Sustained Satyagraha

I went to watch Satyagraha today.  I found it quite interesting for the most part.  It got me thinking on the issue - and I guess that means that Prakash Jha has not done a bad job.

Now, the movie is a lot about idealism, popular agitation, and so on, so we can't expect it to work as well as Chennai Express or Singham.  The movie did seem to inject a shot of inspiration in some part of the audience, but we all know well that this inspiration won't sustain, for it is not "practical".

So I was left to wonder, what exactly will motivate us to leave our daily humdrum and make effort towards common welfare?  Or should we understand that such a "revolution" is impossible?

I can say for sure that such a revolution is not impossible.  Gandhiji proved that, in a much more challenged environment, with poor communication systems, no voting rights, illiteracy, and social class discord.  Egypt, Libya, and Germany proved that people can get sick of the establishment and bring about a change.  So why do we not see such a revolution in India today?  Is it because our problems aren't really serious?  Is it because we are too selfish to look at the common cause?  Or are our politicians smart enough to keep us too occupied to think of our issues?

I like to think that the problem is our stupidity or immaturity.  Our immaturity prevents us from seeking action unless we are directly affected.  Our immaturity makes us hypocrites - stupidly lighting candles and sharing facebook posts and participating in rallies occasionally, without any sustained or planned effort - just like we say Jay ____ (fill your "God" here), and practice Faraali or Roja or Paryushan so that God overlooks our daily nonsense.

Most seriously of all, our immaturity makes us blind to the opportunity to find pleasure in bringing a positive change.  That is, we fail to see the obvious fun in working towards making the world more wonderful.

These initiatives and movements fail because we do not participate with the right mindset.  Some of us participate as a reaction to negative or irritating experiences we may have faced.  Some participate looking at these as ways to "contribute their share".  And of course, then there are the more stupid cases that seek fame or pursue hidden agenda.

I think we need to stop looking at this as a fight of good v/s evil.  We are all mixed people, with our share of compromises in character.  So are our representatives and public servants - it is just hypocrisy to expect them to be ideal or perfect.

We need to look at this as a long-term effort for self-improvement.  We need to seek perfection in our character.  We need to learn how to take principle-centric decisions even when they are inconvenient; we need to maintain loyalty for our conscience; we need to learn to ignore irritations (of negative experiences) and avoid reactions.
We need to acquire the patience to understand the people we conveniently declare as villains - see their good side, love them, befriend them by being their true well-wishers, and motivate them to change (primarily in their own interest).  We will do this naturally when we develop a strong, genuine character.

This effort for self-improvement is not so hard - in fact, it is fun.  We all enjoy upgrading our homes, our offices, our cars - we will find nothing as enjoyable and sustainable as upgrading our character.

The revolutions in Egypt and Libya seem unlikely to succeed.  The one in Germany did.  As did Gandhiji.  He succeeded because he sought to love everyone (as he enjoyed doing so), not discount anyone as an antagonist, understand and learn what "the right" might be, pursue that, seek improvement, and enlighten others to do the same.  His autobiography speaks not of his achievement of "kicking the British out", but of his efforts to strengthen his character, his efforts to define and pursue "the right".

The great thing about this attitude is that it is sure to deliver sustained happiness.  One pursuing environmental improvement through self-improvement need never worry about chances of his/her success.  Because speed and success in self-improvement is always in our hand, and we can get started with that "revolution" anytime, from any situation, including now.

Choosing to be happy

I have complained enough about life.  I guess I'm not unlike others when I do so, and many might find my complaints well justified.  I feel disappointed when I lose a customer.  I feel frustrated when my development team takes forever to complete a critical task.  I worry about managing cashflow.  I get mighty pissed when my laptop or phone stops working.  I get frustrated when I see general deterioration in the society around - commercialization of education & healthcare, loss of civic sense, what not!

Yet lately I feel I'm being quite stupid when I complain or feel disappointed.  I feel I am the last person on earth who has the right to complain.  Cuz I have everything I need to be happy.

I have a wonderful family, which loves me infinitely.  All my loved ones have been gifted with the best of health and abilities. I myself have been given a fit mind and body; I can't even imagine the plight of people who cannot take that for granted.  I have been given sufficient wealth, education, social respect, and guidance to use as a platform for my career, for my company.  At Peach, I have a team full of really smart people, who work like crazy for me.  I've even been given some decent successes, so that I can feel proud and confident of my own self.  All I need to do now is make efforts.  And I should do that with confidence, because time and again, I've been shown that making efforts is sufficient for success.

I have thus resolved to be happy.  Every time I feel sad or disappointed, I will think of my countless gifts, including my own abilities.  And I will put in sincere efforts to use all my energy in creative ways, brightening the world around me.  I have the power to bring smiles on the faces of my loved ones, of the people who work with me, of even strangers.  I have the ability to apply my professional knowledge to make products that can touch countless lives positively.  I have all it takes to set good examples, through myself and my creations, and even that may suffice to begin a meaningful change.  Why waste a minute being sad, when life's so good?  :)

A Re-Start: Writing about Murder, Cold-blooded Execution

Hmmm... I've finally decided to make another effort at blogging.  Let me start by sharing my thoughts about one of my biggest irritants: Indian English, which is killing the language I love (English, duh).

I am appalled by the state of English in our country.  Back in school days, I believed that the whole world save my Gujju medium schoolmates could speak decent English.  But as I opened my ears to hear the real world, especially after college, I felt shocked.  I can now see a systematic, wide-scale murder of my language.

We seem to have decided to simply ignore grammar.  People who wish to refer to me with respect have pluralized me - "Parth are not coming to the movie."  (Of course, here I refer to the fresh recruits who neither know me nor my real age behind the moustache.)  We clearly do not know about the existence of the "perfect" tenses - we just keep language "simple" (pun intended, you dummies!).  We Capitalize Any Letter that we find to be Important.

But of course, this does not keep people from claiming fluency in this language.  I've seen countless resumes claiming English skills while not having a single error-free sentence.  In fact, I am yet to see a single resume without a spelling mistake!

Speaking of spelling mistakes - I fill horified by dhe eaz weeth wich we mek them.  There's this new guy who joined us in marketing yesterday - for some unexplainable reason, it occurred to me that I should write down some basic linguistic expectations from him, as he'll be communicating with our customers.  Despite my ultra-clear instructions, I found five spelling mistakes in a three-sentence report he sent me today.  And when I brought it up, he stared at me in a way that told me how foolish I was to treat those as mistakes!

We have lost the sense of perfection, especially in language.  We have already doped our native languages with hundreds of English words that we cannot live without.  If we cannot expect perfection in spellings, how on earth can we expect perfection in sentence formations, and further fine-tuning in even choosing the right means among several grammatically correct options?!

Unfortunately, there is not even any hope.  While we ourselves do not even realize our mistakes, we no longer even have people around us, or teachers, to correct us.  We dole out degrees like MA (English) without ensuring even the fluency of pre-school levels.  And those among us (I claim myself to be one) who could claim decent fluency are also giving up, as we are forced to re-phrase our sentences to make sense to our listeners, and filter all but the simplest vocabulary, while being bombarded with poor English from all corners.  As a result, our English is often a mere disorderly translation of sentences formed first in our native Indian language - hence full of passive voice, "respectful words", etc.

I put most of this blame on two categories of people - "urbanites" and "marketers".  Urbanites, especially the so-called "professionals", have decided that their language of speech must be English.  They try to express the world within their tiny vocabulary.  And their most amusing aspect is their confidence - it often makes me literally speechless!  The second class is the marketers, who, again, have decided that anything other than English is beneath their dignity.  And therefore, these Englishmen torture their customers with not only their products, but even their language.

Any way, I guess I have rambled enough for today.  I'm struggling to retain my remaining fluency.  If one of you readers feels likewise, let me know, maybe we can figure a solution, or at least mourn together for the death of our dear language!  (Or, you may simply help me by correct the mistakes in this blog...)