Hibernation

Yeah it has been pretty long time since I wrote something on blog. Somehow thoughts don't urge me much, so this is just an attempt to break the silence by writing atleast some recent things.
First few delightful news
1. Prakash & Manda Apte were the winners of Magsasay award this year. A great moment truly for the couple, their co-workers from Lok-Biradari & millions of others who have been overwhelmed by this couple's selfless works in tribal area. Only despair thought is Baba Amte is not around to witness this.
2. Abhinav Bindra won gold in Beijing Olympics. First individual gold ever for India. Heartiest congratulations to all of us :-). One urge to media to not overhype the win & the winner. Let him enjoy his success in his own way. Please don't make him so called celebrity and allow him to remain what he is.

Now the sad news
1. Everyone witnessed the fiasco of LokSabha no-confidence motion. There is hardly anyword to be left written about it.
2. Situation in J&K is worstening. And polititians still don't seem to understand the implications of their behaviour. Danger of intensifying the separatist movement is looming large.
3. Series of bombblasts in Gujrat, K'taka. Heartfelt condolences to innocent victim's families.

Thats it for now.

Liberation

Completely hypothetical scneario struck me through a day-dreaming sequence today. I was having a discussion with my friends & their families, about women's freedom in India. I wasn't interested in participating in that discussion & hence wasnt paying attention. But finally my friends decided to drag into that discussion & get my views on the heated topic. Most of the folks were of opinion that there has been a good progress in women liberation in India. I was pretty reluctant to share my thoughts, as I believed my thoughts wont be appreciated by many as it was against popular belief. Still after my friends insistance I decided to speak.
First things first. What do we really mean by liberation? And what is women liberation? From whom? Obviously there wasnt a unanimity in the thoughts about these questions. All anwers however seemed to suggest that liberation means freedom from traditional bonds that women have been tied to, freedom from male dominance, freedom to live life in own way.
I thought it was better to limit the scope to urban women, whom everyone belive to be considerably liberated. So first I decided to ask one of the female in the group (my friends's wife) about her childhood dreams. She said she initailly wanted to become doctor, next choice was to become graduate and earn a job, persue her career.
What is the current situation then? She is happily married now, have a 2 year old kid & is a housewife. No formal career. Why did this happen to urban, educated and cultured girl? Why did she choose not to follow her dreams? One reason could be she might not have dreamt those dreams with that conviction. Other could be she was left with no other option rather than to be housewife & sacrifice her career. If you dwell over the first reason it unfolds a different picture. Women in India are probably less ambitious. Reason for this may be they have been subliminally impressioned to be so from childhood. Second reason indicates that women's career is still being considered less important than men. Here the former reason intrigues me most. Why is that women in India, moulded to sacrifice their dreams & abandon their thoughts? And this still happens though somewhat less intentionally, in modern, urban India. So I asked her again to dwell on her answers & decide for herself whether women are truly liberated. She agreed that their liberation wont come that easily as their main obstacle today is their own thought process.
I somehow feel issue of liberation is not quite as social problem than a personal problem. Every person has to decide for him/herself, what is that he/she is bonded to & needs liberation. Its all then upto individual's conviction, whether he achieves liberation.
On a different note, I thought low ambition is not a crime anyway. In today's stressfull world, its a great way to live a content & peaceful life.

It's a wonderful life

What does this movie mean to me? Something special? No idea as of now. May be time will tell, whether this movie continues to inspire when in deep abyss of depression or just a butterfly which sparkles my mind for tiny moments.
George Baily appears to be a simple man of high ideals, with lots of dreams in his eyes. His dreams continue to elude him and dragging him to apparently distasteful daily routine. But probably the inner voice keeps him into business of helping poorer section of the society. No single time however, the fact strikes his mind that he is doing it any great service to his society. In fact he swerves through dilemma of making money, keeping his family into worldly wealth or keep doing what his inner voice tells him do. His brother, friends & many others around him achieve the great success in their lives, keeping him wondering sometimes if he was a failure. The day comes by in his life, when the hell breaks loose for him, making him believe he is not worthy of living a life. He is more a dead than alive. The cruel reality breaks him & forces him on the brink of committing suicide. Now here he needs a miracle to turn his life upside down, a guardian angel bestows upon him, showing him what the world around him would have been without him. There he understands the impact of his life, which happened to touch so many lives around him. He may not have achieved presidential decorates & medals, but has earned colossal respect, love, care from all the society, who stands by him in his disastrous times, making him truly a richest man known.
Either the inner conviction that keeps men like him going on and on, doing their duties without even thinking about themselves, or its sheer nature of the warm soul they possess. Is this movie an inspirational movie? I don’t know. But what it entrusts is belief in myself, belief in the path that this life has laid out for me and belief in values I behold. No matter how my life unfolds unto me, my trust would not quiver. This is probably much more that I had ever anticipated a movie can give me. Yes, more than quality time and subject to think. It re affirms me, it’s a wonderful life.

eThoughts

First step towards publishing my random e(eeee)-thoughts
Hope I will enjoy writing & atleast someone apart from me will find interest in reading. Anyway I plan to use this as my rough work area, where I can experiment with words and my thoughts.