A mist covered destiny

A mist-covered destiny

~ A speech by Satish R Inamdar

Sixty-ninth Independence Day is here; the tricolors are in full bloom, a sudden rush of patriotism seems to arise in the heart of every common Indian. I am certainly not against this new feeling that sweeps over us for one day like a cyclone that raises alarm of impending destruction but changes its course just in time to avoid it all. Because, for all certainty I know 16^th august, the very next day will be just like other 364 days of the year and every memory and feeling on the day before it would vanish in a puff of smoke as we get busy in our livelihood. This year, the Independence Day happens to be on a weekend and I feel for the masses, who have been denied of an opportunity for a national holiday.

Before we begin, lets do a reality check: “Tiranga” or “Tricolors” as we usually refer to our national flag has actually four colors not three. Everyone seems to ignore the navy blue wheel in the center of it. It is as significant as a tilak on a pious man’s forehead. The Ashoka Chakra – blue wheel with spokes in the center is a powerful and aesthetic geometrical shape that makes our national flag unique and distinct. Without it, our flag would have been similar to a ninety degree clockwise rotation of   Cote d’Ivoire(Ivory Coast) a country in western Africa with only a population of 0.018^th of our own. There are other nations to who perfectly sport a three-colored flag, the powerful ones include – Germany, France, Italy, Russia etc.

Let’s take a peek in our immediate past. What have we lost this year? Most important of all is the sad demise of Kalam sir, an eminent scientist and country’s most beloved president. He has departed without leaving behind a suitable replacement. After the man has done so much, am I still complaining for not leaving behind an apprentice? No, I am definitely not, I am grateful for all that he has done (writing about which would fill volumes) and not just me the whole country does feel a great degree of gratitude for his accomplishments that he has bestowed upon us. Hopefully he is now in a better place and in a better world. May his soul rest in peace but his absence has certainly left a big void in the erudite and scientific society of our country and that is something that scares me.

A newly formed government enjoys an overwhelming majority at the heart of our democracy – Loksabha. People have been hopeful, supporters have been devoted and opposition and critics have left no stone unturned in disrupting and disturbing whatever efforts for progress and development have been made. I remain to choose optimistic, my stand on this might make you feel that my intentions sway me from being in the group of hopeful people to devoted supporters. Why not? Without the support there wouldn’t have been this very same government in the first place itself.

Keeping the political situations in the country aside, let’s move on to other topics that I would like to talk about today. I have been greatly disheartened of the way we Indians cherish every aspect of being an Indian. Oh oh ho! … I see a couple of eyebrows rising. We are Indians! We should love everything about ourselves! Wait hold on to that thought. I cannot fathom the idea and the deep desire that resides in us for praise, appreciation and applaud from every other country. We somehow feel we are the cynosure, our culture is the greatest, and our feats are unparalleled. Let me give you an example: In the recent event of Dr. Kalam’s death social-media, Watsapp, micro-blogging sites were abuzz with fake images circulating about US hoisting it’s national flag at half-mast. The messages had this jingoism and said – “Never done before by US for anyone of other nation, lets take a pride in this fact”. Luckily for me, I seriously think twice before forwarding such messages. When I checked, the only other nation to hoist the flag half-mast other than our own nation was Bhutan. US had never done that but people took such a false pride in it and they wasted no time in forwarding it to others. Why are we so bent on believing that we are special? We definitely are unique, like all other countries in their own way and we should not forget that they too are equally special. We should celebrate our uniqueness, our values, our culture that is deep rooted and ancient but the impression that we are better than the rest doesn’t help us. It in turn makes us incompetent because when you are already best than the rest why do you put in efforts to better yourself?

Recently an Indian, Sundar Pichai made headlines by becoming the CEO of Internet giant Google. Appreciated, applauded indeed a coveted achievement for an individual. We Indians should certainly feel pride but we do not stop at that. We like to bathe in the after shower of this collective glory brought by the feat of an individual. How long will we just keep riding on accomplishments of one individual, which are rare to come by? Again social media, Watsapp and other messaging platforms were abuzz with messages like: “CEO of Microsoft and now CEO of Google is an Indian, Soon Apple too will be conquered and we Indians are ruling” – might not exactly be the same words but were on the similar lines. In the intensity of this pride and in the zeal of the moment we forget that we have been free only since 69 years, before which British ruled us for 200 long years. And the fact that 69 years is a mere 0.034^th of the whole time since we started counting the years! We comfortably choose to ignore any such reality that is capable enough to convince us of our shortcomings and pitfalls.

Google was not started by Indians, nor was Microsoft or Apple. What Pichai achieved was a highest that an employee can hope to achieve in a firm i.e. to become a CEO. When the history is written, the founders, the inventors, the discovers will be the one's getting a bigger space and bolder font. When it comes to invention and innovation we are not at the forefront and not even in the first 50 rows. We don’t invent much, what we are good at is: we fix, we repair, we manage and we improve on the stuff that is invented or created by someone else. I am sure by this time you would have gathered counter examples of your own to shoot back at me and one of such examples would be invention of zero by Aryabhatta. But, let me remind you the fact that this is not a dialogue but a type of monologue called speech. The invention of zero now dates back centuries. What significant stuff have we invented in the past 69 years of independence that has significantly changed the shape of the world? Also we are not alone in the invention of zero. Babylonians and Mayans have invented it too, independently.

Few good things here and few bad things there, that’s how has been our 68^th year of Independence. A sort of mixed bag, some happiness, some sorrow, some victories and some failures it is all in there but nothing concrete has happened which could have established a platform to rocket-launch us into the mysterious future that awaits us. Every time we move forward by two steps we also take one step backwards and in some cases three steps backwards (Women’s safety).

The whole world is in a transitional state as it has always been. Change is the only constant. But the current pace of the change brings in a whole new level of challenges to every country especially to the one’s developing like us. We need to adapt, we need to open up ourselves, we need to embrace the change to keep up with it’s pace. Every country that has climbed the ladders has somewhere let itself rip open its rigidness only then the climb has been possible. We too can, if we are able to break the social stigmas, and the invisible and ancient barriers and boundaries that have been set around us shackling our mind, impeding us from moving in any other direction except backwards.

Let’s face it. The solution has been reiterated a million times before this speech was written and perhaps by wiser men than me. I will only try to put it in the construct of my own words and in a simple way. To develop, to progress and to sustain the development, to avoid a cultural, social and economic disaster all we need to do is RISE.

R          – Religious Harmony

I           – Inclusive economic growth

S          – Safety and Security to Women

E          – Education to all

It is not a priority list albeit a clever word play. All the entities that will help us rise are in the RISE and all of them need to be happening at the same time. We can’t aim to fulfill the needs of one while turning a blind eye to the other. A seamless coexistence of all the above entities will help create a powerful structure in which our country can thrive and work towards the way to the top.

I have spoken a lot, now I have to conclude. It is always makes a good impression when you end a speech with a powerful quote from a great personality. It is not plagiarism it is one way to make an impact with your audience and I intend to do very much the same today so that I can establish some level of connection with you and let the energy flow from my thoughts and ripple across the invisible barrier of air and reach yours, deep inside your mortal skull.

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of independent India said this in his famous speech titled – “A tryst with destiny”. It is one of the best speeches I have ever read, wonderfully written and has poetic essence to it. A speech needed to ignite the flame of life during a nation’s birth. There is a link at the bottom of this article so that you can read it later if you like to.

To have my own conclusion I have made several alterations to suit the present generation and have added a flavor of my own words to it. It goes –

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world parties, watches television, keeps honking in the traffic jams, races, builds and keeps the world on Internet alive through constant chatter on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. India has to awake from its long slumber to make this world a better place, a better-connected world in terms of emotion, sentiments, to uphold humanity above all, to become world’s hope and a sight in east that the west can look up to.

A moment will come, which is long awaited, when we finally step on the destination from being eternally struck in the state of transition. All we need is you to be awake and ready to provide that necessary jolt that will shake us all up when the clock strikes the midnight hour”

Thank you all for your patience reading.

Jai Hind (Screaming at the top of our voices, there is no euphoria better than this)

Reference and other points:

1. Tryst with destiny - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryst_with_Destiny
2. When you hear the national anthem today make sure you stand up in front of your television sets
3. Watsapp DP’s (display pic) of 651 million Indians will be today filled with images of our flag, leaders, anything related with patriotism. Well, that’s a new age India and a new way to celebrate in the digital world.a
4. Invention of zero: http://www.livescience.com/27853-who-invented-zero.html