WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? (My brief take on communal riots in India)

Q. Why am I at all wasting my words writing the things which are already known and never understood?

A. A statement which my brother in law made when we were talking about the deferred statement of high court on the Ram Janmbhoomi episode forced me to rethink about what our country has gone through till now and what are the probabilities of more of such occurrences.

He said, “Do you know what is holding India till now? It is nothing else than earth’s gravity. Who knows, the political parties will start a matrix fight once we lose it too. They will fly and kill.

This was not only funny but a trenchant and rotten truth. It made a man like me think about what our country has gone through in the past 60 years of its independence. I will emphasize on me because I have been least concerned about these things ever in my life as most of us are. We go through the headlines and watch them in the news, talk about them and then sit back to enjoy our pizza.

Writing about this is going to be the greatest challenge but I hope to pen down my feelings as well as I can.

INDIA: THE COUNTRY OF RAM, SHIVA, JESUS & ALLAH

I hope no one is expecting me to provide a geographical location of India or the count of population. One can easily find it somewhere in the Wikipedia.

India was invaded or not, that is not an issue right now. What we should know is that it has been the abode of all the religions and communities for more than two hundred years now (probably more than that, I am not so good with history).

All the religions have found a resting and peaceful place in here. It has helped everyone to grow on own. And we did understand this before much before the day of our independence from the British crown.

A small game was played at that time. A game which was referred as divide and rule and the citizens of this holy land did nothing except dropping their thinking caps which were crushed by the politicians of that era and are yet being squelched by the men of same dishonorable clan.

1947 resulted in an INDEPENDENT INDIA and a DIVIDED INDIA.

1947 caused a DEAD EMOTIONLESS INDIA.

1947 saw more than 10,000 humans of both the communities (obviously Hindu and Muslim) dead and more than 25000 injured.

What an independence was that,

Drenched with blood and dressed with flesh

What an independence was that!

I was going through a report on featuring communal riots in India and the ones which I am going to relate now are kind of funny in their own satirical way.

In the year 1961, Jabalpur saw uproar of hindu-muslim grievances. The cause was a Hindu girl who ran away with her Muslim lover who happened to be the son of local bidi businessman.

The second was in Assam, 1968, when a fight broke between the two communities just because a Hindu boy was seen chasing a cow which belonged to a Muslim. The simple act of getting rid of the animal which had accidently intruded his land cause a death of nearly 100 people belonging to both the communities.

What can anyone feel by considering the above two situations out of the many; that we want to fight and kill each other.

A match stick needs a strike to burn and Indians need a reason (however silly it may be) to kill each other.

I am deliberately ignoring the wonderful acts of miseries and murders that happened in October 1984 (anti-Shikh riot), the Ramjanmbhoomi-masjid controversy (1989 till date) and February 2002 (Godhra-kand) because they need not be talked about any more. They have always been in news and reports are yet being submitted by various government organization.

60 years of independence and more than 60 riots, this is how we have shaped our independent India.

When British withdrew their guns, we pointed one on each other.

That is how independent we are.

“WHAT A SUICIDAL INDEPENDENCE!”

THE COUNTRY: NOW

I know a few people and you might be knowing some too who take pride on hating their fellow human beings just because they are Hindu or Muslim.

This minority is easily molded to murder and also to get murdered.

A rotten apple spoils the lot.

The rulers of our country utter some meaningless speeches and the rotten apples adhere to whatever they say without giving them a second thought.

Then starts the rage banked with some brainless and emotionless thoughts causing all to happen.

The only thing which comes to an end is a rational brain of creative thoughts.

If you are a victim, you try to form a vendetta and if you victimized others, you rot for more of such blood which you shed before.

And the massacre continues.

We burn with hate and forget a fact that hell is a place to burn and devil is someone who burns.

India lost the beauty of Kashmir to this hatred and we are on to lose many Kashmirs because of it still residing in us.

We can never change the politicians as they are born with it, born to lead us in a haywire way so that we can never be enough motivated to select our leaders properly.

So let them do their work, let them speak ugly and do the ugliest things.

INDIA does not need a few political lots to control its integrity.

I would request everyone to go through our history once and try to state one rational decision we ever made before starting a fight.

We do not need the hatred and anger to survive! If you cannot love everyone, stop hating them too.

A reason, how big it is, can never be bigger than a person’s life and here we are talking about INDIA, the country which is the home of more than 1.2 billion people living together despite of the difference in their religion and languages.

“ram, allah, yeshu, gurunanak, sabhi aise shabd hain jinko bol kar sukoon milta hai”

EVERYBODY’S FINE: REVIEW

What will you expect from a movie with as big a star cast as ‘Everybody’s Fine’?

My first reaction when I came to know about it was that it is a must watch; for Robert De Niro’s class, Drew Barrymore’s sweetest acts, Kate Beckinsale’s stunning beauty, Sam Rockwell’s amazing performances and Kirk Jones’s splendid direction.

But after watching the movie (thrice in a day), I need to convey that ‘Everybody’s Fine’ is more than all of these. To be specific, it is more than just a seven plus rated movies. It is a phenomenon which takes over you, which forces you to think more than usual and which tries to carry out some changes if not many in all of us; despite of you being a father or children.

Since the day I started taking decisions on my own, there was a usual tendency in me of ignoring my father in all the plans and developments in my life as I was never so close to him but always included my mother in everything important and necessary. She has been the source of communication between my father and me.

The story of my life is not very peculiar, as I feel, at least some of you reading this review or watching the movie sitting alone or with your friends might be recollecting the same observations of your life too.

‘Everybody’s Fine’ is nothing but the tale of the lot I belong to or probably you belong to.

Robert De Niro plays Frank, the widower who after losing his wife realizes that she was the only connection between him and his kids. Obeying to his intuitions of knowing the wellness of his children; David, Amy (Kate), Rosie (Drew) and Robert (Sam), and ignoring his poorly shaped lungs, the old man starts his expedition to trace the wellness of his kids.

The whole movement that Frank carries visiting places where his children were placed made him realize that all of them were hiding something or the other from him and all his meetings ended with the same question ‘Are you happy?’.

‘Everybody’s Fine’ gives us an insight of a father who felt lost because of his children creating a barrier of ‘I am fine’ with him and it is also shows us the feelings of deep regret that all of his children were facing because they did not want to ‘hurt’ their father by making him realize the true situations they were in. Above all it is also the realization that all of them had at the last when the father accepted his children to be grown up enough, to face their life and the children understood the importance of being true to their father about all their things.

All the actors undoubtedly were remarkable but everyone had a special moment on the screen.

Kate was the finest with the emotions of her surprise while seeing Frank (Robert De Niro) in her house.

Sam’s expressions were the best during one of the last scenes when he is seen placing a candle in front of his brother’s picture.

Drew was lovable throughout her role, the best being the talk with Frank on the dinner table.

And finally Robert De Niro; as I mentioned, the movie is more than a work of cinema and De Niro is more than just an actor in the movie. You can end up confusing his name with ‘Frank’, the role he played after your watch. No scenes can be specified as the best as every time you find his presence on the screen, he is always the best.

After four years of a huge success gained by the famous comedy ‘Nanny Mcphee’, Kirk Jones writes and directs ‘Everybody’s Fine’. If you enjoyed his first two directorial ventures; ‘Waking Ned Devine’ and ‘Nanny Mcphee’, you are going to fall in love with this one. There is something special about this man, and that is not a hand on direction or writing, it is the hand on emotions and handling. None of the scenes are exaggerated and complicated, there is a swift flow throughout the movie and this can only be achieved by someone who can feel rather than surreal.

EVERYBODY’S FINE has everything superb and fantastic.

A must watch for everyone, as there is a story which relates to all.

DREAMS: The Four Dimensional View!

How many of you have heard this before; ‘LIFE IS NOT A BED OF ROSES’, and how many of you have really felt this?

We keep on bugging ourselves with the same repetitive thoughts of this world being overly competitive and the need to struggle to get ahead in this life; which my friends, was never a bed of roses.

But due to our continuous perseverance to achieve the so called moving forward in life or should I say the bureaucratic success, we lost the real meaning of success itself.

When you were born, there was nothing that you achieved, and when you went to school and moved to college to get a degree; you just did what others wished you to do and I know this is right in most of the cases. We keep on following, rather, copying the trends of society. What about the things that you wanted to do? What about the dreams that you had? What about becoming a super hero, a good non corrupt politician or a painter or even a musician?

Did we ever give a thought about this? No, never, we just lose them. In the process of making some extra money to buy the materialistic beauties that surround us, we forget the real beauties which were our DREAMS.

We keep on making our lives a bed of roses and forget that it isn’t made so. It has to be thorny for us to bleed and burn before we can really have that peaceful sleep.

I have tried to talk and write about dreams and how to stick to them before, but, now I feel I should write about how our view perverts the existence of our dreams.

THE ONE DIMENSIONAL DREAM: LINE

I call them ‘THE TRUE DREAMS’ because they are born with our capability to recognize shapes, colors and people.

This is when we are child and cartoons are our best friends. We love to see cats and dogs playing with their mirror images and the books are nothing but a representation of what we can make out of them. Whether we want to tear them apart of try to recognize the things on them with a vivid comparison to the small group of things we are acquainted of.

The time when we want to become the Jerry of the TOM AND JERRY show or one of the cats from THE SWAT CATS; and Of Course! We love to sing and dance with our own sways without any relevance with that of Michael Jackson or Britney Speers.

We are allowed to dream and do whatever we like.

I remember one of my one dimensional dreams. It was that of protecting my house by surrounding it with webs as Spiderman does. I along with some of my friends circumvented the all around the garden with woolen balls to make my dream a success. It was beautiful and I was more than happy doing it which according to me now was foolish.

I hope you are getting the point; THE ONE DIMENSIONAL VIEW IS DOING WHATEVER YOU FEEL MAKES YOU HAPPY. And when we are young we dream in this way.

Remember what made you sleep, or what still makes you sleep; is it thinking about a big house or a fast car or is it still the same, thinking something not so rational.

These, my friends are the one dimensional dreams where you are the hero and the chosen one, where you have a one lined thought of doing whatever makes you happy.

TWO DIMENSIONAL DREAMS: SQUARE

As we grow up, something else too grows up with us, which is the logic of life that is never self-developed but occupied from the world around you.

You wake up, brush your teeth, have a bath and get ready to go to school, to gain some of these educations, not only to make you think more reasonably but also to have a broader vision of whatever you thought before.

The period, I l would like to call as the two dimensional view developers.

Now, you start searching for the reasons and authentications. Tom and Jerry are no more your best buddies whom you dreamt of meeting sometime, they become just some goofy cartoons which made you feel happy.

Superman and Spiderman are not actually as great as they do not exist apart from the comic books you love to read. Now you know the writer and occasionally applaud them for the superb imagination that they carry.

This is the first time when you question GOD.

Before this he gave you this life, but now the school education has clarified that he had no hands or even his pinky in your birth.

In the one dimensional view you ignored the widths of your dreams and thoughts. The two dimensional perspective has the width along with length.

The width forces you to think logically and teaches that the world is not a fairytale.

This is the first time when you hear, ‘There is a big competitive world outside and life is not a bed of roses. If you have to win, you have to strive.’

You pick up one of the two dimensional dreams that someone suggested or probably you made yourself believe as your own, to become your goal.

And there lies the foundation of an engineer, a doctor, a banker or any of the professionals.

Your dreams get a shape now, something like a square.

THE THREE DIMENSIONAL VIEW: CUBE

You might become very successful in the endeavor of giving your life a shape but as you grow one more thing becomes vital; the vitality of responsibility.

Life has taught you one big lesson that as you proceed further in it, you have to become more responsible towards everyone who has been with you to travel so far and even make some new relations to take care of.

This adds one more dimension to your dreams, the dimension of depth/height.

Now, you are no longer alone and your dreams are no longer only yours, although I agree, that they were never yours before too till you were a child.

Suddenly the fight for individual recognition steps off. It takes the shape of the recognition of your family.

‘I’ loses its meaning as ‘We’ takes its place.

This is the three dimensional view of your dreams where you do not dream for yourself but for everyone around you.

The sight which wandered through one surface, has many to wander now as now what you are seeing is no longer a square, it is a cube.

THE FOUR DIMENSIONAL VIEW: TESSERACT

All tasks accomplished. You made yourself a success by acquiring everything that the world around had to provide, may be more than that, but still something remains.

That something which even you do not know, adds a fourth dimension to your view.

You start searching for the unknown, most of the times it is peace and even GOD in some cases.

You start focusing upon the bigger picture of everything that is happening around and are no longer concerned about the materialistic amenities that world has provided you with.

As a tesseract is still only a theoretical concept, your dream too becomes theoretical and hypothetical, without any proper goal in it.

The fourth dimensional view represents your decline, decline from everything that you have or wanted to have.

THE QUESTION IS

My question to all of you, who have gone through this transition or are going through it now, is:

WHAT DID YOU, OR WILL YOU GAIN AT LAST?

Wasn’t it just because you wanted to make your life more comfortable that you murdered the dreams that you originally had?

If Life is not supposed to be a bed of roses, why to give it a try at all, why not to struggle till the end to become something you wished for?

Even if you wanted to become a super hero, why not give it a try?

Why to make it so complicated at last that you are left with nothing practical, not even the word practical which made you struggle for something or the other throughout your life?

TRY TO ANSWER THE ONE DIMENSIONAL QUESTIONS.