Myself and 'The Rising'
I was watching "Mangal Pandey" the other day in the afternoon. To say the least the first half of the movie barely has a story and has only a sequence of vaguely related events. Amidst the near boredom, apart from beautiful Amisha and Rani and of course a brilliant Aamir, I slipped into a conversation with myself. The first thought that came to my mind was "Why am I here?". "Stupid", somebody said, "you are here to watch a movie !! What else?"
"No. It is not just the movie", I asserted, "It is about my existence. Tell me why am I here?". The voice said "You are here as a small part of a bigger, larger scheme of things. You have been assigned a role on this giant stage and a time will come when it will unveil itself in front of you". "In fact, it is even apparent in front of you even right now. Just that you have to search and find it out for yourself", the voice continued.
"But, if it is supposedly so apparent, why am I not able to see what it is?", I asked. "And why am I expected to search around for it when it is obvious that it becomes much easier to accomplish if I get to know it right now? And wont it be better if I could start gaining the necessary skills well in time?". The voice answered "This is precisely the reason why it is not known to you. There is a unique task waiting for your execution which completely suits your talents and capabilities. It is not explicit now as the day you know it, you will stop growing and your decline will begin".
"But, if it is so suited to each person's capabilities what could the task be for me? I am not able to find any single person with exactly similar set of interests and likings as mine". I added, "the trouble is that I am not too sure if I am going to fit in the role I am offered. Or am I expected to learn to be one of the 'common', 'normal' person and be content with the mainstream..."
"Hello....!!". No voice heard. "Are you there...?? ". "You can't do this to me everytime !! I need an answer....dammit!!". Poor me.
Aamir Khan is now terribly boiling over the 'lie' told by Captain Gordon. He goes over to him and tells him that they will no longer be friends - and better not talk to each other. Then, comes the intermission. 'Mangal Pandey' ends. 'The rising' starts.
I am still thinking. "Does this idea of 'first war of Indian independence' really appeal to my peers as it did to these old - and now deceased - mutinaise soldiers?". Freedom to most (of us) is a birthright and, guess what, they never had to fight for it. 15th of August comes like a 'much needed break' for most. It becomes yet another marketing opportunity for media and consumer goods companies.
Freedom seems so natural that 'free market', 'free speech' and even 'free software' is fast becoming the order of the day. I just wonder what it would have been to be living in a slave country. Perhaps, we should again have a phase of colonialism. The best way to make people learn about the value of a thing is to show how fragile it could be. Isn't it?
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Ah yes.. the value of something is truely known only when you do not have it. True of money, and true of freedom.
The rest that you are talking about is 'purpose'. Its what Neo was looking for all along (and found it in a relatively short 3 movies). Think a little and one comes to a paradox - once we have found out purpose, what is the purpose of that, and so on...
Many other philosophies believe that there is no 'greater' purpose, that everyone tries to find. There is only the journey...
And while we are at questions that are morally oriented, read up my post : To the beggar go the spoils...
Keep blogging...
Mando
Hey, that was rly thought provoking but the truth is this goes in everybody's mind but we all are so much habituated of taking things for granted that nobody takes the initiative in putting these ideas forth....and few who have tried had left after initiating...the generation needs to be awaken now.We all spk about India rising financially and culturally among nations but is it really rising or are these just well edited articles written by few gud journalists....A thought to ponder
Hello Arpit,
It was nice to read your post.And about the close introspection you had with yourself, not many people have it and this itself is the first step to find your destiny.
So very true that one knows no value of thing if one gets it before demanding and also one knows the value of thing when one looses it after having.
Arpit, The Rising as is said is the first war of Indian Independence was just what some scholers think but just think yourself was it really the first war of independence you will get the answer no..it was not the first war for independence but it was a war to save the hindu religion which the britishers were trying to use...who was Mangal pandey to start the first war..even he dint knew that he is starting a revolution which will rise and will lead to Indian Independence....
Arpit, so many things happen coz. it has to happen one just needs to do what he feels right for that specific time and the rest will follow automatically...
Overall your post was very nice.I liked reading it to the core.
take best care of yourself and all your loved ones
stay fit,stay healthy and enjoy life
cheers!!!
@Prerana: I agree with you entirely. More often than not, media makes or breaks public opinion - esp in this age of 24x7 news channels....
@Preeti: Thanks for the appreciation!
Regarding the reason why some people fought, well, as long as we are aiming for the same thing, it does not matter what are our individual reasons. I don't think it would have mattered to any 'nationalist' that the reason most of his fellows were fighting was basically religious.
Another point, able leaders sense a growing sentiment and direct it towards a greater evil. As Gandhiji did for Untouchability using nationalist sentiment. I am sure some leaders in 1857 would have pushed the stakes up this way!
Thanks a lot, anyways!
Post a Comment