October 2014

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Glimpse of Gandhi : Part II

Posted by ABC Monday, 6 October 2014 0 comments

“Yogesh…Shyam Lal…” I screamed at the top of my voice, as they were the only peons present on that day after everyone had left. They didn’t respond. I got up again to shut up this nuisance but the moment I stepped out of my cubicle, something cracked under my feet and I slipped and was dragged a few metres till I clasped the corner of a table and caused my head to bang against the adjoining wall. I could see myself lying on the floor in a pool of salt, white salt. What the hell was happening in the office? What was driving me insane? I failed to comprehend. Suddenly a strong gust of air caused the curtains to blow violently and the windows cracked open, bringing in shards of glass. The wind made whistling sounds as it passed through an orifice and scattered all the papers that were lying on the table. My heart throbbed as the memories of the brutality carried out at Dharasana Salt Works during Gandhi’s Dandi March raked up. I pinched myself for thinking ‘out of the box’ and started praying again to the Almighty. The God obliged and all these sinister movements calmed. A rat, as big as the size of a kitten, hopped over the table and disappeared into a hole in the wall. Gosh! I was so terrified that I could have mistaken a rope for a snake. It was only an illusion. Wasn’t it? I got up by myself and ran to my desk.

But it was not over. I had just finished a few reports when the lights went off. There was absolute darkness everywhere and the crickets came out to have a gala time. None of the peons turned up to set the generator in motion, leaving me at unease with myself. I decided to close my eyes and wait for the power to be restored.

“Tuck… Tuck… Tuck…” I could hear somebody’s footsteps followed by the striking of a wooden cane against the floor.

“Who’s there…who’s…?” I shouted.

“Security…Guards…!” I shouted again for help before I could run for my life.

“Don’t be afraid of me, son…”

I heard a sound consoling me as an old, lean figure emerged from the darkness. Terrified, I cursed myself for choosing this day to work when I should have been enjoying out with my friends. I wished I could find my friends in the darkness who would come and embrace me and help me get rid of this fear. But nothing of that sort happened. I was left deserted. Quite surprisingly, the figure didn’t intend any harm to me. All it wanted to do was a bit of talking. It came closer and closer to me and what I saw next made me suspicious of my own sight. It was Mahatma Gandhi; yes Bapu himself, clad in a khadi dhoti-kurta with his spectacles. Was I hallucinating? Yes, I was. No. I wasn’t.

“Bapu…?” I inquired in a breaking voice and was reciprocated with a toothless grin.

“Help me Rama. Help me.” I stuttered, still not able to believe what was there in front of my eyes.

“Prayer is not asking, my son”, Bapu began. “It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

How legitimate these words seemed to me. Why was I begging the all-powerful for help when I didn’t require any! Asking God for everything has become a human prerogative. Am I not supposed to help myself on my own? I started experiencing turmoil in my mind.

“Please get away from here”, I warned with a paper weight in my hand.

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission. You too can make an attempt”, Bapu replied in a soft voice.

Of course, I had no intention of hurting anybody. I was fighting my own fear.

“You got hurt, didn’t you? You were assassinated, weren’t you? Your assailant didn’t seek your permission, did he? ” I mustered some courage and began a conversation, now with some interest.

“Could he kill my thoughts? Nay. Could he wipe off my teachings? Nay. He took away my flesh but could not take away my soul. It was an act of cowardice. But I forgave him. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong”, Bapu explained in the most convincing tone. These powerful words left me spell-bound and made me wonder how easy it is to douse the fire in the heart of a person by trampling over his ideas, by subjecting him to adversities, by stripping him off his resources. But his passion still lives on. Given an opportunity, this supressed flame rises from the ashes and brings the unfulfilled dreams to fruition.

Bapu could see through my mind. He could peep into my conscience. He shared some more words of wisdom as he continued, “When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it – always.”

The fear in my mind subsided and I started enjoying the conversation.

“How am I to prepare myself if I want to realise my dream and sing the song of my watan?” I asked.

“A man is but a product of his thoughts. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end up really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I can surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” Bapu hit the right nerve with each of his golden words.

“Does my destiny have a role to play in my endeavour? What if I fail even when I work to the best of my ability?” Bapu had aroused my curiosity and I started feeling more and more inquisitive.

“To believe in something and not to live it, is dishonest”, he said as he moved his cane from one hand to the other.

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviour. Keep your behaviour positive because your behaviour becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”

In five brief sentences, Bapu had summed up all my apprehensions and provided me a remedy to all my fears. He had charged up the atmosphere with his noble words and had instilled a sense of self-importance in me. Seeing me cribbing about my work, he added, “Remember son, wealth without work is as deadly a sin as worship without sacrifice. Your future depends on what you do today.”

After a long time, I thanked my stars for introducing me to arguably the noblest soul that had ever lived in this world. I felt elated at being able to learn the lessons of life from a person whose life is itself an example to emulate. As I turned to Bapu to express my gratitude, he had already turned away to return.

“Stop Bapu. Please don’t leave me alone. Stop, please…” I pleaded. By now, I had hunkered down on the floor, on my knees. But he didn’t stop walking.

“Listen to the little voice inside you that wants to talk to you”, he mumbled. “This voice is easy to ignore but it tells you what you really want. This is the voice of the God.”

With these words, he disappeared into darkness and I found myself drowned in a delirium of ecstasy at being sermonised by Bapu himself.

The next thing I remember about the day is my journey back home in the evening. I am not sure about the truthfulness of my encounter with Bapu, but I am sure about the fact that he reiterated his teachings to me on his birthday. The message that he wanted to convey to the entire world, had been conveyed to me, that too individually!

Glimpse of Gandhi : Part I

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02 October is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti in India and as International Non-Violence Day around the world, in the fond memory of Shri Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the father of the nation of India who led a life set by examples and guided the nation to the path of independence from the British colonial rule. He was a great political and spiritual leader who led an austere life and fought all adversities with his two great weapons, namely – satya (truth) and ahimsa (non-violence).

This year, the birthday of Bapu (as Mahatma Gandhi is fondly called) was celebrated by launching a “Swachhh Bharat” (Clean India) Campaign with an aim to fulfil his dream of a clean and healthy India. Scores of citizens across the country vowed to keep their homes and surroundings clean and pledged to devote at least two hours a week to realise this dream.

This narrative is a story of my fictitious encounter with Bapu at my workplace, the day he took a new avatar to reiterate his teachings. The characters referred to in the narrative are fictitious and any resemblance to anybody is, therefore, purely co-incidental.

October 02, 2014:

It was a bright Thursday morning. The sky was crisp blue in colour and was beautifully lit up by the vibrant rays of the sun at the horizon. The breeze was cool and refreshing and was punctuated by the chirping of birds and rustling of leaves. What a lovely weather it was, I thought, admiring the serenity of the environment. It was 8:00 a.m. and I was already prepared to leave for office. Unlike other days, this time I decided to take a bus to my office instead of boarding the Delhi Metro. I had barely reached the bus stop when I found the bus for route number 901 already waiting there for the passengers. Whoa! I got in as fast as I could and grabbed a seat next to the window. The conductor obliged me with the ticket and with that began the journey, a smooth ride in an air conditioned bus. Wait, gone are the days when the buses were rickety and the journey tiresome. Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has indeed undergone a metamorphosis in the last five years. The bus hit one road to another, stopping on several occasions on several stops and each time there was an exchange of passengers – inside and outside the bus. I could read the newspaper, nod occasionally at my fellow passenger’s words and crack a peanut or two each time the bus halted. Then came the most wonderful part of the journey when the bus passed by the Red Fort. A large number of school students had gathered at the ramparts of the majestic fort to take part in the Clean India Campaign. What a delightful sight it was to see young boys dressed as Gandhi and were joined by young girls dressed in colourful attire.

One could feel an air of celebration in the entire city. All government office buildings were beautifully decorated with marigold flowers and incandescent lamps and had a garlanded idol of Bapu placed on a high pedestal right at the main gate. After a brief exchange of morning greetings with my colleagues, I proceeded toward the conference hall, where all the employees had gathered to express their solidarity and read the pledge for a clean India. It was followed by distribution of samosas and laddoos (Indian delicacies). I found myself at fault in thinking of this event to be a ceremonial exercise or a mere political stint. Employees, right from the level of boss to the peon had actually made a contribution in this campaign and were equally enthusiastic to participate in more of such campaigns. The event concluded in about an hour and it being a gazetted holiday, most of the employees started leaving for their homes.

Alas! There were fault in my stars this day too or else I would not have been doomed to complete my assignments. I could see the jubilation in the eyes of my friends as they left for Cannaught Place to celebrate the day while I had to start the engine of my monotonous office routine. How envious I felt! By 11:00 a.m., there were hardly a couple of employees working in the office and we were joined by a couple of security guards. I started building my concentration and decided to finish my work as soon as possible. But time ceases to move when you want it to move and it ceases to stop when you want it to stop. With a deadline to meet, I was experiencing the latter situation.

It was around 1:30 p.m. when, working alone, I started feeling claustrophobic – a morbid fear of being in a confined space. Strange and spooky thoughts started surfacing in my mind which was further reinforced with the revelation of a few haunted experiences that happened in the past. The sound of the clock needle moving or the tube light flickering made me feel uncomfortable. And then suddenly something happened that made me shudder with fear. I could hear someone writhing in pain as if the person was being beaten with clubs or lashed with a whip. I swallowed a whiff of air and got up to find out the source of the sound. I chased the screams as far as I could and was led to the sixth floor, which was otherwise always locked. The door creaked as I opened it; there was no lock on the latch. I paced my steps on the corridor, took a left turn, then a right turn, but was still unable to hunt that sound. I went on to roam around the floor and reached a diversion. Barely had I raised my left feet to take the next step when a chair came rolling toward me. I was left aghast! In that dimly lit corner, the chair stopped and started revolving on its wheels. I could see a yellow shape rolling on the chair, leaning itself on the backrest and looking right into my eyes. My hands froze and my legs got buried in the ground. I felt choked and couldn’t scream. I found myself unable to show any sign of locomotion and could only recite a few prayers in my mind. Fortunately, it worked; the maha mrityunjaya mantra that I had learnt in my childhood was showing its strength to me today. The chair crashed against a wall and made a terrible screeching sound that could have made a person go deaf.

I felt emaciated as I got up and moved toward the chair. Voila! I finally found out the ‘yellow thing’ on the chair. It was a beam of sunlight that sieved through an old broken window and fell directly on the chair. The motion of the blades of an old rusted exhaust fan fixed across the window gave a flickering effect to this light. Oh sunshine! Thou art nearly killed me with trauma! The screams stopped and a group people emerged from the darkness. They looked like freedom fighters. Yes, they indeed were! In a trice they encircled me and started chanting ‘vande mataram’, gyrating on the floor. Was I hallucinating? Yes, I was. No, I wasn’t. I closed my eyes, with both my hands covering my ears. They disappeared in a while, but the echo of their chants didn’t. I summoned all my courage and started walking briskly toward the exit. The door closed with a bang as I left the floor.

I had a sigh of relief, gulped some water and spilled some on my shirt in my haste. I tried to forget what happened and resumed my work from where I had left and started working on a few reports. The mosquitoes hovering under my desk made me more and more impatient but the only help I could seek for myself was scratch my skin till it turned red. Another hour passed and the same fear started surfacing in my mind again. This time I had an ominous feeling that somebody was sharpening a sword by bruising it back and forth over a slab. This was further joined by zapping of electricity and sharp sound of snapping noises.

Continue reading - Glimpse of Gandhi : Part II

Conviction in Corruption Case: The Long Road to Justice

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Kautilya, in his Arthashastra, says: “Just as a fish moving deep under water cannot be possibly found out either as drinking or not drinking water, so, government servants employed in government work may not be found out while taking the money for themselves. It is possible to ascertain the movement of birds flying high up in the sky but it is not possible to ascertain the movement of government servants or their hidden purposes.”

Kautilya further says: “Just as it is impossible not to taste a drop of honey or poison that is placed at the tip of the tongue, so it is rather impossible for the government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the king’s revenue.”

The conviction of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister must have compelled Kautilya to turn in his grave. After all, here is a case of the chief servant herself being convicted in the disproportionate assets case.

Often, members of the political class manage to get away from prosecution with the abuse of power, betraying the trust of people who voted them to office. Even if somehow a politician fails to protect his/her skin and is convicted of malpractices, attempts are made at every stage to obstruct and delay the judicial process. Thus, by exploiting the grey areas of law, the convict is able to remain in office and exercise power for prolonged periods of time. This also ensures that the case escapes media scorn and eventually fades away from public memory.

What such clever people fail to realise is the fact that the rule of law upholds for all citizens including people in high public office. However dextrous you may be in sweeping your clandestine activities under the carpet, a day shall come when you are scrambling through your coffers replete with booty and suddenly your hands collide with the skeletons hidden there from the past. This is the day the gaze of law falls upon you and the majesty of law triumphs. As long as the case proceeds, you feel happy at being successfully able to dodge your destiny only to realise later the depth of pit you have dug up for yourself and the number of links of sin you have forged for yourself.

An elected leader is a repository of public faith and carries the great responsibility of delivering on his/her electoral promises by means of effective and corruption free governance. It is expected of a leader to narrow down the disparities by way of his/her administrative acumen and bring the society to the altar of progress and prosperity. Isn’t it shameful that often such leaders are found indulging in unconstitutional activities? Isn’t it a murder of public faith when such leaders are caught siphoning off public funds to their personal accounts which are otherwise meant for public welfare?

It certainly is!

A politician is primarily a public servant who ought to serve the society to the best of his/her ability. We, not I should be the agenda when it comes to the distribution of fruits of effective public policies. State, not self should be the word that should prick the conscience when it comes to assessing the impact of government decisions. What we observe in most cases, unfortunately, is just the contrary.

It is indeed a matter of great pride that ultimately it is the wisdom of judiciary that prevails, however long it might take. But we need to plug the lacunae in our system by means of checks and balances and strengthen our legal framework to check the abuse of power. It is high time the procedural reforms are introduced to expedite the disposition of cases that involve huge amounts of taxpayer’s money. There is an urgent need to ensure that those found guilty are severely punished. This can only be achieved by ensuring active citizen participation. Strengthening the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to empower the citizens is the need of the hour. Voters must exercise their right to vote if they are to elect able administrators. A change in attitude toward the nation is also required if we are to develop a sense of collective responsibility and ensure honest functioning of government machinery.

It is we who can bring the change and for that we will have to be the change ourselves!

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Glimpse of Gandhi : Part II

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Conviction in Corruption Case: The Long Road to Justice

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