orientations

Kipling again... instead of saying that the east and west will never meet he might have said that "the north is north and the south is south and never shall the twain meet."

I happened to study at a place where almost the entire population consisted of people below Madhya Pradesh and right now sitting in Delhi I mostly have the Hindi heartland, Punjab and Haryana all around me.

Their lack of knowledge about each other sometimes makes me wonder if our education system even makes us aware of our own country forget developing an open mind and a global perspective. The north seems to think that the south is a bunch of dark sambar eating tilak smeared bunch of oorthodox people who will never change. They are thought of as intelligent but in a sly sort of way. As far as they are concerned there is no difference between any of the four southern states: they are all Madrasis abnd a bunch of hypocrites. The southern states more than return the compliment handsomely by thinking that the north is composed of barbarians who hardly have an iota of sophistication or finese in them. They are looked upon as rowdy troublemakers who are perpetually on the liability side of the balance sheet. They are to be avoided like poisonous snakes.

If we go back in history there are very strong reasons for this. The north has always born the brunt of all the wars and battles that have raged. The north has not just had different rulers but been looted by raiders like Nadir Shah and finally have til date not been able to put the ghost of partition to rest. This is what gives them their natural aggressiveness. On the other hand the south has been relatively peaceful with hardly having great battles of the stature in the north and also so be cut off from the rest of the mainland. While this has helped art and culture to flourish and made intellectual labour a far more acceptable thing they simply refuse to budge at anything. At the risk of stirring a hornets nest it would not be very wrong to say that even during the freedom struggle the involvement of the southern states were considerably lesser. In the last few years if we look at the social movements that have happened then we see the dravidian movement when their identity was challenged and the protest against imposition of Hindi. The other major one against the cast system was also an inherently internal matter.

However the point of this piece is to question why does it still exist even today? If our communication system along with other electronice gadgetry has really removed distances between us and made us one global community then why don't we see it here? How can a house divided among itself contribute meaningfully to a social set up? How can a country not united become a global power? While it is right to celebrate our diversity it has got to be one where we acknowledge, are aware of the differences and then celebrate them. It cannot and should not be one be based on ignorance.

I then thought it might be a phenomenon with the older people and so asked a few friends around. An obscure minority of my friends had even heard of M S Subbalakshmi on her death and similarly very few of my southern mates had heard of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Now aren't both of these people national icons? Then why this dichotomy ? I then thought it might be a problem because the listeners of classical music are not many. So I asked the southerners if they had heard ghazals and the northerners if they had heard of Illye Raja. Once again the replies lead to more disappointments.

This is a great country and different corners of the land have varied treats to offer. Let us no longer live in ignorance but in knowledge of them. Watch Kamal Hasan's 'Nayakam' and the Marathi oscar nominee'Swaash', listen to Kandukondain's "Suttum Vizhi" and Rabbi sing "Bulla" for they are both beautiful and OURS.

Only then will Tagore's prayer of "Into that heaven of freedom my father let my country awake" be answered.

I thought I knew

I had always believed that I was one of those enlightened beings who knew what he wanted in life and there were these fixed targets that he was moving to. I guess I had taken self deception to the level of an art and soon realized thats not true.
If anything there are these few pictures I have of myself... snapshots in time framed in the future... its from this that I started back calculating and realized what a difficult thing it is to decide what you want to do.
If I give you an assimilated picture of what I want to do in life am sure you ll think am one confused being which I am by the way.
I see myself having opened a school where kids are being brought up to be self righteous, upright human beings who refuse to conform, have the courage to think for themselves and hence bring change in this world.
Then I see myself as an IAS officer working in the districts of India and bringing tangible change in every action of his.
Then I see myself in Nagapattinam reporting on the Tsunami for NDTV and also hosting Hard Talk on BBC.
I also see myself globe trotting as a lap top carrying consultant with McKinsey.
This is immediately followed by a picture of me criss crossing the country seeing every nook and corner and basically living a bohemians life.
Sometimes late at night I also see a happy family gathered around the fire laughing at jokes being made on each other. A picture of "har ghar kahta hai is mein kaun rehta hai".
Then I see me and my love at two places... one is this huge verandah wala house overlooking the sea on a moonlit night with the breakers crashing on the shore with a deafning roar. The other is this 50 storey penthouse in Mumbai over looking the sea. Its raining outside and there is beautiful music being played on this system with Bose speakers. To describe this house let me quote two examples... one is the penthouse Richard Gere was living in Pretty Woman. The other is the initial description of Guy Wynand's house with glass ceilings. Amalgamate the two and you will have the house I want in Mumbai.
Then I see me bringing up my children and being proud of them in every act of theirs.

Maybe somewhere within all this is my Raymond's 'Complete Man'...Maybe I am just another average person who dreams of all this but doesn't have the courage to follow any leave all of these dreams.
And know what its so bloody difficult to accept that! But somewhere there is this flicker of hope that tells me that I will one day maybe achieve all this and also guess what this flicker has been growing every day.

ganda hai par sab dhanda hai yeh

I happen to study in what we like to believe is a Tier 1 B School but placement time is one when I think I can feel what Newton must have felt when he said "The more I see this world the more I love my dog"

I have no problems with people who have never claimed to be good samaritans but simple normal self centred human beings but what makes me irritated is when I see the obsession to appear holier than thou in people who are intrinsically puny beings.

So once this time comes and there is a whiff of jobs in the air everyone realizes that its finally its every man for himself and so starts off a process which can descend to depths that are unimaginable to people not involved with this process.

Suddenly people become very posessive of what they know forgetting that knowledge grows only when shared. Even sources of information are hid and wherever you go there is a conspiratorial whisper around.

There is a famous Rudyard Kipling quote where he says "Half the world love and half the world hates where is my place in these that are so evenly matched". Guess that sums up the state of my mind very well. However I have chosen to sit back and watch the fun and if possible be extra open. Yes, there are times when I feel I too should be like the sorroundings coz after all "Do as the Romans do while in Rome" but there is something within me which has always refused to unquestioningly conform. I thank God for that now for that is what has helped me keep my head above the water. Maybe I will be the loser at the end of placements but I have this deep seated conviction that I will win in the end.

wonderings

was just wondering why there is this co relation between love and marraige... y does marraige have to be the ultimate culmination for any kind of love... i mean a person is supposed to be liberated in love and not consumed by it (no i don't believe in love that consumes) but marraige intrinsically is a kind of bond isn't it. Don't crucify me but just think it over....
Imagine a situation where both of you live your own lives together and are in love. The only impediment I can see is that your kids will not be brought up properly and so you need to get married and get under the same roof. Am not suggesting any alternative here because I don't have any but was just wondering aloud. Maybe you could give me one. Can you?