Independence: A Mirage

Independence in Life is similar to Mirage in a Desert. We keep on moving to reach a state of independence, and we rarely succeed.

Flashback

Scene 1: It was a tradition in the society that the school-going kids would celebrate Saraswati Puja and ask the Goddess of Knowledge for more wisdom every year, year after year. Not sure whether SHE listened to us, we followed it religiously. We got the biggest idol that our miniscule budget permitted us to and tried to re-arrange it at the centre of the stage. Unable to do so all by ourselves, I called on my father who was deeply engulfed (deeper than I thought) in the post-analysis of the Babri Masjid massacre. He didn't move; neither was I able to make any of them move (father or the Goddess). I didn't realize it then, but I was Physically Dependent.

Scene 2: I inquired my mom if I could throw a party to all my friends on my next birthday. I was made to wait for an affirmation for days & months thereafter, till the D-Day arrived. Yes, I was stupid enough to ask it half an year in advance. Ultimately, as it turned out, reasons like money constraints were tossed to me. A couple of years smarter, I demystified it this time: I was Financially Dependent.

Scene 3: Our team had lost the football match and it was largely because of me. I had the burden on my shoulders of letting my team down. Yes, I was stupid enough to think that it was the most important thing I had lost in life, but as I look back, it was important to me at that point of time. Of course, I have had lost many a things since then, but coming back to the day: Absorbing the tears that cringed in my eyes, I went home and saw my elder sister engrossed in a social science project from her school. I asked her if she could spend some time with me. You guessed it right. I was Emotionally Dependent.

Present

In the quest to be a complete man, I made a conscious effort to eliminate all these dependencies. I wanted to be independent. Independence, as I defined it to myself, was like a perfect system, capable of surviving on its own. It doesn't need an ecosystem; it doesn't need external inputs to breathe. I don't know after all these years whether I should claim myself to be successful or not, but the matter of fact is that the dependencies are still there, they have only changed faces.

And now with all this self-claimed wisdom I acquired from the prayers since childhood, I can see through the simplest thought of GOD behind making humans dependent on each other. HE wanted to make the world a relatively harmonious place to live in, lest the humans become invincible and self-sustaining. At least, HE blessed each one of us with independent thinking.

Let's celebrate OUR Independence!!

My Pune experience :))

Prologue: Went to Pune some time back.

It was so very refreshing. Every thing, every object, living & non-living, that could be green, was Green. And the water droplets fell on the Mumbai-pune expressway as if they are enjoying their leisurely fall from heaven onto the greens of earth. They seemed to have a mission; lessening the burdens from the shoulders of humanity and alleviating their thoughts. I gaped at the lush green beauty, as the water droplets washed the glasses of the Tavera and tried to seep in from the window panes at times.

It made me feel elated and enthusiastic while relishing the hundreds of river-born waterfalls, small yet cute pink colored houses surrounded by fences and the cows grazing here and there. Thanks to the terrific works from the likes of William Wordsworth and John Keats, I think every Indian student grows up with exactly that kind of a farm-house picture in his mind: tiled, brown, tiny & insignificant dwelling, surrounded by a fence and a single cow tied to a rope grazing at some end.

At times, the green hurt the eyes. It seemed like the nature was struck with a pestilential disease of green. It occupied every possible space, spread across acres and acres. Except some of the steel rods, railway tracks, a few newly built houses and the sky; the vines and the green algae seemed to have conspired not to leave anything untouched. And they succeeded exceptionally well.

Involuntarily, I was thrown back into a flash of the sweetest memoirs I ever had in my life. And my heart knew next time the same crate opens up in my mind, the reminiscence of this journey would be there.