Where the mind is without fear... by Tagore (A contemporary take)

Tagoreji is the finest poet India could ever produce. This is a poem written by him during the struggle for Indian independence. I happened to read it recently and was awed at the fact that this 'prayer' holds true for 'free' India as well i.e present day India as well. It is a shame that a poem written describing a free India more than half a century ago, during the British Imperialist rule, has not been achieved to this day. It clearly indicates the fact that only the color of the skin of the exploiters has changed from white to brown, while we remain exploited. (in brackets are those problems our country faces today.)   

Where the mind is without fear(TERRORISM) and the head is held high(POVERTY);
Where knowledge is free(Corporate Coaching centers and Colleges);
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls(REGIONALISM/SEPARATISM/COMMUNAL Riots);
Where words come out from the depth of truth(CRIMINALS);
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(CORRUPTION);

 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                                                                           

We -The Students

"Politics are dirty!" This is the view of everyone. Especially the youth. But the fact is Politics is not what our country needs. It needs leadership. It needs Reformers. It needs true patriots. Here is the speech by an a student to his fellow students motivating them to lead India.

"Everyone of us have ambitions. Everyone of us have dreams. We work hard to achieve them and later relax enjoying the fruits of our labor. This is the life of every common man in our country. We all live in bubbles. Its comfortable inside, all we worry about is our life. By any chance if this bubble bursts, then we come face to face with the reality. The real world is more depressing and our daily problems seem tiny. It is completely a different sphere. In our bubble world our mind focuses on two things "me" and "family". That is common man.

We, students, are one level away from becoming yet another common man. Our major worry as of now is to get a job in a famous MNC, get a fat salary and get a beautiful girl/handsome boy as life partner.
That is a perfect life. There is nothing wrong in yearning for this life. It is our right after all.

Everyday we read newspaper. The front page is occupied by a huge news item about some scam. "STING OPERATION EXPOSES SO-N-SO", "OPPOSITION ASKS SO-N-SO TO QUIT", "GOVERNMENT PROMISES PROBE", "FILTHIEST SCAM OF INDIA", "CORRUPT BABUS", BLAH BLAH BLAH and BLAH.

What the hell is going on!! It has become a national time pass for us to read/watch and gossip about these scams and it earns a booty for the media. Apart from that there is no major change. We go back to our 'bubbles' work normally and behave as though nothing has ever happened, Roz ki roti jo kamani hai hamko. The exposed politicians and babus are behind the bars while similar corrupt people succeed them in their respective posts.

We are ignorant about these corrupt netas and bureaucrats but we fail to understand that the end result affects us.
The existing generation of politicians and bureaucrats cannot do anything. They can't change the nation, they can't eradicate poverty(nobody can), they can't curb corruption(99% of them are corrupt!!!), they can do NOTHING. And even if there is a slight possibility that they can...they WILL NOT. It is a fact everyone has to accept.

If any change could be brought out. Only WE...youth, students..CAN. If every single person of the next batch of bureaucrats vows to stay honest to his country and act responsibly, if not a major change, a foundation for such a change will be laid. If youth enter politics and vow to to serve the nation with all their heart and work for the nation, if not a major change, the first brick for a super power can be laid. We've had enough politicians but we need reformers who can reform politricks to service for the nation from service to self. We need leaders who can change the system from the roots instead of those who held on to the branches of the corrupt system and make their own nest. We need people who think with their brain and those who stay honest to their heart.

We are the present of the nation, we lay the road and the generation next would follow. Our elders and seniors in the bureaucracy and politics can just TALK. They are too damn buried in the depths of corruption and age. They don't have the courage, energy or the intelligence to ACT. But we...WE CAN ACT. We have the energy, we have the brains and we've got the balls to DO WHAT WE WANT. And WE WANT CHANGE.

So my dear friends, let us join hands for this change, let us work for this change and let us show a path to our next generation. Individually we might just be little droplets of water. But let us come together. The ocean that we, droplets, form, shall wash out the "dirty politics" and the mess our ancestors have made since independence.
Jai Hind!!  

Actor Siddharth at TiE ISB Connect part 1.avi

A LEGEND CALLED BHAGAT SINGH-

A legend is someone who dreams for the people. A legend is someone who lives for the people a. A legend is someone who dies for the people. A legend creates history. A legend can redefine it. A legend can install fear among his foes and spread love among his followers. You can kill a legend but not his thoughts. These thoughts inspire everyone. They ignite a fire in your heart that spreads from generation to generation. If a legend dies, its just the parting of his soul from his body. His soul is immortal. His ideal is his soul. It prevails even after the earth perishes.

A thinking revolutionary, an ultimate visionary, a fabulous leader who was way ahead of his time, a valiant warrior, Bhagat Singh was all this and much more. He is an ideal hero. He is patriotism personified.

Some consider him as a red blot in the, otherwise non-violent(that's what it is called in spite of the hundreds of lives which have been sacrificed and the amount of blood that has been shed) INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT. The English labeled him as a terrorist. But honestly, he was a valiant warrior. A warrior who fought for his country till the last drop of his blood. A warrior who threatened the very foundation of the English imperialism.

His aim was to "make the deaf hear". His ideas, inspired from great revolutionary leaders and writers like Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky, were aimed at the overall well being of the people with no religious or communal boundaries. He dreamed of an india, where man lived with perfect peace and complete liberty. He redefined the very concept of anarchism. He was an atheist and defied to accept God even in the last days of his life. He considered himself as a soldier. He requested the Viceroy to shoot him instead of hanging. It usually done to POW s. He was fire and
the flame he ignited burnt the entire British foothold in India. His death inspired millions of youngsters who fought with an immovable will and unstoppable courage to drive the British out.
His prediction has come true. Now the color of the exploiters has changed from white to brown. People are still being exploited. India yearns for a leader like him.
In his own words "It is easy to kill individuals but not their ideas. Great empires crumbled while such ideas survived".
INQUILAB ZINDABAD!!
JAI HIND!!

(THIS IS A TRIBUTE TO THIS GREAT LEADER WHO WAS EXECUTED ON THE 23rd of this month in 1931)