Yesterday, 3rd December 2008, marked a watershed in my understanding of India's history as a free nation. After a long time, the country felt, breathed and spoke free - this was the biggest mass mobilization of citizens across the country. India was free and yesterday was a reminder that it still is!
5:40 - I left office, heading towards the Gateway of India. This drive is not more than 30-40 mins on an average day.
6:00 - Mumbai traffic saw my enthusiasm fizzling out...phat..
6:30 - Still going strong; the traffic that is! However, having crossed the marine drive, I felt strangely energized...People were walking...In groups, in such large numbers, all headed in one direction - my direction!
6:40 - giving propriety a miss, I happily hopped out of the cab and started walking. And I was not alone:-)
7:00 - Reached regal, the road to gateway was crowded and further down barricaded by the police for safety reasons..It is exactly at this point that I realised something - cellphones were not working!!!!
Imagine a whole mass of people, imagine college, school and office-goers all united, all walking, sloganeering and demonstrating...Imagine the "my cell-phone is my life" generation stranded and stuck with failed calls, undelivered messages and imagine NO PANIC!! That sums it up...It was big, it was crowded, it was diverse, it was anger but it was peaceful...
That is the spirit of Mumbai..Infact, after I got back home and saw visuals of citizens across the country taking collective action voluntarily - I realized that is the spirit of India. WE STAND TOGETHER, even if we don't do it everyday and at every instance. Yesterday, I felt alive, uplifted and humbled...
End note - quoting one of my fave poets...
Where The Mind is Without Fear
WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
-Rabindranath Tagore
WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
-Rabindranath Tagore
No comments:
Post a Comment