An Inspiring Article

I came across this article when I was reading someone's blog. This someone in turn had read this article in "The Statesman". So, this post is not my own in totality unless you count what I'm babbling right now. Usually I don't just copy paste articles from somewhere but I loved this article so much that I'm posting it here as I read it. You can copy the article from here and post it on your blog too. Yeah yeah I know, enough build up eh? I'll post the article now before you shut this page in disgust without actually reading the article but here's something about it without which you wouldn't know who spoke this. The article is an excerpt of Mahasweta Devi’s inaugural address at the Frankfurt book fair in the year 2006, in Germany. Don't ask me who is Mahasweta Devi because I have no idea whatsoever. Go wiki her or something.




A DREAM FOR INDIA
Extracts from Mahasweta Devi’s inaugural address at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany


“At 80 plus I move forward, often stepping back into the shadows. Sometimes I am bold enough to step back into the sunlight. As a young person, a mother, I would often move forward to when I was old. Amuse my son. Pretend not to see, or hear him. Flail my hands like in a blind man’s game, or make a mockery of memory. Forget important things. Things that had taken place but a moment ago! These games were for fun. Now they are no longer funny. My life has moved forward & is repeating itself. I am repeating myself. Recollecting for you what has been. What is. What could have been. May have been…”

“Nothing happens unless you know how to dream. The establishment is out to destroy, by remote control, all brain cells that induce dreams. But some dreams manage to escape, and I’m after those dreams. The right to dream should be our first fundamental right. And what I say next is an extension of those dreams”

“What do we mean when we speak of Indian culture in the 21st century? What culture? Which India? 60 yrs after our hard won independence, the Khadi sari is India just as the mini-skirt and the backless choli is. A bullock cart is India just as much as the latest Toyota or Merc. Illiteracy haunts us & still the same India produces men & women at the foremost of medicine, science and technology. Eight year old children toil mercilessly, facing unimaginable working conditions and abuse as child labor. And yet there are another lot of 8 year olds who spend their time in Air-conditioned classrooms & call their mothers at lunch break using their personal mobile phones. That too is India. Satyam shivam sundaram is India. Choli ke peechey is also India. The Multiplex and Mega mall is India. The snake charmer & the maharishi, that too is India.”

“Indian culture is a tapestry of many weaves, many threads. The weaving is endless as are the shades of the pattern. Somewhere dark, somewhere light, somewhere saffron, somewhere as green as the fields of new paddy, somewhere flecked with blood, somewhere washed cool by the waters of a Himalayan spring. Somewhere, the red of a watermelon slice. Somewhere, the blue of an autumn sky in Bengal. Somewhere, the purple of a musk deer’s eye. Somewhere, the red of a new bride’s sindoor. Somewhere, the threads form words in Urdu, somewhere in Bengali, elsewhere in Kannada, somewhere in Assamese, yet elsewhere in Marathi. Somewhere, the cloth frays. Somewhere, the threads tear. But still it holds. It holds”

“The pattern shifts, flows, stutters, forms again & changes shape from one season to another. I see one India in the pattern. You see another. Light & shadow play. History & modernity collide. Superstition & myth, Rabindra sangeet & rap, Sufi & Shia & Sunni, caste system & computers, laughter & tears, Governments & oppositions, reservations & quotas, Sanskrit & SMS, hamburgers & hari om hari. A seamless stitch. Many hands have stitched, are stitching, and will continue to stitch India. My country – torn, tattered, proud, beautiful, hot, humid, cold, sandy, bright, dull, educated, barbaric, savage, shining. So chaotic, yet so calm. So flexible, yet so rigid. So rich, yet so poor. So understanding, yet so easily misunderstood. After all, there are many Indias, as I keep repeating. Simultaneous, even parallel. India. My country. And its myriad cultures. There is room in India for all faiths. Despite the communal threats, the fundamentalism, the backwardness of rural life, the memories of underdevelopment (which are no memories but harsh realities for us), the threat of AIDS, natural & man-made disasters, farmer suicides, police violence, environmental disasters wreaked by industries and farmlands being purchased by MNCs, despite the battering of history & circumstances, India still is. Its culture still is. India has learnt to survive, to adapt, and to keep the old with the new.”

“I dream of an India where ‘backward’ does not & cannot ever apply. I wish to be Third world no more but the First! I wish for children to be educated. I wish for women to step into the light. I wish for justice for the common man. Survival for farmers. Homes for the poor. And hope for all. I wish for debts to cease. For poverty to vanish. For hunger to become a bad word that no one utters. I wish for the environment to be protected, to be loved & restored. I wish for the lands to be healed, the waters to be pure again, for the tiger to survive. I wish for self-reliance, for self respect, for independence from the shackles of superstition. I wish for equal medical aid for all. For light & water & a roof above every head. I wish for more & more books to be written, published in every language of the country. Let the words pour out. Let stories be told. Let the people read. Let the people learn how to read. To trace their fingers over each alphabet until they can spell their names, till they can write for themselves – I know. I can. I will. Let us battle ignorance with knowledge, and hatred with logic.”

“I wish for no more satis. No more dowry deaths, no more honor killings, no more flesh being bought & sold. Let no more parents have to sell their children to survive. Let no more mothers drown their daughters in the dead of the night. Let the downtrodden awake. Let the ignored & marginalized, the forgotten faces & the muffled voices arise to claim their own. Let the pattern make room. Let these new threads find place. Let new colors set the tapestry afire. Into that heaven of freedom, let my India awaken again & again. It is a big dream, I know. But not an impossible one. For any culture as old as ours to have survived over time through adversities, there can be only one basic & common acceptable core thought : humanness. To accept each other’s right to be Human with dignity.”

“This then, is my fight, my dream. In my life and in my literature.”

* THE ARTICLE ENDS HERE *

Though I 'think' she may be an author. Pretty inspiring, no? If you read the entire article you may get this urge to post it on your blog or share it with your friends. DON'T quell this urge. Follow your instinct and do whatever you thought first after reading this( but don't expect me to be very co-operative if you feel an urge to kill me), because I think that if you start thinking about it, you may not do what you wanted to. Moral of the story : Thinking kills impulses and impulses are what differentiate people from one another, uhh according to me at least.

From an insomaniac

Dear Sleep,
Hey there. I know we met just a few hours back but, you seemed distant and aloof. It seems you haven't forgiven me for past month's negligence. * sighs heavily*. Since you are one of my closest friends, and I have spent almost one third of my entire life with you, I'm writing this letter to explain my actions in the past month.
Mind you, if it hadn't been for the above reasons or the fact that I really need you, i wouldn't have bothered to write this letter. So when you do read this letter, keep in mind the honour I'm giving you by betraying my other good friend, Laziness. Now really, you know about my fair-weather friend Exam ( really, isn't the weather fair in summer???). I had neglected the preparations for his arrival in the day time, due to the bad influence of my aforementioned good friend Laziness. So I thought, you, my nocturnal friend, would understand that I had avoid you for a few days to get rid of Exam, but for that I needed to prepare properly or I knew you would refuse to come to me, if I hadn't been good to Exam. You were good to me in Kashmir, but that I think was because, you didn't want to alarm my cousins. But later when I returned home , you refused to even come near me!!
Just think about it, is this fair? After all the wonderful nights we shared together? After all the stuff I had to put up with to please you? You would always start sulking whenever I thought of someone at night. I tried to keep your jealousy at bay, but I always gave in, in the end. You bring sweet dreams with you most of the times, even though you know I find sweet dreams very boring, but I smiled at them and was good to them because they came along with you.
It wasn't easy for me too, when you were away from me. I had to endure terrible headaches, during the day ( and night too), in your absence. ( for which I'll be eternally grateful to coffee for saving my life). I am very sorry and I really need you and will always will need you. Please , please , please come back to me.

Your good friend ( still hoping to be),
insomaniac

Bills n Moon

Yeah, yeah I know it's called Mills n Boon. SO WHAT?. Whatever, I don't know if I mentioned in my earlier posts that books are my one weakness. Mysteries, fantasies, sci-fi, thrillers, history, war stories, mytholgical tales, and so on. Did you notice anything common in the fields\genres I specified aside from the fact that they are a criteria for books? If yes, then well done. If no, then I'll tell you, all of them have a definite story and a strong plot. I'll come to this significant, useless point later.

So, when a lay my hands upon an interesting mystery, usually I complete it in at one go. I mean Perry Mason cases and Nancy Drew et al. I know reading is a good habit and all that, but for me, it sort of became an obsession that I had to complete a book at one go, which disturbed my other chores of the day. So my mom here had a very bright , not so unique idea of hiding them away for a while. So I had nothing to read for a few very painful days. But then, along came my cousin, who also reads books. Only difference was, she mainly reads silhouette and mills n boon stuff, and she had brought two of 'em with her. I thought this was a divine temptation. I had no books. She had two. Not fair. Is there no justice? Since I had nothing else to read, and I was feeling very deprived, so I read one of her mills n boon at one go. I don't know what it was, the fact that I was so so hungry (?) for books or the fact that they hypnotise you to read it completely or something, but while I was reading it, I didn't get bored. But after I finished the book? Yeah I felt like banging myself on head with a pestle. Here is where we return to the aforementioned significant useless point. The whole frigging book didn't have a story. No logic, wild emotions, utterly predictable ending. I mean what was the point of the whole book? It just raises expectations from the kind of partners the readers want.

No. I won't criticise the book. What would be the point? My criticism won't bother the publisher or the author's ass. Or the devoted readers. So I wonder what was the point of this post anyway. I mean you didn't learn anything as such. Also the fact that I love books is mentioned in the about me section. So this post was utterly pointless like the book which I read but didn't want to read, but had to, as there was nothing else and I had to feed my reading glands ( The Lire gland located just below the ear. aye, kaan ne niche). But unlike mills n boon romance, at least my post didn't have a predictable end. You thought , it must have been a fire post like a previous one? ha ha. You ought to appreciate anti-climaxes more.

I wonder why everything has to have a point. Just imagine a pointless life. A pointless world. If there was not a single point in the world, then there would be no points ( plural )in the world to. Which means............... NO segments, NO rays, NO lines, NO circles,NO conics, NO complex geometrical shapes. Life would be this whole pointless journey. :D

Generation and Generalisation

Don't you come across many middle-aged people who keep nagging young people about how today's world is spoiling them? Perhaps that obese lady in your building, who has to push her butt in each and every person's life? Or that uncle who keeps warning you to take care because " aaj ka zamaanaa bahut kharaab hai"? Yeah, them. I am referring to them. These people are usually the ones who can't accept change in their life. They are cynical, yes but won't actually do anything about the problem. Usually, they target us, youngsters, who have actually done no harm and are just under the line of fire beacuse they can't figure out what we think. They never actually mention why they disapprove, just make it very clear that they disapprove. So what's wrong with listening on the headphones while walking on the road? We are actually avoiding noise pollution. Listening to songs on the head phones makes us happy without harming others. Why don't you frigging understand that? Aye, about not being able to listen to the horns behind you, I'd say we value our lives more than you do. Of course, there always will be some nutters, but why should you generalise? And about today's world being a bad influence on us? Whether you like it or not, we are going to live in this world unless someone invents a time machine which works and we'll live in your oh so holier than thou world. But wait. HOLIER THAN TODAY'S WORLD????? You gotta be kidding me. Seriously. Who was responsible for the World War(s) ? Who was responsible for destroying so many Japanese lives? Who was responsible for the death of so many Jews? Who was responsible for all those broken families? YOUR so-called pure generation. What? You weren't there then? Here's something recent. Who is responsible for all those communal riots? To which generation does osama bin laden belong? Who is responsible for fucking up the environment so badly and dumping the reparation work on our laps? Who put a big hole in the ozone layer? Who didn't pay attention to birth control and is responsible for the mind-blowing population of today? and ironically, who is nagging US about birth control? Oh and who is responsible for racism, sexism and casteism? Aye. So now tell me what is so wrong with today's world? Are tattoos and piercings so bad? Or perhaps low waist jeans? Or maybe the fact that we are ditching mainstream and opting for other lines which benefit the environment too? Here these lines may seem quite unrelated superficially but the underlying implication is the same.......

When I born, I Black, When I grow up, I Black, When I go in Sun, I Black, When I scared, I Black, When I sick, I Black, And when I die, I still black.. And you White fella, When you born, you Pink, When you grow up, you White, When you go in Sun, you Red, When you cold, you Blue, When you scared, you Yellow, When you sick, you Green, And when you die, you Gray.. And you calling ME Colored ??

: ok I gotta go now. The big bad world outside is waiting for me. tally ho

Fixation?

I was just recollecting the names of Western bands and I found something rather weird.Check out these bands and the obvious emphasis that I have lain on some of it's words:

# RED hot chilli peppers
# GREENday
# BLACK eyed peas
# Plain WHITE T's
(hey, the third and the fourth rhymed too.Uh,sort of.Try saying them together in one breath )
# MAROON 5
# BLUE
# PINK Floyd

Coldplay's single " YELLOW", Donovan's album " Mellow YELLOW", Amelia Brightman goes by the name of "VIOLET", a Japanese J- pop and J- rock band is called " ORANGE Range ". OK. The ones I have mentioned without the "#" are the ones I checked on Wikipedia. SO SUE ME!!!!!

In My Closet

Yeah. I have nothing better to do these days. I was actually going through my closet in hopes of finding the jeans i wanted to wear the next day. I didn't find it. Nor did I find any spare long forgotten, hundred rupees note or anything. * sighs * All such things always happen in movies. All the bad things like accidents, stalkers, .... which WE think happen only in movies happen to us. So anyway, I did find my wallet which I had bought some seven years back. It had no money in it but an original, cellotaped sheet ( I got stuck at this word sheet. first I wrote original cellotaped copy, but WTF is an original copy?????) of my first poem ever, which I had written as a part of elocution class assignment, and we were supposed to write this in candle light as there was no electric power in class at that time; (ugh. This reminds me of Monday when we had to complete our physics prelim paper in darkness, as power was out at the college). Here is the poem by the way,

MONSOON
Monsoon o monsoon,
I hope you come soon.

In your water we play,
We, children, happy and gay.

From June to September,
There will be a merry weather.

Tiny, clear drops of thee,
Shall delight each and every tree.

The sudden flash of lightening,
Won't that be frightening?

School will give us a holiday,
What fun! If you came everyday!

Monsoon o monsoon
I hope you really come soon.

Note : I wrote this poem when I was 9 or 10 i guess. I haven't changed a single word from it's original version and have just copied it as it is from the original sheet. Yeah I was very fond of couplets. :D

Vegetarianism

Ok. The title should have been non - vegetarianism (say, is that even a noun?). Are you a non - vegetarian? I bet you meet a lot of people who look down their nose upon you because of that. They are just plain ignorant hypocrites. They may give you all that moral crap about harming a living thing and stuff. Here is what you can say to them :

# Sea food-eaters are mainly responsible for the employment of fishermen. Meat-eaters are responsible for employment of butchers. What if everyone goes vegetarian? Will you take the responsibility of providing employment to them?

# Most fishermen live along the coast. So they can't cultivate other crops on the saline land. Naturally, they will have to move. This is going to increase the strain on the land resources of the nation. Will you take the responsibility of providing them with proper, hygienic homes?

# It is because people who eat non - vegetarian, that it is possible to supply grains to the remaining people of India. If they all go vegetarian, who is going to provide all the extra grains? Will you take the responsibility of providing good food to over a billion people?

# This one's the best. They usually give the shit about harming animals. Here is what you can reply, " When animals are being caught, at least they can move to defend themselves. They can run away and escape. They at least have a chance. YOU all are cowards. Plants or crops can't even move from their places when you cut\harvest them. You don't even give them a chance to defend themselves. You just hack them, you cowards."

* That is why people say before you criticize others, look at what you are doing. The same thing applies to plastic also. But I'll talk about plastics some other time.