Political Courage ?

" ...It may perhaps seem odd that in my private life I go around interfering and giving people advice like this without having the courage to come forward in public life before you, the people and give advice on matters of public interest. The reason for this is what you have often heard me talking about in all sorts of places, the kind of divine or supernatural sign that comes to me. Perhaps this is what Meletus was making fun of when he wrote up the charge against me. It started when I was a child, a kind of voice which comes to me and when it comes - always stops me doing what I am just about to do. It never tells me what I should do, it is this which opposes my taking part in politics and rightly opposes it in my opinion.

You can be sure Athenians, that if I had tried in the past to go into politics, I would have been dead long ago and being no use at all either to you or myself. Please don't be anooyed with me for speaking the truth, there is no-one in the world who can get away with deliberately opposing it or any other popular assembly or trying to put a stop to all unjust and unlawful things which are done in politics. It is essential that the true fighter for justice if he is to survive even for a short time should remain a private individual and not go into public life. ..."

Apology(audio or text)
-Socrates as accounted by Plato.

Surmayee shaam Is tarah Aaye

I consider two lyricists/poets clearly a cut above the rest, though their approach to poetry is very different. Sahir ludhianvi was a revolutionary, his songs make you think, question and revolt like no one else's can. and then there is Gulzar, who blends reality with abstraction to perfection.

Sometimes, I find myself in a blissful state, where I could completely forget my existence and just enjoy each and every moment of it. and more often than not, such a moment is accompanied by a song that I love. Gulzar's lyrics over the years has provided many such beautiful moments.

Gulzar creates magic in this song, and Suresh Wadkar's voice is as sweet as nectar.

Listen to the song here or here.

surmayee shaam is tarah aaye
saans lete hai, jis tarah saaye

koi aahat nahin, badan ki kahin
phir bhi lagtaa hai, too yahin hain kahin
waqt jaataa sunaayi deta hain
tera saaya dikhaayi deta hain
jaise khushboo nazar se chhoo jaaye

din ka jo bhi pehar guzarta hain
koi ehsaan sa utarta hain
waqt ke paanv dekhtaa hoon main
roz ye chaanv dekhtaa hoon main
aaye jaise koi khayaal aaye
saans lete hai, jis tarah saaye

-Gulzar

Working Class Hero

As soon as you are born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you cant follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you cant really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and tv
And you think you are so clever and classless and free
But you are still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

-John Lennon

Watch the Video Here.

"The eye cannot choose but see,
We cannot bid the ear be still,
Our bodies feel where'er they be
Against or with our will."

-William Wordsworth

15 Park Avenue

Last friday was not a very pleasant one. An untimely demise of someone I knew was lingering in my head from the previous day. I picked up this movie that evening and a little over half an hour into the movie, I was ready to quit. I was definitely in no mood to watch a depressing movie. Somehow I continued to watch, and I am glad I did. There are no spoilers ahead, so read along if you havent watched it.

15 Park Avenue is Aparna Sen's second movie I was watching after Mr.and Mrs.Iyer. In Mr.and Mrs.Iyer, a well directed low budget movie, Konkana had portrayed the role of a tamil iyer to perfection. 15 Park Avenue is also directed by Aparna and has both Konkana and Rahul Bose in the lead as well.

Konkana plays Mithi,a schizophrenic, and Shabana Azmi, at her usual best, plays the role of her elder sister. The director has excelled in bringing out the delicate relations between various characters in the movie. The ending of the movie though might seem surprising, brings out the central theme to perfection.

Incidentally, this is the third movie about schizophrenics, I can't stop adoring. The first one was Puttanna Kanagal's masterpiece in Kannada, Sharapanjara and the second was Russell Crowe playing John Nash in A Beautiful Mind.

If you haven't watched this one and you do have a decent connection to internet, watch it here! Courtesy Youtube.

Dum le le ghadi bhar, yeh chaiyyan paayega kahaan...

A new year, a new hope and a new dream. If I were to rewrite Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech, it would be an endless one. I am sure it is the same with each one of us. What is beautiful about a dream is not just the creative aspect of it but the relentless pursuit of human will from its conception to realization. Not many of us dare to dream. But nothing great has ever been achieved without dreaming. Dream big, Do not worry whether you have the ability to achieve it or not, and pursue it with a bigger heart.

Shailendra is one of my favorite lyricists. Most of his songs which I like have been sung by Mukesh, but this one has been sung and composed by my all time favorite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Whether be it moments of dejection, loneliness or of reflection, this song has always been there for me. No doubt the lines are very powerful but the way Burmanda has sung this song is simply brilliant. He has added so many dimensions to it. Each time I listen to this song, I am amazed how much I enjoy it in a different way and in a different context.

Check the song here

I wish I could have given an audio link to this, as the video will simply be a distraction (its a brilliant movie though).

Have a great 2007!

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need is something to be enthusiastic about.

--Charles Kingsley

Update: I will be away from blogging for the next two months.

Bill Drayton and Ashoka: Defining Social Enterpreneurship

Vinoba’s stupendous Bhoodaan effort was drawing attention in the west. In the United States, major articles on Vinoba appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker and on the cover of Time as well. If it was Gandhi who influenced Vinoba as a 20 year old, little did anyone know that Vinoba was going to inspire another 20 year old, albeit, on the other side of the world.

In 1963, Bill Drayton, a 20 year old student from Harvard was spending his summer break at Munich, Germany when he first heard of Vinoba's Bhoodaan. He was so inspired by Vinoba's simple idea that he decided to drive his red and white Volkswagen van from Munich to India to join him. Bill joined Vinoba on his foot march and witnessed the power of a simple idea by a single person to bring out a massive social change. This experience left a mark on him.

Back to Harvard, Bill started an inter-disciplinary forum called "Ashoka Table" where students could interact with officials from the government and the industry. It was here that he nurtured a greater vision. Following his studies at Harvard, Yale and Oxford and working at McKinsey and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 1980 Bill formed "Ashoka", his dream venture to create real change worldwide. Ashoka was named after the visionary and benovolent Indian emperor of 3rd century BC.

Bill Drayton's idea was simple, yet pathbreaking. He knew that throughout the world, while governments were inefficient in their working to bring social changes, and private sector was motivated only by profit, real social change had to come from the "Citizen Sector". His idea was to model what he called "Social Entrepreneurship" which would combine the pragmatic and results-oriented methods of a business entrepreneur with the goals of a social reformer.

Imagine a social Enterpreneur in a remote village in Bangladesh being assisted by McKinsey in management consulting, Hill & Knowlton in public relations expertise, and by the International Senior Lawyers Project in legal support. This is not a utopian tale but how an "Ashoka fellow" works. Entrepreneurs funded by Ashoka, known as Fellows, are given financial support, are connected to its vast network of other Fellows, and are provided with the expertise and advice of firms in partnership with Ashoka.

The term "Social Enterpreneurship", that Bill Drayton coined 20 years ago is a buzz word today in B-Schools like Harvard, Yale and Oxford. Almost all top B-Schools have now courses on Social Enterpreneurship. More importantly, the 1500 odd Ashoka fellows spread throughout the world have become effective changemakers in bringing a positive change to the world.

Bill Drayton was named in 2005 by the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University as one of “America’s Best Leaders” along with other luminaries like Bill and Melinda Gates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey.

References:

--> Video - Bill Drayton speaks at Google (Must Watch!)
--> Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University
--> US News interview with Bill Drayton

Vinoba Bhave: Pillar of Community Leadership

The year was 1916. A 21 year old young brahmin from Maharashtra was undergoing a period of extreme unrest. His thirst for learning was not quenched by formal education. On his way to Mumbai to take his intermediate examination, he took a fateful decision, put his school and college certificates in a fire and decided to go to Varanasi to study Sanskrit and Theology.

The young brahmin while continuing his Sanskrit studies at Varanasi, faced another dielemma. On the one hand he wanted to go to the Himalayas to become a hermit, there was also a desire in him to go to Bengal to join the freedom struggle against the British. But destiny had it's way. He happened to meet Mahatma Gandhi, and history was made. The young brahmin's name was Acharya Vinoba Bhave.

Vinoba is probably the greatest Gandhian until today. As Vinoba later said, he had found in Gandhi the peace of the Himalayas united with the revolutionary fervor of Bengal. And Gandhi admired Vinoba equally, commenting that Vinoba understood Gandhian thought better than he himself did. Vinoba was chosen by Gandhi in 1940 to be the first individual Satyagrahi. A multi-lingual scholar, he spent years in jail interpreting Gita during the freedom struggle.

After India attained her independence in 1947, Vinoba preferred a secluded ashram life as he had no innate desire to be a leader. But it was to be only until 1951.

In April 1951, Vinoba Bhave after attending the Sarvodaya conference in a village in Andhra, started his peace-trek on foot through the violence-torn region of Telangana. The Indian army had been called in since there was an insurgency of communist students and the poorest harijan villagers against the monopoly of rich landlords. Vinoba saw a solution to this turmoil.

He announced that he would walk all through the region to collect gifts of land and would redistribute it among the landless. The movement was called Bhoodaan — "gift of the land". He had started a social revolution. Over the next seven weeks, Vinoba asked for donations of land for the landless in 200 villages of Telangana. The response was overwhelming. In Telangana, the gift of land averaged 200 acres of land per day.

The Indian government was delighted. Nehru wanted him to come to New Delhi and discuss Bhoodaan with the National Planning Commission, He offered to send a plane to fly Vinoba back but he refused and said he would come by walk. He walked, with members of his ashram to New Delhi, which was 795 miles away.

He walked for 13 years throughout India. He had left Paunar on September 12, 1951 and returned on April 10, 1964, He marched through state after state including Andhra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and others. He recieved 23 lakh acres of land alone in Bihar. He was relentless in his efforts despite suffering from acute malaria and intestinal ulcer.

Vinoba Bhave and his followers had collected around 4 million acres of land and about half a million families had been benefitted. He had achieved what the Indian Government had failed in years of land reform.

Vinoba continued to inspire new social movements until mid 70's after which he continued with his spritual pursuits. He breathed his last on November 15th, 1982.

Acharya Vinoba Bhave was awarded the first ever Ramon Magsaysay award for Community Leadership in 1958 and was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1983.

References:

--> Gandhi Today - By Mark Shepard
--> Original Cover Story on Time Magazine (April 11 1953)

Dalai Lama visits UB

The 14th Dalai Lama, the head of state in exile of Tibet and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people visited SUNY at Buffalo as part of 2006-07 Distinguished Speakers Series. The visit was on September 18-20, 2006. A State University of New York honorary doctorate in humane letters was awarded to His Holiness. Dalai Lama addressed a sellout crowd of 30,000 gathered in UB Stadium as part of the university's Distinguished Speakers Series.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after the Chinese takeover and continues to live in exile in Dharamsala, India. He is the recipient of Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Listen to his speech here.

Watch the video here.