes and might have been humiliated by the Machiavellian designs of China; he paid for it with his life, never recovering from that huge betrayal until his death in 1964. An idealistic Nehru’s thoughts and views on nations, people, and issues were greatly influenced by Gandhiji, who was his mentor and whom he considered a father figure. Gandhiji was for disbanding the armed forces, and the pacifist Mahatma’s influence might well have left its mark on many of Nehru’s political decisions. Haters can hate, but Nehru will remain a shining star on the horizon of world leaders. No politician to date can match the intellectual prowess and creative genius of Nehru. Gandhi, who had been Nehru’s mentor for more than thirty years, had no doubt that Nehru was a true jawahar (jewel).

Ode to Love

Love is a perennial theme for literature, films.music and other art forms  around the world.The Malayalam film, ‘Enu Ninte Moideen’(Yours forever Moideen)which I watched recently, is a real tribute to love. This real life story of two young hearts belong to different community, in the 50s of Kerala is exceptional in many respects, especially due to the unparallel sacrifice in the love-history of the world. Based on the life story  of Kanchanamala and Moideen, a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy who had fell in love against the wishes of their family, the film celebrates love with  its beauty and tears. I couldn’t help but think of prophetic author Kahlil Gibran’s words while watching the film as those words appears to have written for them.

“But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully’

   Love was their oxygen and the beauty of their  Platonic love is both enlightening and inspiring. They breathed love and spoke the language of love which others couldn’t realize.Perhaps the spiritual depth of their love had enabled them to endure the ordeal that they had to face for that.The ultimate sacrifice of Kanchana  and of Moideen for their love in the  Kerala of 50s’ might be beyond the comprehension of today’s smart phone generation.They had to face death threat,extreme physical and mental torture as they belong to different religions. But their love had triumphed as love is the ultimate truth, though Moideen was snatched away from Kanchana in the guise of death. But even death had failed to separate  Moideen from Kanchana’s heart. She still  lives as the unwed widow of Moideen by looking after the social services he had begun for destitute women.They proved with their life that Love is a precious gift that elevates the spirit, in an otherwise immortal existence.

  Love can transcend the limitations of body and its desires, Kanchana and Moideen  seemed in love through ages and life after life. Their story pained me though I was so delighted to see  two pure souls  in love. I felt a deep admiration for them  while  struggling to stomach the death of Moideen .

 I left the theater with a heavy heart, as if clouds of pain burdened my soul, yet I could see  butterflies of love fluttering over me.

Nature,the beloved

‘Men may come and go, but I go on forever’, British poet Mathew Arnold had written  to celebrate the  immortality of Nature, the eternal nurturer of all beings.Nature is beyond any definition, she amuses , enlightens , excites and give  immense joy to mankind and all the beings. She expresses through her abundant wealth of greenery, scent of smiling flowers, unlimited freedom of rivers and through  ever receiving oceans.Nature is a perfect feast to the eye and soul.

Nature provides us life without any expectations, The flowers hardly aware of their beauty or the fragrance they spread around them, the river never think that she quenches the thirst of all living beings, and trees never get proud for supporting every living things. The Sun hardly prides about being the light of the world and the Moon doesn’t think it being the king of night.But we humans think highly of  ourselves, while in reality we do not give anything in return to nature or other beings except pollution, deforestation and disaster.We  are the only being that exploit  and use everything around us, we are the only beings that hardly respects Nature and other life forms on earth.  Is  intelligence makes us blindly selfish and arrogant?

 Will Nature ever forgive us for the great harm that we cause to her? Will she take revenge on us rapists and exploiters of her precious being? I do not know. But I wish if human beings were more grateful, more compassionate to know the essence of Nature and  her selfless love.

Alyan goes to a World sans Border

         Little Alyan(drowned Syrian toddler)might have gone to a world having no borders, suffering and pain.But the pic of the still body of the little boy on  Turkish sea coast had conveyed the horrors of war and  apathy of  world in silence. The  birds fly on sky neither aware of the borders nor worried about its nationality, same applies to flies,bees and countless wild animals that do not stop at the border  fearing  deportation. Humans having a higher intelligence coupled with an evolved soul made divisions amongst ourselves with  religion,race,colour and class and segregated earth with boundaries only to scare away another human being!

         We created a world that would make us insulated   in our cocoon,                              we drew borders to keep ourselves away  from others who are less fortunate than us due to historical/geographical/ political or so many other reasons. But when we started having this national identity?The developed Europe was a battlefield once  and had meddled with all parts of the world, colonized most of the world and redrew their borders,but those nations which turned away from Syrian crisis do not even seem to have a sense of history.Millions of Europeans/Jews were displaced,murdered and fled as refugees to different part of the world during world wars. But today the refugees fleeing for life are called as ‘illegal immigrants!’ Weren’t those British who migrated  to Americas,Australia and Newzland illegal immigrants? Not to mention  the brutalities and exploitation the colonisers /migrant Europeans had inflicted on the natives in Asia, America and Africa. And Haven’t Asia and Africa contributed to the prosperity of Europe?

         Another inconvenient truth is that Europe  particularly UK and US is part of the problem of present day middle east crisis, so are Arab countries like Saudi,Qatar,Kuwait etc.Suni Saudi Arabia helped rebels to fight Assad govt(Shia) in Syria at the same time helps suppress Shia protests against Sunni regime in Shia majority Bahrain, the Shias in Bahrain are denied many rights and live in kind of ghettoes.

         For me the idea of nations itself is looking at the world with a narrow perspective, we are not owners of planet earth though we pretend to be so and nobody has the right to keep all resources for themselves, besides helping another human being  in distress or any living being for that matter is the basic duty of us humans.

          We create so many imaginary identities about nation,race and religion, but what we lack in this influx of identities is the ability to love and empathise. I wish for a world where there would be no boarders, where we could rise above narrow nationalism.

Why Iraq?

           I am deeply saddened by the complete lawlessness of Iraq, a country that was the cradle of  great civilizations.The history  lessons of  Messopotamian and Babylonian civilizations often replay in my mind while thinking of Iraq.Why Iraq was attacked repeatedly? Does history repeat itself? Iraq was a battle ground for invadors,emperors and exploiters in the past, she was brutally destroyed by army of  Chenghis Khan,later the savage emperor Timur etc, but all the time she had arisen from her ashes like a phoenix bird.

        Why Iraq? Again when we have so many dictators including US alley Saudi Arabia which was the biggest exporter of Islamic fanatism, around the world, why USA had chosen Iraq to invade? Why her population are so destined to live as victims of someone’s war? It might be an irony that middle east is birth place of enlightened souls/religions and battle field of brutal wars, look like both divine and demon co-exist in this part of the world.

       The gory stories coming out from Iraq and Syria(the part of Syria which is under control of ISIS is boardering Iraq) let me down  and make my heart sink a million times.One of my friends in Delhi who had studied in Iraq in the eighties, told me  how advanced the country was then and how educated and liberated the women were there, and computer was pretty common those days in Iraq. I do not know why it happens but looks like she has been consumed by a viscious cycle of violence. Though the perpetrators may fight for a million make up reasons, the real reason is perhaps greed, the mother of all wars. All wars are fought for power and money and I am sure this ISIS is using religion as a mask to brain wash the youth as it is the effective tool on emotionally vulnerable youth. The heads of ISIS were members of former dictator Saddam’s govt and his Bath party speak volumes about the real objective of advancing their influence on the desert land.

      There are people who quote from Quran to establish their point that it advocates murder of non believers, but as I hardly read it, I do not want to comment on that.My Muslim friend in Delhi says that a ‘True Muslim would never rape a girl/woman,’ and about the brutalities of ISIS he would say ‘Woh bilkul pagal hain(they are completely crazy) and Quran never said so’

      There were times I believed that Islam was part of the problem,perhaps it is not Islam, but dark aspect of humanity. In India people have a strong anti-Islam feeling ingrained in them due to our history of Islamic invasions and terrorism. But though India is the second largest Muslim population in the world very few Muslims here sympathise with ISIS, the reasons can be varied, ISIS seems to appeal the hardened desert people where the socio/political atmosphere are quite different, they are used to dictatorship,oppression and exploitation where as Indians are brought up in a multi cultural,mutli lingual,multi religious society and are hardly experienced dictatorship.

        There is conflict of interest the way USA/West deal with other part of world, actually what on earth made US believe that installing a Shia regime in Sunni majority Iraq would end the problem where Sunni-Shia fight is as old as Islamic history. Now US leaves Iraq to  their fate after having messed up with the country, perhaps with a relief that enemy is not in their backyard.

       World seems very insane, often we fail to ask relevant questions as who weaponises ISIS? Who makes and sells these weapons?Who finance them?Like those who use weapons those who make and sell are equally responsible for making this world a bad place. I may sound an idealist, but  why do we need huge weapons if not promote war and destruction?So we  all  either directly or indirectly are responsible in one way or other to this sorry state of planet earth.

         Having said that,I really hope some sane voice from Islam would come forward to save their young from falling prey of the viscious designs of ISIS and my prayers for Iraq(and Syria) to rise from her ashes with all her past glories and prosperity.