TREADING ON THE MILL

I believe a personal level of acceptance (Read Previous Post - Why I don't love Running) has helped me understand and look at the concept of 'running' in a completely different way. It is nothing complex, just that I feel a lot freer whenever I run, jog or sometimes 'waun' (walk+run).

All along I wondered - why conform to the norms of training? Though I never took any active measures to really ponder as to what or how I wanted to run. Now.. i want to know more.

I realise the importance of training to suit my body type and to get better with time. I had some ideas and also reading perspectives, life stories of runners helped me to get few ideas on various elements associating with running. However, it is important to start testing those perspectives one by one. I ran, ran from time to time before realising, I was not enjoying it. Instead of holding on to it tightly, I thought about rediscovering the touch by starting from the scratch.

Most would know instinctively, what's möglich and what isn't? It is a matter of effort and it might involve some time (proportional to effort) to trust those instincts and enjoy the process of training. Be it anything, just work out a pattern. Here's what I did:

When I realised I could make use of treadmill to train myself (I hated it before), I was clear as to why I never fancied myself training on a treadmill before. It's simple - I never gave time to the nuances of treadmill training and instead preferred running outside, where I could control speeds and choose roads at will.

Now, I still love running outside but what's changed is that - I do not mind using treadmills. Acclimatising to ever changing seasonal weather also helped me to decide to give treadmill a go.

Ok, coming back to the pattern. This technique is a work in progress. More work has been done and so I can comment on the progress I have had so far. Have a target time and commit to engage yourself on the treadmill - it helped me to define a direction because it was a personal project.

I would suggest 'music' helps - but it masks the feelings you undergo during this process of training. I prefer to hear my feelings out during training and focus on achieving a zone where I just run, oblivious to what's happening around me. Again, choose the method that aids you to train better! To me, I get a lot of ideas if I listen to my thoughts on how to make this process of training better.

Start by selecting a basic walking speed, a factor which indicates the km/h or miles/h. When you start to feel comfortable walking, shake up the order - plan to move outside your comfort zone gradually.

I devised a test on myself to simulate the outdoor running conditions at will. No, it isn't the 3D views of my surroundings! I constantly increase the speed by 0.1 km/h every 30 seconds. I start my training with - say 7 km/h (again this is my comfort zone). A gentle walk for about a minute or two and then I start jogging. The moment I start to jog, I increase the speed by a factor of 0.1 and continue this trend every 30 seconds. Now, my concentration is focussed for those 30s and multiply into as many intervals as you can. My target is not to run more than 5km at any point in time. Start at some speed, run, walk, jog for some time and track your progress.

We all love change for the better. The tougher part is the path. I believe humans are creatures of evolution and not revolution in the long run. So keeping this in mind, my training involves a gradual increase of speed. It does not harm you and will only improve your fitness levels and more importantly the confidence levels. Who doesn't want to feel better? This method of training is one such way of creating 'those feel good factors' within you.

And why am I doing this? I believe in testing my abilities and move towards excellence if not perfection during my lifetime. So I pick up hobbies (trial and error), habits that trigger my brain, fuels my creativity and test my limits. I love experimenting in something I fancy or have an inclination for shaking up the norms from time to time. 

I don't love Running!

I must admit, I took to treadmill very late in my life as a basis of training. There is something about these treadmills that create a feeling of 'suffocation' while I am on it. And this feeling stayed on with me until very recently.

Eureka! It took some beating to accept that I do not prefer treadmills and more importantly I am not a huge lover of running. I prefer running - but I am not a big fan of it. I run when it is needed, I sprint when I least expect it and I speed walk as a matter of habit.

The bottom line is - I don't love running. Oh, this sounds very different from saying - 'I hate running', which I clearly don't. Isn't it?

Now that 'particular ego' has been conquered, let me move on. It has been so far a smooth sailing in the past few weeks when it comes to running. Mind, body and my inner soul connects beautifully whenever I wish to run. The only question I had to answer was - How much is too much?

From the time in college, I began expecting too much out of myself and ended up running 21 km and several 10 km runs. I had injuries to my ankle (not while running) which made me feel not to run for close to two years until the time I started to run again in Doha, Qatar. After having completed few 10 km runs in the past year and a half (five), I realised one important thing - 'I do not enjoy running for more than 30 minutes'.

Yes, it's me! It took me time to come to this level of understanding after having ran in excess of an hour all these years. What a revelation, phew!

Now, I revel in my 5 km runs and not sure how long will this last. However, I must admit I never relished so much during these 20 to 30 minutes of run than I ever had in my 10 years of running life. I believe that's where I learnt a key message - "It doesn't matter where and how you do it as long as you like the process of doing it in the overall scheme of things". And another important message - 'Run your own race'.

This belief of 'enjoyment in the process of running' is the my secret of sorts for constant motivation to turn up any given day and run. And while I am at it, one never knows if this expand my boundaries! and who knows few years down the line, I will be enjoying running the entire duration of 60 minutes or more. For now, I let myself savour this new 'discovery' within me.

Like I said - 'I don't love running' but I am more comfortable with the idea and benefits of it whenever I run these days. And in fact, this discovery has only made me run more regularly and consistently than I ever did in my entire life. To top it, it doesn't matter where and what I run on! 

The first time when I heard Manna Dey sing

My cousin Harish and I used to visit our maternal grandparents to spend our summer holidays in a tiny village called ‘Sirsangi’ located in North of Karnataka and was part of the Belgaum district. My father used to drop me there each year, an overnight journey by bus. This was something I did religiously till I was about 8 years of age and Harish used to join me over there.

Staying with grandparents for a period in excess of two months was exciting to us. Those cartons of Frooti’s, unlimited supply of mangoes, sitting inside the official jeep imitating Sunny our driver, playing in the house garden, visiting places of interest nearby, cricket and not to forget the wrath we faced from our maternal aunt for staying outside for long hours under the sun. We feared her though we loved her so much because of her expression of angst; she used to place her teeth on her lips holding a stick in her hand chasing us when we refused to come home. We eventually did end up at home at noon because of scorching heat and to have lunch.

Sirsangi being a village had repeated problems of electricity back then. Al though there were quite a number of historical sites, we seldom went out. Even if we did, I cannot recall the importance of those places. My grandmother was strict and never allowed us to venture outside the community boundary walls by ourselves. We were allowed to play in the huge open field which separated my grandpa’s office and our home.

When staying out and playing became mundane (which used to happen each day) we pleaded with our maternal aunt to switch on the TV. And we pleaded her more when there was electricity. Apart from weekends, the television programmes during daytime did not appeal us. There were no cartoons or no fights on TV. It was boring until one day we saw my grandfather bringing in a new piece of gadget and placed under the TV rack. It was a Video Cassette Recorder (VCR).

With the VCR, came a video cassette sent from Bangalore which played for an hour. It had songs from English, Kannada, Tamil and cartoons. If I remember correctly, the fifth song of the recording was a B/W video of a Hindi song. At first, it was boring and we didn’t quite know how to operate the remote and moreover my aunt would be away doing her household chores and she knew where the remote was. Nevertheless, we committed ourselves each time to watch the tape end to end.

All I remember from the song is that – there is a small gathering of people both kids and adults and behind them sat an elderly gentleman, rocking the chair. His walking stick is visible placed beside him and also seen is him patting a young girl’s head who is seated below next to the chair. There is a lady playing the piano and within seconds, he starts to utter words in phrases which had a sense of melody. Not that we knew anything about it then.

He goes on singing and the camera shifts to an idol to whom he is referring to in the song. The children who are seated also join him forming a chorus which is used as a buffer between his lines and the theme music.

 Next scene, I see a young lady away from this group in a room getting up, irritated by the song decides to shut the windows and frenetically tries to open the door of her room, but in vain. She seemed unhappy, restless and doesn’t quite know what to do. As kids looking at this video then, we too didn’t know what was happening.

The scene then shifts to the gentleman who continues to sing. At this point, it becomes unbearable to this young lady who is shown closing her ears trying hard to not just hear what’s been sung. She is not a happy person from the looks of it. The song proceeds and parallely this poor lady is shown with her tears locked in a room and unable to break free.

This is how I looked at the video and each time (innumerable times) I have watched this video I always wondered why she was crying. I would have asked my grandfather or my aunt about this or even discussed with Harish but the conversation never went on for a long time. In any case, how would they know; the only thing I remember my grandfather saying was that, he had watched this movie before my mother was born.

As soon as this song was over there was another song playing, a new adventure of 4-5 minutes set in a totally different world with another set of actors, actresses and scenarios. And in between these songs from different genre came two episodes of Tom and Jerry and an episode of Goofy.

In 1993, my grandfather retired from the services and he settled down in rural Bangalore. The VCR was neatly packed and I never saw it opened again since the shift. Even today, twenty years later it is somewhere sealed in one of the storage cabinets but no one knows where. It became redundant with each year since the advent of cable television, VCDs, DVDs and now with YouTube.

Years later sometime towards the end of the millennium, I heard this song again. The name of the movie ‘Seema’; the elderly gentleman in the video was Balraj Sahni and the furious, frustrated young girl so to speak was none other than ex-Miss India of 1950’s Nutan. The movie was released in mid 1950’s and till date I have not watched this movie and I do not know the story. My curiosity to know why she suffered during the song also died with time. And yet even today the song remains close to my heart.

It might not be the first old song I would have heard in my life, but I am quite sure ‘Tu Pyaar ka Saagar’ is not too far behind. In fact, I have watched the video of this song close to 50 times or more even before I was ten years of age. In that sense it has been ingrained just like many other songs in that video cassette.

Image Courtesy - Frontline India

This was the only song in the movie which was sung by Manna Dey. He took his last breath today in Bangalore and the first thing that came to my mind was this song. In fact every time the name Manna Dey was mentioned in any of my conversations, this song and the picturisation of the same flashes scene by scene. 

Over the period of time, I have heard many of his other songs on the radio, tape recorder, on a CD player and YouTube but none came close to ‘Tu Pyaar ka Saagar’. 

Forget about changing the entire India - How about changing our immediate surroundings??

Every day when I walk from our ‘new’ home to catch a train or a bus, my mind doesn’t stop but notice the little things around it. Be it the walking zones, restricted parking lots, pedestrian walk ways on busy roads, free drinking water fountains, sheltered bus stops with time table, multi-purpose shops, post office, banks, ATMs, parks, primary school, high school, kindergarten, play home, play grounds, restaurants, cafes, fitness centre, sports complex, dedicated garbage and recycle bins and their respective locations, trees planted, florist garden, town hall, places of worship  and a Gemeinde, in simple terms it is a municipality or a corporation office. Mind you, this is a ‘dorf’- German translation for a village and not the main city itself.

This serene village is close to the main city of Zurich. This locality reminds me of my layout, as it is termed in Bangalore. My locality in Bangalore has almost everything this village has, just that it is more chaotic and that chaos is down to lack of simple practices being adopted with time. Though there are zones of calmness, you are never away from the disorderliness. Not an intolerable situation, it just requires a degree of attention and sustained maintenance to make the change from the chaotic state. The idea is to reduce the chaos and not eliminate it.

The point that amazed me ever since I got a taste of Switzerland (since 2009) is its policy of dividing the small country into smaller Cantons (states) and each state into petite zones (Gemeinde). Each Canton has a different set of rules and four languages are spread out in these 26 Cantons; English being not one of these four languages (German, French, Italian and Romansch). On a larger scale, India resembles this system.

Depending on the region you come from, the primary language dominates the area. English is slowly making its way into the Swiss culture, though it is not compulsory to know it.

In this little country of approximately 41,000 m², there are close to 2,500 municipalities. India too has a similar mechanism. We have Union Government, states, divisions, districts, taluka (Tehsil or Mandal) which in turn is divided into Municipal Corporations, City Municipal Council, Town Municipal Council, City Panchayat or Gram Panchayat.

Any geographical location (with the best of my knowledge) in India can be traced to one of the aforementioned administrative structure of India.

Having established the basics facts and figures, the key aspect to development comes in the model of ‘drop management’. I guess I am coining this term with respect to citizens or residents becoming responsible for their nearby surroundings as a means to community development. Just like that tiny drop in an ocean. India is nothing but an ocean of people and we are all but a drop.

For starters - How many of us have to compulsorily register in the local ward before living in a particular locality? Do we have such a rule? If yes, I have not seen it being enforced and if not, why don’t we appeal to respective local wards to have such a register, which maintains the record of all the individuals that lives in that particular locality?

It is a simple process. Land-lord or a builder of a newly constructed apartment must have a clause to have a future resident/owner in the local ward office as a part of the process. It starts with this, and in the longer run, helps many residents in getting their voter ids or having to show their proof of residence and what not. A simple letter of authorisation or a local ID card is good enough. The newly built apartment complexes have such security measures to keep a check on their residents. But such issues are privately managed and lack authenticity as a proof of residence. This will also eliminate the hassles of running around houses to collect data for census or to enrol for the Aadhar card.

I have not voted when I had the only opportunity back in 2008. Since then, I have never been in my home town during the elections. And like me there are plenty of them, who were muffled by not having their names in the Voter’s list. Such confusion could have been avoided, if there were to be a simple registering process when any new occupant moves in to a new place. And when there is a need of shifting to another place or a different ward, de-registration is a process through which one can register in another municipality or ward by simply showing the deregistration letter. Similar registrations must be encouraged for private and other business establishments.

I believe this process will atleast streamline the residents * with proper housing. I know there are a lot of private associations that does this work. But, however it is, unless government is involved even at a local level, the changes and its impact will fade away. Just make it a rule, and enforce it and soon it becomes a habit.

   

Let the municipality or a ward collect a small tax from the residents if required and improvements can be seen within the ward. It would also be encouraging, if provisions are made for individuals to volunteer in their free time in getting few things done for the local area.

Secondly - To sort the parking mess, have zones marked with clear lines to highlight parking. Else collect fines, which can only be used to improve the area. Free parking, dedicated parking and public parking with a nominal fee can be allotted in each of the areas. Yes, this means you cannot always get a slot right in front of the place of interest. Well, aren’t we experiencing this already?

Thirdly - Garbage disposal is also an issue to deal with. Somewhere things have to change on this front. Throwing whatever comes to the dustbin will not help the slowly evolving recycling industries in India. There are glass, plastic bottles, cartons, papers, organic waste and other miscellaneous waste. Have a proper time table for collecting each of such wastes or alternatively provide few stations where resident and commercial establishments can come and dispose plastic wastes, glass wastes, cartons, papers and organic wastes respectively. It might be difficult initially, but with such provisions, you can expect cleaner surroundings.

Lastly - Most of the residents have dogs and pets. It is important they take care of the dump while they are on a stroll. A provision for disposal pet covers can be provided to ensure, the pet owner does this job of clean up act on public roads. Why would you expect government to clean for your pet’s mess?

And street dogs – It is the ward’s responsibility to ensure they find a proper shelter. Well, someone has to care right. It is in the neighbourhood looking for a shelter.

The point I have mentioned may not be the first time people would have thought this way. To me, developing India as a whole is impossible and hence I won’t even think about it. I would not want to waste the time and resources which cannot be entirely monitored unless a larger group is involved across India. So why don’t we take a good look at our surroundings, understand it better and deal with it in a best possible way? Idealistic – Yes, that’s how it looks like and that is how ideas come to reality.

This is not an instant process but not an impossible task either. With generations getting exposed to global best practices in keeping the surroundings and neighbourhood cleaner, I am confident it is a matter of initiation and acting locally while thinking globally. This way, drop by drop each ward can take care of itself and when looked as a whole, the district, the state and country appears better. Just give it a little effort and time; results will be there to be seen.

*Note: There are issues about illegal housing. A process of registration helps new residents to identify houses that are legal vs. Illegal establishments. It is not that citizens are not smart or in-disciplined, what we all lack is awareness.

A Tribute to the Ever Green Star....... Romancing Life Forever

“Hai Apna Dil tho Awara” (movie Solva Saal), these words were slightly inquisitive to me as a child and I vividly remember listening to this in the tape recorder. My maternal aunt, who used to hymn this song repeatedly, played the record many a times. I didn't know who the actor was and what was the song all about. I was three or even four and till date, there are glimpses of me holding onto our drawing room sofa and above me was the cassette player. Few years later, I got to know the actor being Dev Anand and my aunt was just one among million fans of his.

Interestingly enough, as a eight year old kid, the movie I enjoyed watching was ‘Awwal Number’ not because of the story but because of the cricket in it. I lived my school years watching his movies sporadically as and when it appeared on television, until one fine day....

That particular moment happened sometime in 2000, as I was looking for some old classics, I found this CD. Mohd Rafi and Dev Anand and thus started a special journey. ‘Tere Mere Sapne Ab Ek Rang Hai.....’

I had three weeks before my final exam and I was hooked to this song. The movie was Guide and it starred Waheeda Rehman alongside Dev Anand. R.K Narayan had written the novel and Dev Anand had produced this movie which was directed by his younger brother Vijay. Looking back, the curiosity of Guide took me deep into my hobby of researching movies. Prior to this, I knew facts of some movies but never went a step ahead in knowing the intricacies of it. I wanted to know why such a song existed in the movie Guide. Why is the title of the movie ‘Guide’? Why not any other Hindi name? 

With such heavy thoughts, I was not entirely focused on the upcoming exams. While I was solving problems in the college library, and while picking up books, I saw the novel ‘Guide’ lying on the table next to a rack. Instead of two books of mathematics, I took one and other being ‘Guide.’

I so wished Guide to be part of my English class, it would have helped me reading and look like a stud in front of my English teachers (mostly they were females). But my thirst for knowing more about Guide overpowered any such thoughts and seamlessly, I began reading. The story of Raju, the Guide his encounter with Rosy, the dancer and her recluse husband Marcos and Raju’s friend Gaffur, the driver; I could visualise why such a song would have been written. I felt at the end of Guide, it wasn't just about Raju I wanted to know, it was about the man and his movies that brought ‘Raju’ to the screen. Like a good boy, I finished my exams and then started my quest on knowing more on Dev Anand movies.

My mom was a kid and really young when Dev Anand was at his peak and hence my information was limited, nevertheless she provided a lot of facts concerning him. It so happened while spending post exam holidays with my grandparents I got to know more about my grandpa’s fascination for movies and wanted to know more about the movies he used to watch and in particular about Dev Anand. 

Just to give an idea, my maternal grandfather is a great conversationalist and let it be any topic, he would have his opinion and always in a way the other person would want to hear. He made people laugh while conversing and yet he provided man important details; I really like that thing in him. 

We started our conversation on movies and by that time my quotient on Old Hindi movies was getting enriched with many internet researchers and by reading backdated issues of Filmfare (I used to subscribe them) and the introduction of Star Gold channel on television. I was fifteen and few months older by this time as I went about watching his movies and collecting all his favourite songs.

His movies echoed something new each time since his debut in 1946. After his debut in ‘Hum Ek Hain’ he had to wait a good two years before he was toasted as the next big thing. The 1948 movie ‘Ziddi’ made him an instant superstar and raving on the success, Dev Saab got into the movie production business not surprisingly the production name was Navketan International was formed in 1949-50. Navketan means ‘newness’.

He was successfully paired with established actress Suraiya and even was left heartbroken when his proposal was rejected by Suraiya grandmother because of religious issues. Dev Saab and Suraiya made seven movies together and all were a success at the box-office. The last of the seven movies was released in 1951.

I remember watching the movie ‘Taxi driver’ on a Sunday morning long time ago. I was fascinated by the movie titles he came up with, especially the English titles. I am not sure if this was due to his heavy Hollywood influence or his background in English literature. Nevertheless, his titles were unique to the movie generation of the 1950’s and next. House No. 44, C.I.D, Paying Guest, Love Marriage, Jewel Thief, Gambler etc. It was during the filming of ‘Taxi driver’, he got interested in Mona Singh aka Kalpana Karthik and married after the movie got released. The pair went steady till date.

In my short movie research history, I can say no one has been given such adulation in spite of how movies performed in the box-office. Since 1971, he made 33 movies (latest being ‘Charge sheet’ which released in Sep 2011) but none hit the top mark. But yet, he went on..... Reminds me of the line ‘Mein Zindagi ka saath Nibata Chal Gaya’ from Hum Dono, the very same song I remember my granny hymning while cooking my favourite dishes. She gives a smile and has her own memory of Dev Anand. She remembers ‘Hum Dono’ a lot, which happens to be one of the first double acting movies in the Indian movie history.

Widely termed as the Gregory Peck of Bollywood, he had created his own niche in the movie industry. Be it dialogue delivery, the head nods or the style with which he went about making movies; it was creative in motion. He introduced the gangster movies to Indian audience, the first stand out romantic hero of Bollywood, an experimenter having many pot-boilers to his credit and the songs. Oh yes, the songs that will remain forever with ages to come. No wonder he chose the title ‘Romancing Life’ as the name for his autobiography.

He is no more and the great towering personality of positivity has left the world. Dev Saab known as the ‘ever green’ star was always full of life, a life filled with optimism. Again my mind goes back to the movie Guide and I remember the line, ‘Aaj phir Jeene ki Tamanna Hai’ (I would like to live again today) and it was how he lived his 88 years living each day. 

My Thoughts on Freedom on 'A Wednesday'

At first go, it seemed like – Man, I should have watched it when Saagar’s (a good friend of mine from college) mom recommended me this movie way back in 2008. Since that day, I never really bothered to watch or think too much about the movie. I was on my way to higher studies and this movie never crossed my mind until few days ago when I saw a status on my wife’s Facebook wall. The status read this way - “I was watching A Wednesday some days back and loved it for the sheer cheek of Nassiruddin Shah as a common stupid man! I think now we need more and more of them!!”

I didn’t look at the reviews and neither I knew what the plot was.  All I knew; it had Nassiruddin Shah and his role was really good as told by Saagar’s mom. After reading the status last week, I got interested and I decided to watch this movie. Sheer coincidence I chose a Wednesday to watch this movie.

The screenplay was quite impressive and I liked the flow with which the movie moves ahead and concludes. No songs and that’s a plus in such movies and there wasn’t any violence in the story. It was artistic and movies are all about communicating one’s stories and this definitely did.

To add my personal view, somehow I always got a feeling while watching the movie, the stupid common man played by Mr. Shah isn’t a terrorist nor does he have grand plans to upset the normal public life. It was his way to deal with the justice. “We are resilient by force and not by choice” and frankly this line quite sums it up the voice of a common man. We live in a country where a common man is suppressed to make his choice, by and large forced to make a living. The patriotism in us isn’t just talking about injustice; it is about making a difference and showing the way.

I read a quote yesterday – “An activist is not a person who complains about the surroundings being dirty, an activist goes about cleaning them”. This very act of his seems foolish to most of us when he could have led a less stressful life by not getting into it at all. This quote summed up as to why the protagonist, the unknown caller calls himself as a ‘stupid common man’.

  

I have been asking this question since my college days to myself – “What it takes to lead a better life?”  Over a period of time, I have come to understand that, the answer lies within us. Only I can define the better life I want to have and for that, I need to get to know my inner self and where it wants to be. This I believe is an on-going process and will only get better with time. If I am not happy with the surroundings I am in, all I can do is, change it and hope for a better tomorrow.

We fought for our freedom and finally a date was chosen, 15^th August to celebrate our freedom. But deep down we all agree with ourselves we are far away from freedom. And what is the meaning of having freedom? It is to live by choice and not by force.

To be free isn’t just having a corrupt free government, it goes beyond it. Although it isn’t easy for me to accept this wholeheartedly at times, but the truth is, each individual gives his/her best act based on his/her set of beliefs at any instant of time. In an ideal world, everyone can do anything and yet no single individual will suffer. This is the definition of freedom according to the ideal life. In practical terms, what (freedom) seems like a panacea may actually be a potion that would stop our evolution as a human.

I am attached to a lot of people, things etc unless I get rid of each and every one, I may never be able to attain freedom. Or is it a restriction I am putting on myself? Well it is all about my choice. I just have to accept the fact that, I just have a place in this world and I have a role to play. And at the same time, acknowledge the fact there will be others with their own set of ideologies living around me. There will be a clash in some way or the other from time to time. That’s the very essence of work in progress.  On the other hand, there will be some wonderful moments. Important is to strike a balance according to one’s idiosyncrasies. Understanding oneself seems the most effective solution according to me. It is by far the best homework to understand others.

With respect to freedom, all I can say from my experience is that; there will be brief moments in life where our mind will think, our heart will feel things without any notion of fear. Such a condition to me is freedom especially in the world we live. How long it lasts? I do not know but I can safely accept the fact that I look forward to such moments more and more.

‘A Wednesday’ is a 2008 thriller movie made in Hindi. Directed by Neeraj Pandey, this movie was well received by the audience due to its brilliant story and a well twisted ending. The cast apart from Nassiruddin Shah includes Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Deepal Shaw and Aamir Bashir in supporting roles. 

My short Independence Day Speech

You know whenever I read about our Constitution; it makes me wonder, as to what is independence? Was it just a day? Or was it a starting point of something significant? What has happened to India isn’t just the result of India but also a combination of the inconsistencies across the globe and co-incidences?

Irrespective of how we have come along these 64 years, I still can say, India is its own competitor and one needs to look in before looking out. I never realized much about being an Indian when I was in India, because I didn't quite realize what it feels and over the last few years, whenever I am outside of country, my passport (which is the defining factor mostly) speaks a lot and then we meet people. Many are informed about India through different opinions and all I add is another opinion from a Indian perspective. Believe me, there are several perspectives to a particular thing just like we have several Gods and Goddess in our mythology. We fight to prove our perspectives are right, but I guess I realized that's the beauty of the country I was born.

"All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything." - Swami Vivekananda

India over the years has made people give their opinions and that I feel is a freedom of speech. So in that sense I am independent to give out my opinions. That's fine until now. I sense we need to move ahead and take a step forward with conviction that action speaks louder than opinions. I believe we are seeking to be independent more than ever before, at least in my generation of living. We the people haven't realized the power of the government that is made by people alone. We need to understand the importance of being a drop and its contribution to the ocean. I seek our country to be more self aware and for that each individual to be self-aware before going out and condemning things.

Like Swami Vivekananda said - "The goal of mankind is knowledge... now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge."

India is merely a geographical land if we remove the masses from it. So in that sense I have to think of the power we people hold. We can accept, we can change and at times we can hope for the better.

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies" - Shawshank Redemption