Sunday, February 12, 2006

we just might get lucky...

i like patterns. it is fun to construct the full picture looking at the pieces. some times the pieces are so outspoken that they can lead to only one logical conclusion. But most of the times they are shy. showing themselves and disappearing in a flash. But for the experienced eye that flash is enough to know all that it wants to say. I am no expert at this, but hey you can't blame da man for trying!!
Enough of cryptic introductions...the point is this

There have been some events in the near past which sketched a pattern in my novice mind. Events like "raang de basanti" and "hazaroon khawhishee aisi", engineers playing a hand at politics, some friends leaving corporate worlds to join IAS, a general feeling of emptiness in many, inspite of acheiving excellent success socio-economicaly, almost all indians that I meet here in the US looking(though silently) to plot a way back home...
the list can extend but I will leave the rest as you might think they r too insignificant or unrelated, but I see a connection in them nevertheless.

What is this leading to? a revolution of some kind? young educated indians slowly but surely taking matters in their own hands. boldly leaving what they are supposed to do and doing what they really want to. Making an attempt (at great personal agony I might add) to change what we all know is wrong, but nobody considered the possiblility that individuals like you and me are supposed to, or more importantly are capable of changing. Changing what?? the face of india??...maybe. As an individual it is difficult, almost impossible to think so big. me..changing a country!!! insane. Well apprenently some have other plans.
I dont want to comment on what will happen, just the possibilities. As I said I am no fortune teller just a pattern matcher.

If there is no "revolution" as such then we don't have to think about much.
But..but if something really brews up, each one of us in our generation will have to make a choice. I say our generation 'cause at that time we will be old enough to understand the choice and young enough to act. The choice will be either to keep ones life unaffected as much as possible or to dive in. There will be no telling how far it might go. But where will sacrifices involved. personal, social, economic, maybe physical too. the million dollor question. Will it be worth it?

I dont know what I will choose. But I think we will be lucky enough just to be presented with the question. 2 generations back they had their task cut out, Independence. I was beginning to believe that our generation would be left alone.

If I remember my 8th std history correctly it was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand which started the first World War. But that was just a trigger. One event cannot start such a massive spill, unless there is a build up before that. What we are seeing in urban india right now looks like a build up. slow, sporadic and seemingly uncorrelated. What will ultimetly bind these actions together will be history herself.
There will always be determined guys who can't care less about a movement and will do it alone, and when our history lady writes her judgement, these will be the guys who started it all.

It is like we r sitting in a green room below the stage. what roles each one of us will be playing on the earthen stage above us wont be known till the curtain raises, if it raises that is....

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