Maine Gandhi ko nahi mara..

2nd Oct'08

Maine Gandhi ko nahi maara..

I am having a pizza. Something is not right but. I am feeling kinda sick. I am eating and thinking. So i dont know which one's the culprit. Bad.. cant sue the pizza outlet :-).

if you ask me what i dread the most right now..well, it is the US elections.how and why, you might question..it scares me when people around me discuss obama and palin more than gandhi..when questions like did gandhi die on oct 2nd hit me..i feel my stomach churning.

When i see enormous posters containing colorful prose in praise of raj thackerey as he goes about protecting the marathi manoos, against not a single poster of Gandhi, the pizza that i just ate, launches a desparate Quit Lalita movement..I gulp down some water and the use of "water force" crushes this uprising.

I hold Gandhi in high regard. His simplicity is his most endearing quality. Simplicity in thoughts, actions and appearance. His quest to get closer to god, his being a stickler for cleanliness, his struggle to find purity, his belief in truth, his struggle for ahimsa, his idea of satyagraha as a weapon, the value he gave to education, his detest for textbook knowledge, are all qualities, at least, i struggle to inculcate in myself.
So when people tell me gandhian ideals no longer relevant in today's contemporary society, the pizza does a "Nach Baliye" again.

I read his autobiography and was pleasantly amazed to find Gandhi ate nonveg food for a while and stole money for smoking. And he quit, only when it dawned upon him that it was doing no good to him. While today's "contemporary society" debates the ban on smoking so vehemently. And so he calls his autobiography "My Experiments with truth". How much more non preachy can anyone be? His transformation from a shy and gullible man into a strong, determined leader is truely inspiring. He spoke against every evil that exists even today.
Racism, Caste based violence, wars, socialism..give me a break, whats not relevant now? Infact, I think, the need to stand up and speak against all these issues is more so than ever before.

But strange are ways of this world..where any form of aggression gets media coverage. Only a heart breaking image of a man pleading for his life in the Gujarat riots can shake up this nation perhaps? How many movies do we have on Gandhi? On peace? On satyagraha? We have simply not understood the Mahatma.
When he says "Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility","there is no god above truth", I am left intimidated by their meaning.

So on this Oct 2nd when my colleague tells me that the moment gandhi asked to show the other cheek to a person who slaps you, he almost ruined India, I rush for the washroom..the pizza's demand for independence is now out of control.