Mumbai Attacks: The Action Required

Terror has never helped any cause, never done any good, never brought about any revolution. Terror is nothing but a method used by some people in today’s world to instill fear, coerce them. The recent terror attacks did all that and much more. It is an attack that has touched a chord in each of us, got us to think and got us to demand action.

The losses faced during the 60 hours of mayhem and after are irreparable. There is no compensation, no amount of apology and no amount of ‘political statement’ that can change that. The people of the world are asking questions, want answers, and are in need of explanations but will we get any of these? The people of the world want action; want reformation, those that are not merely for political reasons.

We talk about what to do and how to better these situations when the acts of terrorism are over with, this approach is clearly wrong. We must talk and generate methods to stop these terror attacks from occurring, from curbing them before they do. We must attack these attacks from the front, not with weapons, not with bloodshed but with a united front, our intelligent minds and our souls, all together.

The answer to terrorism is not blame, it is change. The answer to terrorism is not fear, it is strength. The answer to terrorism is not abhorrence, it is being unperturbed by their attempts to divide.

I condemn these blasts and pray for peace in our city, our country and in the world as a whole. May the souls of all those brave men and women who gave up their lives saving others and all those civilians who lost their life in these ghastly attacks rest in peace. We salute you.

Terrorist attacks can try and shake the foundations of our buildings but they cannot touch the foundation, the soul, the heart of India.

Anil Kumble you will be missed

Today Anil Kumble retired. It came as a surprise to many and certainly not a joyous one. The Ferozshah Kotla stadium was once again filled with emotion, once again by Anil Kumble himself.

Anil Kumble is a player par excellence. Someone who never let the team down, someone who put the sport before him, someone who put the team’s and countries integrity before his own, someone who didn’t let situations become excuses, and someone who never shied away from criticism but instead, silently proved it all wrong.

He has many a times been called the general of the team, the silent assassin who would take everyone in the opposition down without making much noise about it. Such is the man. He is the first Indian to take more than 500 wickets, he was only the 2nd man ever to take all 10 wickets, he is known to be the 3rd greatest bowler, after Murlitharan and Shane Warne. Anil Kumble held his head and the team’s head high in the recent Down Under series. He is the player who played against West Indies with a broken jaw, something that had everyone gaping when they saw the tv screens. He is the player who played and took 3 wickets in the most recent Kotla test with an injured finger, stitched up.

An era is said to be when a player comes and changes the face of the game, the way the game is perceived and when he decides to leave we know that the void can never be filled. A person is said to end an era when we know that there was just one like him and that there will be no other. In this man’s case it all stands true.

Few greats of the cricket echoed their sentiments on Anil Kumble’s retirement.

Kapil Dev, former Indian Cricket Captain said and I quote "Anil Kumble is a true fighter, always had this never-say-die attitude and is thoroughly a true gentleman,"

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell said "It is very difficult for somebody to get into his shoes. He is a cricketer who never compromised his dignity and always played with determination,"

The next few days are not going to be easy for any cricket fan, for any Indian who holds a soft spot for the game, especially a soft spot for the ‘senior players’. In the coming week we are going to see history again, Ganguly (my personal favorite) retiring, VVS Laxman completing 100 tests and a probable win at home against Australia. It is going to be an emotionally charged week, today the beginning of what will be remembered by many.

I know I had tears in my eyes when I heard his speech today. I know my emotions were stirred up when I saw the television footage of his journey until now. I know I will always remember this man to be probably the greatest gentleman and pioneer of the sport there has ever been.

Anil Kumble, you will be truly missed. It is indeed the end of an era in cricket today.

Every Life

Of dreams and shadows that should never die
Autumn and spring which keep us alive.
Of the barren lands and rainy days that teach us to cope
The challenges we may face, what tomorrow holds.

Of mayhem and harmony, the turmoil around
War and peace the soldier shouts out.
Of cries and smiles, the nature of man
The ungratefulness he possesses in today’s time.

Of prayer and curse, keeping God in mind
Rich and poor, the distinction between lines.
Of black and white, the world as it seems
The wait for the morning after yesterday’s dream.

Of love and hate, with passion and tumult
Blue skies and dark seas, the beauty of the world.
Of angels and devils, the human and Satan within us
The faith, the reality of it all thus.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

We are the youth of today, the generation that will soon be responsible for the state of the world. We like calling ourselves the leaders of tomorrow, a youth with a purpose, with an opinion, with a vision. Acceptable as this view maybe, have you ever wondered whether you as a part of this class of people are doing anything, substantial or not, to make even an iota of a difference?

Monotony has come to be accepted as a part of life, we don’t question it, we don’t change it, and we don’t bother about it. We have similar days, if not the identical, five days of a week, the weekends being no different. We are happy sitting comfortably in our houses, bothering about issues that only directly affect us. Is that what we need to do? Is that what’s going to help us grow, help the country grow and help the world grow?

In the recent past we have been faced with many dismal occurrences – manmade and natural - the terror attacks all over the country (India), the Bihar flood crisis, the Hurricanes in United States, the Global Financial Crisis, the attacks on Churches across the country, the Russia – Georgia conflict and many such others. Some of these have been beyond us, even if we want to help we aren’t able to but some of these are those that in which if we take part we can make a difference, just the step, the want and the will need to be there.

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.
- William Penn

It is time to wake up and smell the coffee (and no I don’t mean Barista or Starbucks). It is the time to do something about issues other than college politics, decide which movie to go for or how to deal with relationships and break ups. It is the time to take it in our hands to make a difference, to at least try and help, to work our ways up the ladders of humanity, to end the day with the feeling of satisfaction, to see the feeling of gratefulness, the feeling of gratitude in the hungry, helpless man’s eyes.

Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something.

The Strange ways of Human nature

Sometimes I wonder that how does human nature really work. I mean sometimes we say we can’t do or live without a person but when fate brings us to it, when we are left with no choice but to live without their presence in our lives we somehow manage to do so. The question of how we cope after losing someone, to death or otherwise has always intrigued me.

Loss is quite an ambiguous term if you look at it objectively. It is also a very vast one. For a large part of your life you have been with someone, something, emotionally and/ or physically. One day, for them it all just isn’t the same anymore, what are the explanations to all this? The mere change of the face or place of a relationship can also be called a loss. The complete washing away of existence can also be called a loss. The mere losing of something small, even sometimes inconsequential can be called a loss. There are so many ways you can define loss, so many ways you can use the word, the emotion of loss. With loss also comes the feeling of loss of something that might have been, something that could have been.

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature’s delight
- Marcus Aurelius

From where I see it, a personal point of view to all of this is that most situations of loss cannot be fought; they have to merely be accepted. It is again in our nature to have a fighting instinct when it comes to something close to our hearts. Acceptance of something lost doesn’t immediately follow the loss occurred, we try denying, we get angry, we try to reason, we sometimes grieve, we don’t accept things that would change our life in a way we never imagined very easily. To put it simply we like to believe we are immune to change. So what do you do when you have to be ‘the big one’ and not fight reason but just respect it? What do you do when you want to hold on to something but at unable to do so? What do you do when you know a little more entry into the persons being will make it better, but you are locked out of it all? Such questions and many more crop up but not one seems to have an answer that explains the phenomena of loss and the subsequent acceptance.

Life is all about change, about self-determination, about acceptance and rejection, about survival. And somehow because of the unexplainable human nature life still always remains beautiful.

I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.”
- Walter Anderson

Trust

Trust... this word has so much meaning, so much importance. Every relationship has this as its basis. Without it there is seldom any meaningful thing, any meaning to a thing. If we think about hard enough about it, trust is present in every aspect of our life. If you do an adventure sport you place your trust on the person teaching you, if you are flying you place trust on the pilot and the airlines, if you are confiding in someone you place trust in them not to speak about it, if you are believing what a person says and does you are trusting them to never hurt you. Trust.

What do you do when someone you want to trust never gives you an opportunity to?
They say that you can trust only when you want to. But there are also times that though you want to place your trust in something or someone the reason to trust is taken away from you. You get close to the place you want to be at but suddenly you find that it has gone miles ahead of you again. You are running against a moving train that refuses to stop or slow down so you can catch up with it.

Trust can be used as a synonym for faith. It is a confidence, a belief that we have in someone or something that we have in the situation or the relationship. It is the faith we have in our actions along with the others that gets us to do things, take actions, and grow as people in our lives. Trust is a relationship of reliance, a relationship of the unknown, the statement that helps us move into the future. All we have when we take that once step forward is trust.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust
- Samuel Johnson

Trust is a binding characteristic, trait of relationships. I personally have never heard or seen of any relationship without one person having full trust on the other. It is important because it lets us lean on others, to depend on others, for love, for advice, for help. But trust involves major risk. There is never a point where trust is completely fool proof.

Trusting, when needed to be successful, especially between two people is generally a two way road. It is when both the parties are open to trusting the other. It is when you accept the risk that the trust can be broken, you have the belief that it will not be broken and have faith the other person is competent enough to keep the trust you have in them intact.

There are questions that will always arise like when is trust warranted? When do we know that our trust will never be betrayed? Does anyone or can anyone be completely, truly sure that their trust will not be broken by the person, the circumstance we are trusting?

But even with the confusion, the indecisiveness in our minds. Even with the risk we undertake, the faith we possess. Even with being aware of the possibility of being hurt, being scared, we trust. Because as someone said;

Without trust there is nothing.

Right and Wrong

Right is something which is said to be ‘socially correct’. Some others may define right as something that is in conformance with the law and the order of the land. Right has come to be believed as something that the society deems correct, the society agrees with and that with which the societal values coincide. So in short it is thus safe to come to the conclusion that right is something that is accepted by the society and thus can be said to be morally, ethically and socially right. I will come to the part about society later.

Wrong is something which is not in accord with established code of conduct. It can also be said to be something that is contrary to the conscience or morality of law. Wrong is in simpler words the exact opposite of right. Here we take wrong in a negative connotation.

Now one question that crops up in my mind and I am sure in each of our minds is that when we say a particular thing/path/action is 'right' while the other is 'wrong', why do we say so? Who determines this? Who distinguishes them and why do we take things as acceptable and unacceptable? What makes the human psyche think in such a manner and how 'right' or 'wrong' really are the things?

Most say it is the society that decides but then comes my above point which I didn’t deal with then, who is this 'society' and how does it decide? Why does the so called ‘society’, assuming such a body exists, decide and differentiate between these things?

Society can be taken to be a group of individuals that are primarily characterized by common interests, needs and goals. It is also said to be a totality of all human relationships and organisations. If we take this to be true then it is safe to assume that every living being would be a part of society per se and hence be involved in the decision making process of right and wrong. However this is not so since objectively speaking no person would do something he himself has christened as wrong. Assuming such a society does decide the right and wrong, the question now arises that on what basis is the punishment decided for committing a wrong?

“Society is one vast conspiracy for carving one into the kind of statue it likes and then placing it in the most convenient niche it has”

- Randolph Bourne

Some say that humans are born with an innate sense of moral responsibility and a sense of justice, a sense of right and wrong. Now the question arises that are some more fortunate than others in this gift and thus some go on the ‘right path’ and some on the ‘wrong path’? Also it is important to note that many a times what is considered right in some parts/places is considered wrong in the others. What is the reason for that? Does this sense we possess differ so much? Why is say for example abortion or mercy killing legal or ‘right’ in some countries while illegal or ‘wrong’ in the others?

Many also say that it is the society we live in that grooms us, teaches us and influences our decisions of right and wrong. If that is so does this merely increase our innate sense and give it meaning or does it over write what we were supposed to be born with?

The last point that I come to is that is there even a society that exists or is it a fragment of our imagination, something we can blame our faults upon. Does there exist this amalgamation of bodies, of humans, of organisations that decides or is instrumental in the way we think and analyze or are we our own people, merely individuals, who decide for ourselves?

‘Society exists only as a mental concept, in the real world there are only individuals’

- Oscar Wilde

The End of an Era

She came and she conquered. She succeeded when few thought she would. She stood out among the crowd but not because of a loud, over the top attitude or because of publicity and fame garnered from elsewhere. She stood out because of her grace, her dignity, her passion and her technique. She is Justine Henin. She had the grace we don’t get to see anymore, she had the dignity to rise above the mishaps and the misgivings; she had the passion which defines the game of tennis and she had the technique, as John McEnroe himself said the best single backhand in men and women’s tennis today. An end to the era of graceful tennis.

Justine Henin, for me, is the last of the tennis players who can make history, who can make a place for themselves in the history of the game. It will be long before another comes. Having won an Olympic gold, 7 Grand Slam titles and just short a win at Wimbledon, she has had a career few can boost of.

According to me she never really got the respect and adulation she deserved off the court, from people who aren’t tennis fanatics. Few know what she has done and what she was capable of. She had the power to intimidate her opponents and they knew that on a good day, which was almost always since the past few years, she was hard to beat.

When one thinks of retirement it is because of injury, of losing the touch or because of age. She retired, at 25, when she was No. 1 and when no one was close to taking that tag, that rank away from her. She retired because the emotion she had towards her game, the game of tennis had diminished. Very few have the courage to do that, those very few are the Champions of their game.

Today is a sad day in the world of tennis. A day that a fan wishes never comes. The day a player retires, puts an end to a wonderful career. I am yet surprised at why she took this step but she must be having her reasons. The first thought that came into my mind was why now? There is the Roland Garros coming up, her slam, her domain. She will be missed, at every tournament, at every slam.

Blame

Blame is an easy way out, to clear your name, the doubt.
But what the consequence is, no one comprehends
Fights it causes, makes matters worse,
No end reached but still the end it is for all.
Why can’t things be said as they are,
Accepted and moved on with, make a fresh start?
Is it so tough to make the relationships work?
To be humans who accept their errs?
Let’s leave the scorn aside for a while and say what’s in the heart,
Make a new beginning of this disgraceful debated last part.

© Shruti Chopra

Freedom Writers: A Marvel

Sometimes I wonder where do people get the courage, the motivation and the will to make themselves absolutely secondary and do good or at least try to better lives of other people from. It amazes me that people can be so selfless in nature. We all try and do our bit for the other and none of us – or at least most of us aren’t completely selfish in nature but we can’t also claim to be completely selfless. Some people are lucky that their calling happens to be selflessness, some people are lucky that they get the chance, but what is most appealing to me as a person is that someone so ordinary, like you and me, takes the chance given, goes out of their comfort zone as we call it, do what they like and do it their way and still make such a marked difference.

Privileges are something most of us take for granted. We don’t always realize that at some parts of this world there is an entirely different world! We don’t always think that there are people out their fighting a war, a battle for survival everyday and I don’t mean the soldiers of our country. Many a times these battles are forced, are ‘man-made’ and honestly need not even be there. Privileges aren’t something materialistic, something money buys but it is basic things like freedom, a family, an education, a job, a meal, a roof.

I call Freedom Writers a marvel because of the truth there is in it, because of the reality it shows and it changes, because of the good it strives to bring about without preaching. Freedom writers is about giving a voice, about giving a future and about giving hope. Freedom writers as an organization is about making one realize that nothing is impossible and that fighting without a reason, just because you are told to is baseless. Freedom writers the movie made me aware, made me realize, it inspired. It showed, at least me, that many a times we don’t know what we are up against and why we are up against it. Do we go after things or people just because we have been told to or because we have a reason backing our actions? Is following the norm essential even if it is the wrong way or being the first one to get up and make a change because it is the right thing to do?

Erin Gruwell, on whom the movie is based, as a character in the movie, is on the face of it just like you and I, a young person wanting to become a teacher because she likes the aspect and the idea of it, married young and happy with her life but wanting to make a change. You dwell a little deeper and you realize that she has the innate quality of putting someone else before her, for a better good even if that means letting go of her life, of her pleasures. She has the will to go those extra steps to make this step a successful one. She has the determination of doing things the right way but her way, about getting things done even if that means bending the rules a little. This is what I mean by courage. Courage isn’t merely going out there and showing how brave you are, courage isn’t not being scared, courage is having the will and the nerves to do what you believe in and make it happen. It is putting everything else on stand – even you if required to make a difference, however big or small it may be.

“With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.”
- Keshavan Nair

Choices

'Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.'

Choices are a part of life. Every minute you are to make a choice. To either do this or to do that, but what happens when the choices are such that don’t just change the moment but the life ahead of you? Such are choices that scare people, which bring about confusion, anticipation and a gamut of other emotions? Thinking about a few things and the choices that have been made till now and the choices that will have to be made in the future, got me thinking and dwelling into deeper issues and reasoning’s. The two main choices, we assume that change the way our life goes, the way we lead it, depends upon our academic (career) choices, and our choices in relationships.

What does our tomorrow bring, what does it hold for us and what is the reason for tomorrow happening the way it does? Our life is based broadly on joys and sorrows, on happiness and sadness, on loss and gain, on belief and disbelief, on right and on wrong.

'We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them'

Everything that transpires in our life is ultimately because of our choice. Some people may blame their decision on someone else or say they were influenced but it still remains their choice, because it was their decision, them choosing to go by the others decision. Subconsciously or consciously we are always deciding the path for tomorrow, whether it is the way we want it to be or the complete opposite.

Each morning is a new day and each morning we choose whether we want to take a decision, make the choice to move forward or to just let it all go, like a river that will never again touch the shore. There are many moments in our lives when we find ourselves at a crossroad, at the T junction, anxious, perplexed, without a roadmap. The choices we make then, in that very moment, set path for everything ahead.

The most important thing in life, and maybe even the simplest but contradictorily one that is toughest to do is to stand by your choices, to accept them and to honor them. To think through them so that tomorrow, when things don’t work out there might be disappointment but no regret.