The Dream Merchants

Savji Dholakia and Narendra Damodar Modi both belong to Gujrat. Savji is a tycoon trading in diamonds and, as every one knows, Narendra is our Prime Minister.  Both started working from when they were very young, - one as a polisher of diamond stone, the other as is famously known, a chaiwala.

Today, the fifty-year-old Savji Dholakia is the chairman and managing director of a Rs. 6000 crore, i.e. Rs. 60 billion Surat based diamond export company, Hari Krishna Exporters, with offices all over the world. And, the sixty-five year old Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India with the destiny of 1.2 billion, i.e., 120 crore people in his hands.

Savji had a dream five years ago, a dream of being socially responsible, of sharing his fortune with others. This he did. At the end of a flourishing year of business, he rewarded those in the ‘loyalty programme’, who were responsible for such success. He presented houses to those without houses, cars to those without and jewelry to those who had both.
He can claim to have fulfilled his dream.

Martin Luther King, the civil rights activist who took the United States of America way forward to end racial discrimination, also had a dream - ‘That one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."  He had a dream, that his “four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
He had one dream, “To let freedom ring.”

Our Prime Minister on the other hand has many dreams – jobs to the unemployed, skills to the unskilled, a home to one without, farmers out of the clutches of the village Shylock, cleaning of our rivers. He wants reforms for the industry including labour reforms – easier accessibility, one window to the Government of India and the states. He wants land to be available on easier terms than as present.
He wants return of black money, to send the corrupt to prison, fast track criminal cases against people’s representatives.
His ambitions are many – bank accounts for a million people through the Jan Dhan Yojana, cleanliness through the Swatchch Abhiyan. On the forefront of his mind is the passionate belief in Brand India. ‘Make in India’ is his clarion call.
He wants to achieve all of the above in his political lifetime of five years, perhaps ten.
He needs to succeed on all counts, for he has left himself no room to maneuver. Those who voted for him are rooting for him. Those who did not are riding on the hope that he will hold himself accountable, that he will bring within their reach what he has promised.
As of now he sees in himself a messiah promising his people the world.
Is that how he will be seen five years, ten years from now?

Today, the 10th of October, is the World Mental Health Day

Today, the 10th of October, is the World Mental Health Day.

And my mind is working overtime.

So you have chronic physical health issues?
Diseases, conditions for which you will need to be on medication all your life?
Poor you!
Lucky you!
For allowances are made for you. Considerations shown.
There is appreciation, empathy.

I have, like many others, a chronic health issue too. 
A mental one.
Even though it is seldom considered to be a 'health' issue, it is.
It is also 
- an issue that is never mentioned but in whispers.
- an issue because of which friendships are broken before they even start.
- an issue where competence is overlooked.
-an issue where respect is hard to gain and easy to lose.
-an issue that most who have it, feel the need to hide for fear of persecution,
and
an issue for which there is no hope for any law that will bring recognition or acceptance.
I suffer from a condition known as bipolar disorder.

Mental illnesses have at their source, physiological imbalance.
Same as in the physical ones.
Know that.
Come and visit us when we are unwell.
Bring us flowers. Sweets.
We may not be able to see you then.
Because we are in an environment that is the equivalent of an ICU and in isolation, even when we may be at home.
Because any kind of stimulation hurts us at that time. 
Throws us headlong into an bottomless pit of depression or sends us for a high ride in a hot air balloon. Or both.
But when we are better, we'll be happy that you came.

Today, the 10th of October, is the World Mental Health Day.

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Sometimes life takes over

I haven’t written a word for a while now.
I have the luxury of indulging in this total unaccountability for a good reason.
I don’t make money with what I write. So

-  Never mind, I tell myself.

- Never mind.

But I do have an excuse. Not one that could have stood the test of having to earn a living through the written word, but otherwise, a very good excuse.
Life has taken over.

My idea of a perfect life is like the course of a river that can only exist in fairy tales.
It should flow without a wave.

Since I know is that is not a possibility, small waves are acceptable – like the stress of living with only what one needs.
Bare and uncomplicated.

I don’t want to be deliriously happy.
Of course I don’t want to be devastatingly sad.
I just want to be with my faculties sharp to my chosen stimuli.

That for me translates to no big occasion. No big anything.
No fuss.

Well, that life is now snatching at straws for its very survival.
And all because I rescued two gorgeous little puppies.

Patriarchy in our own back yard

The strength of the grasp that this patriarchal society has on us is blatant in the surnames of even the most diehard champions of gender equality, no matter what the sex.
A couple of days ago, while attending a meet to discuss aspects of women's issues, a confident, successful and highly respected person introduced herself as, first name ... surname ... and almost inaudibly, her husband's surname.
It was all said with a face as deadpan as possible and I wonder if she, or the others in attendance even noticed the apology in the use of the last.

My mind wonders.

Ceaselessly so, as must be obvious from this blog.

That dithering in her voice was adequate enough to send it on its path again. 

So why add that surname in the first place?
Worse than that, why feel obliged to do so?
Worse still is why the husbands don't actively refuse to burden their wives with their surnames?
As for the opposite case scenario, I've come across only one. And I believe myself privileged to have known him and his wife. Almost a generation older than I am, each added the others surname to their own. Considering that the marriage was between a Goan  man and a woman from a very conservative North Indian family, it said volumes of their conscious respect for each other.
So where are we in our stand against patriarchal societies if we can't even fight it in our own back yard?

And no, going with one's maiden name does not absolve one of the same hypocrisy.
More on that later.

So you think you are married?

Weddings are all about the extravagance.
One would like to think they would be proportionate to the income, but very often they are not.

From here on what I write is specific to the Hindu northern half of India marriages.
Amidst all the splendour, the festivity, of one tends to overlook a little event.
The ceremony itself.

Very few are there to sit it out with the bride and the bride-groom. Only a handful of people can claim to have been there through the proceedings.

It is treated as the most 'boring' aspect of the wedding tamasha.

But then, how relevant is it really?
I sometimes wonder, why must it happen?
After all, I know of not a person who has understood the Sanskrit mantras that the priest chants and the about to be married couple is expected to repeat after him.
If the words which validate the marriage that unites two people are not understood, then how are the rites  justified?
Where is the sanctity?
Where is the marriage?

Understanding the words can also be a double edged sword.
A beloved relative in the generation before, had studied Sanskrit.
She found the priest's mastery over the mantras so shaky and his diction so poor and, that she took pity on him.
The ceremony went as follows:
The bride chanted a line of the mantra-
the priest repeated- 
then as the ritual demands that the priest guides the couple in their vows, she and her husband-to-be repeated the same after him.
So where does she stand in the great scheme of things?
Overmarried?

BTW, this would apply across the board where the language used is unfamiliar to the couple wishing to be tied in holy matrimony.

It was my birthday

I woke up in the morning morning to the message, "Blessed be".
And I realised that never mind that I don't do 'god', never mind that I don't do 'religion', never mind that I won't go to heaven or hell, but how truly blessed I am.
Thank you my friend for bringing that home to me.

Another friend wished me a, " ... great trip around the sun."
I am on my way my friend, soon to reach you".

The Temptress

These are possibly Rabindranath Tagore's ('Thakur' is the way the Bengalis spell and pronounce it. Heaven knows why even today the anglicized 'Tagore' is used. It means nothing and sounds as artificial as it is.) last expression of his contemplations on the concept of Maya. Much of this is subjective and personal but makes a broader point.

This is not a direct translation as some of the Bengali words when translated into English are completely inappropriate and sometimes mean exactly the opposite.

Needless to say it has shaped much of my consciousness.

Sheshlekha 15

You have strewn the path of your creation with snares of illusion, you forever the Temptress!

You have spread the lure of false faith with expert hands in simple lives.

With this deceit you have marked the Seer.

For him there is no mystery to the night.

The path that he sees by the light of your star is the same path that is walked by his soul.

It is ever clear.

With simple faith he lights it ever luminous.

He may seem deceptive, but he is honest within.

In that is his pride.

People think he is contrary.

But he realizes the truth in the radiance of the light that shines within.

Nothing deludes him.

The ultimate reward is for him to have.

He, who can embrace your play with serenity, receives from you the right to eternal peace.