Thursday 18 February 2016

"Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man".
                                                                             - Mahatma Gandhi


When I was in fourth standard, I was in love with history.
History, the subject. Not history, the field of study.
I liked to read about old and forgotten people,
about times that existed before clocks,
about sites that were born before maps.

1789, 1857, 1942 .... 1947 .... 1950
I believed that nothing happened after 1950.
Nothing great and exuberant.
Nothing worth remembering.
Nothing that books would have wanted me to know about.

Then, I grew older. My history books grew fatter.
An old man and his legends followed me everywhere.
How he had embraced non-violence and peace.
How he had tolerated opinions and ideologies.
He was a great man. An ideal man.

But, his slowness and calmness annoyed me.
His large-heartedness made me impatient.
I thought how dull and boring can a person be!
I thought he made my country weak and powerless.
I thought tolerance was an illness.

It is 2016.
Multiple histories. Numerous ideologies.
Many events have been forgotten.
Many stories have been erased.
Many voices have been silenced.

Today, the past makes sense.
1940s make sense.
Violence is a disease.
Tolerance is a virtue.

May be, he was a great man. An ideal Man.
May be.



1 comment:

  1. very well written... excellent. Keep writing, All the best...

    ReplyDelete