Diversity, Inclusion, Equity - a long way to go

Most progressive nations in the world are embracing DEI, specifically gender diversity. Despite being the home to most diverse cultures coexisting happily since centuries, India is not just lagging, but is far from acceptance of non-binary genders. A large part of Indian society is still trying to come to terms with equality among men and women.

Fortunately or unfortunately, movies have played a significant role in shaping and influencing the social norms for majority of Indians. Thanks to the hypocrisy, expression of love is forbidden whereas hatred sells like hot cakes through most Indian movies, be it Bollywood or any other regional film industries. I came across a classic example of this last week while crossing a movie hall. Here's the capture I could manage -

Interestingly, the movie revolves around a love relationship between a straight man and a trans-woman. The writer and director will surely do a facepalm if they see this 'cultural' censor on the poster. This would seem like a kiss between two straight individuals to anyone who does not know the premise of the movie. Very few Indian movies have handled the topic of diversity in the right spirit. Most of the lot have used non-binary characters to add comic element to the story-line, which is sheer disappointing. This is a reflection of how much ground we, as a country and as a culture, have to cover on the DEI front. On the contrary, violent posters are prevalent and accepted with open arms. Here's a glimpse - 

Indian society and culture have been resilient and aggressor since ages in moving away from a lot of orthodox traditions and towards a more progressive lifestyle. We can be hopeful that we make progress on adapting to DEI soon. But at this point, we are lagging most of the world, and hence, we need to start a conversation around these in our social circles. We have a long road to cover from denial to acceptance on this front to be true to our ethos of vasudhaiva kutumbakam.

The Ashwamedh

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Mr. Modi has proven himself to be the only bold, decisive and popular leader after late Mrs. Gandhi in the history of post-independence era in India. The recently concluded UP extravaganza was a perfect example to analyse the well-woven strategy that Mr. Modi and his team follow to continue oiling their election-winning juggernaut. The juxtaposition of highways and airports against temples and corridors ensures that they direct the eyes of the masses (at least the ones that matter to them), to see what they want them to see. The hardliners would rejoice the latter part, whereas the softer silent majority will be happy about the former. The team always has a contingency plan to mitigate failures, like in the case of the repealing of the farms laws. But for every step that they take back, they move forward by a few steps on some other front, thus choosing their battles. The team has constituted a perfect equation to ensure majority votes to retain power.

Unfortunately, there is none who can challenge the Ashwamedh of Modi Sarkar. The grand old party is too lazy to rise to the occasion courtesy the privilege they have enjoyed for decades, and thus is facing an existential crisis. The regional parties are no match to the might of BJP. SP and BSP have already exhausted the long rope given to them alternately. Communists are all but over. Shiv Sena has allied with their ideological rivals and committed a political suicide. NCP is largely living the credit of their old horse, Mr. Pawar. The only exceptions to the rule are TMC and AAP, but both are equally autocratic with a supreme leader helming their respective campaigns. Even if they manage to defeat the Goliath, the Goliath will be replaced by himself. The Muslims, the majority among minorities, who have tried and tested all of these and realised that they have just been used as vote banks, have now turned to another pole through the likes of MIM. All of this culminates into absolute power consolidation with one person and his close loyalists. And if we have an iota of trust in our history, this scenario is dangerous.

The Indian political landscape has shifted over the last two decades. But if one has to predict the future, it seems like we will experience a loop, a deja vu. We chose a supreme, autocratic leader with a strong persona leading the nation with an absolute majority and hurling it into the state of an emergency in 1975 just for the love of power. The story is repeating itself, and in all probabilities, the outcome is likely to be the same too. The Janta Dal formed as an outcome of emergency was the start of the end of Congress dominance. In my opinion, Modi-led BJP shall meet the same fate as Indira-led INC. With strong public figures like Yogi and Gadkari, the party will break into factions as soon as Modi leaves the race. And then, hopefully, we will have a government and an opposition. To avoid this, BJP would need a succession plan. And considering the smooth implementation of their strategy so far, it would not be a surprise if they effectively come up with one and transition to the next Modi. It will be like the character played by Ben Kingsley in Marvel movies, a new face backed by a core team of ideologists.

As for us, we will keep choosing the less worse in each iteration. There is no reason to blame anyone or to try to find hope. It is a safe statement to say that people get what they deserve.

Justice : The Ends and The Means

It is such a relief that the verdict today has finally put an end to the entire Ram Mandir movement. All open ends are closed now. I wish this quickly goes in the past now without any more complications. And I wish there is no such movement in the future, simply because of the sacrifices we all had to go through in this one.

I do not believe that Ram was an incarnation of God. The epics represent him as a form of God born in human race to experience the sufferings as a penance for his sins. His humane side is evident with all the mistakes he committed throughout his life. For me, he was a human, probably a near perfect human - Purushottam. I consider him as a conscience-keeper, as a light which guides my path by examples of good and bad that he experienced in his life. And so is Shivaji and Savarkar and Gandhi for me. But somehow over the period of 5000 years, the legend of Ram crossed the boundary of history and turned into a myth, all thanks to the fascinating stories of mystique and magic.

There is no denying the fact that the Mughal invasion and rule in India was barbaric, to say the least. Most of the Muslims in India today are forced converts from their generations in the Mughal era. Cities were rechristened to sound Islamic. Zillions of temples in India were destroyed and replaced by mosques. One such temple was that of Ram, at Ayodhya. This fact stands proven with the report from the Archeological Survey team that inspected the 'then' disputed site. I am glad this historical wrongdoing was corrected with the recent ruling by the honourable Supreme Court of India. I am glad that a temple is being built. But I am ashamed of the way it came to life.

Ends do not justify the means. December 6, 1992 is a black day in the history of this nation, its culture and Hinduism. It is the day when the Karsewaks turned into Babur and his army. A religion that proudly stood the test of times and led the world in civilisation suddenly lost its path due to a few misguided fanatics. Being a staunch Savarkar follower, I echo the thoughts in his play Sanyasta Khadga (Forsaken Sword) that you need arms to fight for your rights. But here, the fight was in courts already with the protests around the country and there was no need of destruction. The dreadful act and the violence that followed turned the course of an entire religion in single day to create an extremist distributary to a sacred river. And this distributary gains mass with each wrong act in the name of Hinduism. Some day, it might supersede the river itself if not controlled.

The temple got justice, but the destruction did not, the violence did not. With the populist and highly influenced verdict acquitting all accused today, it is safe to say 'No one destroyed Babri'.  This verdict makes us lose faith in the judiciary and suggests that we should trust power and money instead. Would the Ram, who was known for his nyay (justice), have approved of this?  It is against everything he stood for all his life. There is a song in a Dev Anand movie - Ram ka naam badnaam na karo (Don't malign the name of Ram). It is as a response to a bunch of drug addicts taking dum (marijuana) in the name of Hare Krishna Hare Ram. The situation is relevant here. The name of Ram is being maligned by a few power-protected extremists who use it as a propaganda which is far from his teachings. 

The only fear one should have is becoming the evil one is fighting against. There is this under-rated line in the movie Lakshya said by Amitabh Bachchan - "Unn mein aur hum mein farq hai. Aur yeh farq accha hai, yeh farq rehna chahiye" (There is a difference between them and us. And this difference is good, it should be there). Slowly the difference is fading away. Among all other threats, this is one big threat to the ancient religion, and it is posed by its own extremist followers. As for Ram, he has left this place a long time ago. And he does not need to be protected by anyone. All we can do is protect the legacy of his virtue of righteousness by acting rationally and responsibly.

Let it GrOw!!

Here's where it started. It was the August of 2019, almost a year back from now. We reached Chennai Airport after a 3-day vacation at Puducherry. As soon as we got out of our cab, a volunteer approached us and handed over a packet each to the both of us. It read - towards a Greener world. The volunteer said that the packets have one seed each and insisted that we sow it in the city where we are headed. We hardly noticed it in the hurry to enter the airport. Unknowingly, I might have put the packets in my sling bag. We were clueless about how this small thing will impact us for the next year and maybe beyond that.

If you are wondering that the packet had a substance which we were not supposed to carry on the flight, you are absolutely wrong. Sorry to have disappointed you, but this is not that story :) 

The packet contained exactly what the volunteer had mentioned. I had completely forgotten about it and got hold of the packet only while unpacking a couple of days after we reached Hyderabad. Out of curiosity, we decided to sow the first seed in our small balcony garden and reserve the second one. Thus started our wait for it to yield a plant. The fact that we had no idea what is it to develop into increased our curiosity each day. I remember both of us visiting the balcony multiple times a day to see if the shoot is out yet. With our previous limited experience, we expected to see growth within a few days, or in a maximum of a week. But weeks passed without any signs of life. It was almost a month now and we decided that we will try sowing the second seed in the same space, just beside the earlier seed. Again the cycle of patience and curiosity resumed, but with a slightly lesser enthusiasm this time. At the back of our minds, we were thinking that the seeds had gone bad.

But one fine rainy morning, a tiny shoot was out from the first seed. We were excited. The next thing we wanted to know was what plant it was. We kept guessing and it took us almost another month till we actually figured out that it was a Neem Tree that we were trying to grow in our balcony. In the mean time, the second seed yielded a shoot, Neem again. We used to adore the delicate new leaves coming up on the long stems. It was quite a sight to see both plants grow in the same space competing on new leaves, freshness and height. But we always knew that the plants can't grow in that space and beyond a point, we will have to give those up.

It has been almost a year now and the signs are clearer. The roots are not being contained in the limited space, the stem is leaning. It is not the case that we have never seen plants wither away in our garden. But this is Neem, which has a longer life and huge scope of growth as compared to most other plants that we had. We decided to shift the plants to the common area in our society before it's too late. We will not be able to see and adore the plants so often as we do, but the anticipation of those growing up and becoming big trees acts as a comfort. And besides, we can always place a quick visit.

This episode reiterated a few facts that we subconsciously know but don't realise till such a time comes. 

Fact #1 - Patience is a great virtue to have and to practice.

Fact #2 - Letting go is difficult always.

Fact #3 - Affection and attachment are natural, but they are counterproductive if they hinder growth.

Fact #4 - There is always a brighter side to things.

We are all set to replace the space with new saplings or seeds very soon and will are ready to go through the grind of patience, curiosity, joy and sadness again.

The Closure

                    The waiting room of Ahilya Maternity Care was overflowing with people. Warad chose to wait in the open parking instead. He was holding a bunch of yellow roses. It was overcast with dark clouds thundering in the skies. He was anxious, nervous, jittery, unsure and experiencing a rush of all emotions of uncertainty at the same time. The last time he felt like this was when he was going to propose marriage to Chitra. He vividly remembered the evening. He was carrying a bunch of red roses, then. His eyes could not hold back as one tear rolled down his cheeks when she had said ‘yes’. In a minute, memories flashed in front of his eyes.

                    His trip to nostalgia was broken by a sudden downpour of rain. Warad had to rush towards the lobby to find shelter. There was no space in the lobby or the waiting room where he could wait, peacefully. Tired of his anxiety, he walked up to the reception. “Where can I find Dr. Nisha?” he asked. “Dr. Nisha is on her round, sir. You can wait outside her cabin. Take second left from the lobby.” He decided to try that out since there was no other choice. While he was strolling down the hallway, he suddenly noticed the door of a private room partially open. Subconsciously, he peeped in through the door. For a minute, he thought this was unreal. He saw Chitra, she was sitting on the bed, holding a baby.

                   His feet automatically took him inside the room, closer to Chitra. He held her hand. Both of them had a moment and tears welled up their eyes. He signaled if he could hold the baby. She obliged with a nod. He took the baby in his arms. ‘The babies will look like me, you see’ – Chitra had told him once, he remembered. The baby had Chitra’s features. ‘She was right, always’, Warad thought in his mind. There was no word spoken so far in the room. The silence was broken by Dr. Nisha as she entered. “Warad, Hi! What are you doing here?” “I was looking for you.” replied Warad. “You are not supposed to be in here. Would you mind waiting in my office? It’s right at the end of this hallway.” Warad glanced at the baby and handed it back to Chitra. Their eyes met with an expression of affirmation. He was about to leave when Aditya entered the room with a bunch of red roses. He gave way to Warad with a surprised look.

  

                  Warad was never the same after he broke up with Chitra. He was not ready for another relationship, even after 3 years of things ending between them. It was only because of his parents’ insistence that he decided to meet Nisha as a prospective alliance. In his head, he knew he was not going to pursue it further. But something changed after he met Chitra. All this while, he was still stuck with her. Today, seeing her with her family gave him a sense of closure. His nervousness got curbed. His life opened up for new avenues. He was looking forward to meet Nisha now. He greeted her with the bunch of yellow roses as soon as she entered her cabin. “Do you know her?” Nisha asked. “Do you know him?” Aditya asked. “I used to” was the answer in both the rooms. Sometimes a closure is important to start something new in life. One should be brave enough to say goodbye, and life says a new hello.

Namya's Prasad

One of the folk tales that my grandmother used to tell me was about a Marathi saint called Namdev from Pandharpur. His father was an ardent devotee of Vitthal. Every morning, after the Pooja, he would put Panchamrut Prasad (a mixture of milk, ghee, curd, honey and jaggery) for the deity. Once the Prasad was offered to the god, the father would eat it as a blessing. Young Namdev however, was under an impression that the god himself eats the Prasad every day. To his point, he had always seen the filled bowl of Prasad going in the prayer room and an empty bowl coming out.

Once the father had to go out of town for some work. “Namya”, he said, “tomorrow you will perform Pooja and offer Prasad to Vitthal.” Namya was excited about this. He wanted to meet Vitthal and see him eat the Prasad. He got up early, took bath at the banks of Chandrabhaga and came home to prepare the Panchamrut Prasad. Well versed with all the rituals, he performed the Pooja like a pro. Then came the time of offering Prasad. Namya made a mandal (circle) of holy water on the floor and put the bowl of Prasad inside it. Then he sprinkled holy water around the Prasad and offered it to the god. He was eagerly waiting for Vitthal to come out of the conical headgear wearing, akimbo posed, black colored statue and accept his offerings. Hours passed, but the god still did not come and eat the Prasad. Disheartened, Namya’s innocence was questioning his deeds because of which he thought the god is not accepting Prasad. At that age and stage of belief, crying was inevitable for him. He just wanted to know why the god was being unfair to him. Why would the god accept Prasad from his father and not from Namya?

Distressed by his curiosity, Namdev decided to take an oath. He told Vitthal in a childish, audacious way - “Unless you appear before me and either have the Prasad or tell me the reason why you are not accepting it, I will sit here before your statue and sacrifice food and water.” The father returned in the evening to see Namya sleeping in the prayer room, marks of soiled tears on his flat cheeks. Listening to his story, the father’s heart churned. “Arey vedya, I am the one who eats the Prasad every day after the offering, not Vitthal”, he said. But Namya was in a different zone altogether. Either his father was telling the truth or he was just lying to pacify him. In both conditions, he had taken an oath. And as said in good old days, you can give away your life but can’t go back on an oath. Now this was an actual Dharma-Sankat (catch-22 situation) for the father-son duo. As the legend goes, Vitthal gave in to the prayers of the innocent kid and appeared to accept the Prasad. I always thought Namya was a fool. Why was he so adamant on seeing Vitthal have the Prasad?

I got reminded of this story a few days back when I started the annual ritual of keeping a bowl filled with water in my balcony for the birds. I could see the bowl empty when I came back home in the evening. One day, just after I kept the bowl, I realized that some birds have arrived in the balcony. I did not want them to fly away. So I just peeped through the curtains. It was a bunch of pigeons. Thirsty, they covered the bowl from all the sides and started gulping the water through their beaks. Seeing that was an immensely satisfying experience for me. I chose not to take a picture because it would have diverted my mind and I would have ruined my experience of that satisfaction. It was my Namya’s Prasad being accepted as an offering by the Vitthal. It seems, Namya was not indeed a fool. He was more aware about this satisfaction that I had experienced.

Now, why this story? The point is, it is getting hot every day. Please start putting bowls of water in your balconies or on roofs for birds. Practice your Namya’s Prasad and you might get lucky to experience the same satisfaction one of these days.

-Anurag

Rubaroo with Belief

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” These words from Paulo Coelho sound very philosophical and impractical unless one experiences the power of belief. This is a narrative of one such encounter that I had with belief.

It was 14^th of October, 2017, a Saturday preceded by the auspicious Friday the 13^th. I was leaving from my residence at around 3PM in the afternoon to the venue where we were to perform William Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the evening. Everything was set, rehearsals were done, the backdrop and set were ready at the venue. There was just one mighty challenge before us – the rains. The venue was an open ground, so needless to say that we can’t perform if it rains. The entire ensemble of around 40 people which included over 25 actors and the crew could see all the efforts put up by them in the last 2 months towards this show (literally) going down the drain. The Hindi proverb ‘Mehnat pe paani fir jaana’ was quite literally flaunting off itself to us.

While the others were worried and even sad about the fact that rain wasn’t stopping, I was calm, indifferent and to an extent pessimistic towards this. All these can be owed to the earlier such instances where rains interrupted or even resisted our performances. And surprisingly all these rains were untimely. The first instance was on October 31^st, 2015 when we were to perform Gagan Damama Bajyo – a play based on the life of Bhagat Singh. The show was to start at 7PM, and we were visited by the rains at 6PM. The entire set-up had to be dismantled. Thankfully the rains stopped at 6-45PM and we could start the show with a 15 minutes of delay. The next instance came on May 9^th, 2016 during the performance of a comedy named Art. Who would have thought that on a midsummer evening, heavens would pour down so furiously? We had to move the performance to an indoor auditorium at the same venue with half the capacity. A sold-out show was performed in front of half the audience. The fact that the remaining half couldn’t turn up at the venue due to the rains helped us in managing the show. The worst instance was during September 24^th and 25^th, 2016 when we had to call off the shows for George Orwell’s 1984 on both days due to heavy rains. Eventually the shows were postponed to and performed on the next available dates which was as late as 14^th and 15^th January, 2017. However, it was absolutely disheartening given that we had put in so much of time and effort in the rehearsals.

A heartbreak makes you stronger and prepares you well for the ones to follow. So my pessimism was due to my proactive preparedness for another heartbreak. There were heavy rains on each day since the last 20 days. The precipitation on the D-day was forecasted to be 90% at 7PM which meant we had 90% chances of rains at the time when the show starts. Besides, there is a notion that Macbeth is a cursed play and it should be referred to as The Scottish Play during rehearsals, which of course we did not do. All these were pointing towards one thing – no show happening tonight. There were multiple discussions that happened in the last few days before the show on whether we should postpone the show or whether we should look for a closed auditorium and shift the venue. But the set up was so huge that a closed auditorium would mean compromise on the grandeur of the production. Finally the decision was made to go as per the plan and put up the show on 14^th. The decision seemed to be a failed one as it was drizzling non-stop since 13^th evening.

The crew reached the venue at 11AM in the morning of 14^th and started putting up the backdrop and the set amidst the drizzle. The cast arrived at 3-30PM and make-up started. All faces tensed, sad and disheartened, as if all were waiting for the director to come and announce that the show is called off. The announcement came at 5-30PM, but it was about assembling of the cast on the stage. The director orchestrated the traditional warm-ups on the stage that was a routine before starting the rehearsals. The drizzle was still on. The entourage was still unsure about the show. And suddenly at around 6PM, the drizzle stopped. The skies had a dense cover of clouds who looked ready to pour their hearts out at any moment. I was still negative about the performance. The show was sold out and we were expecting over 400 people to turn up. If it rains during the show, all of them would run for shelter which would be too embarrassing for the production house. It was a big risk already taken.

The stage was set, audience seated, actors on position, backstage crew in action and the show started. The first act of the total 5 came to an end and I looked at the skies. The clouds were still hovering, but no rains. As a contrast, there was frequent lighting striking in the background which could be seen behind the backdrop by the audience. It sweetly blended with the intensity of the play. The show ended, audience applauded and we cheered thus defying all the notions and the odds. The next it rained was at 1-30AM post that midnight when we were busy partying at a drive-in. This was the first evening in the last 20 days or so when it did not rain at all. The skies held on to it exactly this evening. It was difficult for me to digest, decode or comprehend this strange coincidence. The entire gang except me was praying, hoping, believing that the show will happen, and it did. Although my pessimism was prudent, it was of no use to make things work. What made it work was the belief of these people who really wanted it to happen.

Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda tells us that we must ‘believe’. We understand it theoretically very well that we must have faith and things will fall in place. But what we need is illustrations or first-hand experience like this as an eye-opener, as a driving factor to make us believe, to make us have faith. While I still refuse to believe in God and do not interpret this as some divine intervention, it has surely changed my perspective towards goodness, faith and belief.