Three Axioms and a Movie

There are few movies that have impacted me, consciously, more than 'The Last Samurai'. It contains three axioms embedded within its script that are now part of my consciousness, and guide, if not all my actions, substantial numbers of my introspected moments in need or crises. The truths presented here, are not too uncommon - I must have encountered versions of them before. Yet, as presented here, these truths were catalytic to a changed me - changed by realisation and sufficient recognition to make space for them in my life.

The first of these, that I remind myself to use regularly, is "Know your enemy". This principle works at all levels from internal scoping to external arenas, from queries of spiritual nature to environmental emergencies or trampled people's rights. Seeking a knowledge, and understanding the opponent, is a first step towards winning a battle for change. I often have to remind myself of this - either to make time to sit under a tree, or study legal papers on repressive laws, if I am to effectively oppose it.

The second axiom that hit me was about "No Mind". Again, I realise that the purest, most effective actions emerge from instinct and reflex and have less to do with step wise procedural and consciously-minded actions. I have encountered different versions of this again and again through my life. I remember the many times when Bahuddin Dagar would open an eye during Riyaaz and say 'socho mat - Gao' (dont think, sing). This action without instruction sometimes contains the key for right decision and precise, faultless execution. It is this quality that makes a perfect dive, hit the right swara, or paint a fluid Enso - a Zen circle, in a single stroke. The goal of living this axiom is then a life lived in the conscious moment, perfectly.

The last axiom dictates the perfectness of all, that 'is'. There is a beautiful line when the Samurai says that the search in life is for a perfect cherry blossom - and such a life is not lived in vain. And, towards the end the Samurai realizes that 'they are all perfect'. It is man's nature to seek the special, be fragmentised by categories good or bad. Maybe this awareness of the sameness, the universality and beauty in a million stars or a single grain of sand, or every blade of grass or all cherry blossoms, holds the key for shedding both the ego and also the identity that have misguided human history.

I remember many years back, I was headed to a small island in the Amndamans, with my kids. We were staying at a small and very cheap hostel in Port Blair. It was night, and we were in bed listening to the waves and also someone in the next room playing the tabla. Around 9pm the lights went off. There was no pause, break in the tabla playing from next door...the beats continued playfully in improvised harmony to an ever increasing tempo for the next hour or so, to a final crescendo and then silence. I had been listening intently with two tired and now sleeping kids on either side. I remember waiting to encounter my neighbor with curiosity and eagerness. The person who emerged from the room was very young, maybe mid to late twenties. He had been learning Tabla from some guru in Benaras, where he lived, but was presently travelling around in Andamans. I remember asking him about the other islands, and the beaches there. "Are they very beautiful?" I asked, to which this young person replied, "How do you choose between beauty of beaches, or hills, or different days...they are all beautiful" and he said this with a slow and gentle smile.

I have carried in awe this sharing of a stranger's experience, wondering how it must feel? Could this really be right? or rightly experienced? without categories? I now recognise that this might be so for a few rare souls and that it cant be found be seeking - only becoming.

Munna Bhai and My Tailor - Manekam

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...you may all laugh - and, you would laugh much more if you could see me now!!

We, the community of IISc, are blessed with a particular tailor called Manekam - the rare one, the jewel - that is what his name means - and he is a fine, fine tailor. Just to show what the competition has to offer, the only other tailor on campus has a strange habit of stitching clothes according to amount of material in front of him. So, for example, if the cloth he has is less for the project in hand, he makes it in anyway, of a size that he can - without once demuring that the fabric is insufficient. On the other hand, if the material turns out to be excessive, he still does not care and makes a garment that could fit two people - inside! So you see, if one is reluctant to leave the boundaries of this quiet, green campus in search of a tailor in the mad world outside- and I am very reluctant - then Manekam is the only option for our tailoring needs.

Also, Manekam, is always really pleasant, friendly, cooperative and has a hard time refusing anyone. He agrees to undertake tailoring orders and then attends to only those that can pressure him. Thus the first ones that can get their work done are the campus security weilding mustaches, and batons. The second in line to access Manekam's sevices are the campus staff union members. They have bent mightier powers than poor Manekam. After that, I suppose, come the campus faculty with authoritative stance and limited wardrobe needs....and so on. Somewhere at the end of this list come the hapless females that at times give in to shrieking at Manekam before festival times, family weddings and so on. Yes...you can take it in good faith that many have lost their heads over a pleasant, poor, person like Manekam - I can vouch for that - but lets not go into personal history.

Watching MunnaBhai has somehow changed my protest profile...

Manekam has pending orders from me from October 2009. I see him now and then, when I go to the Janata Baazar for shopping. To be fair, I have never seen him either lazy or unpleasant. He always urges me to go home, since he would follow me, immediately - with all these beautiful clothes ready for my wearing pleasure. I have never believed him, but have not been particularly inclined to either argue nor desperately needy enough. Today too, my position remains the same. However, I do have some free time.

So, here I am, a fifty year old vain female, dressed in shorts and T-shirt in the same cubicle (a 8'x12' tiny box) as Manekam, who stands a good half-foot shorter. I am at one of his pedal sewing machines, with my Acer notebook firmly planted, smiling and blogging away...

I laugh heartily inside, guffaws are barely contained, at his face! He is trying to insist that I can trust him and he will sew and bring my clothes home! I am mainting a very accommodating position that he should not let me disturb him, as he himself does not disturb my 'work'. He is all confusion, and has immediately brought out my fabrics and is working on them, even as I type this sentence -IT WORKS, IT WORKS!!! Hats off to Munna Bhai!

Inspiration

I belong to a Bangalore e-group called 'HasiruUsiru' that actively works towards preserving Bangalore's natural heritage which include lakes, tanks, trees. I am a pretty passive member-but I am glad to keep informed about the onslaught of large development projects in the city and the heavy environmental price that we, as citizens, pay for this progress. I met Arun through one such mailing - his mail announced that he had tree saplings to give away to people that wanted them. I responded and then awaited the promised Jamun and Bel saplings that I could plant near home and farm.

The other day Arun came home bearing these saplings. He looked regular, spoke the normal middle class tongue, sat with us and shared a cup of tea. It is during the course of this conversation that I discovered something rare - a spark of real passion, commitment, and a willingness through small action to dream big dreams - infact, a spark enough to inspire a few jaded us. Arun said that he was sick of watching the trees being killed in the city - but there was no point just sitting around complaining, cursing - so he has decided to plant one tree for every day of the year and to this end, he gathers seeds, germinates them, nurtures them into sturdy saplings and then gives it away to anyone who has space to grow them. He also dreamt of a city, a world, which would be very different if each of us planted one tree for every day we lived.
Arun neither preached, nor bragged - he was just sharing a dream.

I was stunned. Here was a living inspiration that had come to my doorstep, bearing a gift of his dreams...and baby trees.

I am glad that my New Year begins thus.

Chengara Land Struggle Story

Is this an unfortunate, grievous repetition - an aberration by the country's Left? or are the so called People's parties now setting up a new fad of prostituting ideologies, philosophies, changing sides from representing the injured, down trodden, to sucking up those injuring? selling rights of the weak majority for the favor from the privileged few? Again the CPI(M) govt. , in Kerela this time, is choosing a clash course with tribals in Chengera by reversing promises made for land.....however, I got this story at Mutiny which carries it in fuller detail here- and then following up other video documentaries links in Youtube.

Prakash and Mandakini Amte for the Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2008

The original citation is found here

Encountering Courage

A few days back, a prominent social activist A.D. Babu from Bangalore was brutally assassinated with swords and knives, in broad daylight, on a national highway, in full view of his companions. The murderers got away and have remained at large despite eye witnesses providing full information and being willing to identify the culprits.

Mr. Babu was fighting, amongst other matters, the prominent liquor lobby that operates and funds most political parties, and hence wields extraordinary influence within corrupted government and police. He was on his way to address an anti-liquor rally just outside Bangalore when the incidence took place.

Mr. Babu had been threatened many a times, the latest call being on the night before his murder.

So what drives some people so? What makes them invincible, fearless, secure both about their survival and also about their chosen path? Is it that they have become blind in their zeal to save the world, or at least the poor, downtrodden, and the non-accounted?

I remember now a conversation that I had had long back with Medha Patkar when she had said that she and the other activists were exactly the same as the rest of us -they desired the same comforts, happiness, peace, and had the same doubts, uncertainties, fears.

At the condolence and protest meeting for Mr. Babu, this fear was palpable- as was a calm resolve - to not let this incidence go unnoticed, become another statistic. It was clear that this was a rare breed of people, who would not bow down to its fears. I was facing an extraordinary courage, of a people who had little to lose, or rather, who recognised that they lost more if their fears won. So they lived and continued their struggle despite their fears. Their courage was raw, bold, blatant-as blatant as Babu's response to the threats -"If my life is taken, there will be ten other Babus to take my place". At that meeting, I realised that what he said was true..several people there were capable and keen to take his place and have the movement be pushed forward. They had realised a path, that I could merely talk about-the path of duty, righteousness, the Geeta path.

It was my good fortune to be amongst them, even for so short a time.