Light and Darkness

He was born of light. That’s the first remembrance he had of the world around him. Bright light that was stunning, yet soft to the eye. Light which some said came from a thousand splendid suns and yet never burnt anything it touched. Light that dispelled all evil around it and filled ones heart with hope.

His heart rejoiced. The world beneath was full of possibilities and as he descended down the rainbow, he saw his work cut out. He was born of light; born to remove darkness; born to remove all the muck that had settled in on the world. He was born for greatness. And yet, he knew that he did not crave for it. Neither did it matter to him if the resounding roar of applause would be absent. He did it for Light.

He worked through the filth of mediocrity knowing at every step that his task was cut out in the future. The light reminded him of sabres slicing through ignorance.

And he never noticed the webs slowly ensnaring his legs.

After years of practice, he was ready, to fly, to reach for the heavens above and transcend into a new reality, taking everything around him to the Promised Land.

As he neared the end of his training, he noticed the black threads for the first time. The webs had gotten stronger but not stronger than his will. He was after all, born of the light. They could wait. He had to become the best first.

Then one day as he readied to fly away, a searing pain ripped his body apart. The chains were unbreakable. He pulled and pulled, but slowly the darkness crawled towards him, the light began to dim. He heard the combined gasps of people around, the ones who had waited for deliverance and the ones who he had failed. He sank, lower and lower, till the last speck of light was blotted out.

Epilogue: He woke up bathed in neon lights. The thousand suns had given way. The glasses were tinted with multiple colours. He looked around. There were so many like him, a room full of people with tinted glasses, accepting the neon hallucination for reality. They all felt familiar. He looked at himself and did not recognize the face he saw. There was an unspeakable void within him and his past was lost forever.

What he did not know that they were all once born of light. And they all had failed.

When God Left Man

Since a few months I have been feeling a strange sense of Godlessness around me. It started the night I watched Percy Jackson and intensified when I watched Prince of Persia. Well, it might sound funny but I have always believed in Signs. I believe that once upon a time Man could actually read the will of the Gods through the Signs that were sent. And who can say whether Percy Jackson was not the Sign that heralded the beginning of the End.

Across the world Nature seems to be striking a balance. Legends have it when the weight of the Earth gets heavy The Titan adjusts it on his shoulders. Indian mythology goes a step further. It tells us when the weight of evil on earth gets beyond tolerance, Seshnaag shifts the Earth from one of his hoods to another and a new age begins on this Earth.

Do you remember Batman Begins? Do you remember the Secret Brotherhood who took it upon themselves to get rid of civilizations that had become corrupt beyond redemption? Today around me I sense the presence of that brotherhood.

The inner peace has been broken. No longer is there a sense of calm. There is an uneasiness that never leaves. The earth is parched waiting for the rains but this time it’s different. The wait is for deliverance.

And that’s why I am scared of Rajneeti. You’ll hear different reviews of Rajneeti. Some will love the way dynasty politics in India has been documented, some will rave about the reality of the first two hours of the movie, the intensity of Manoj Bajpai, the subtlety of Nana Patekar, the hidden shades of grey inside Ranvir while others might tell you that it reminds them of The Godfather and Mahabharata all mixed in one movie with mindless shoot outs in the last half an hour. All of them are true. In fact, if you would like a treatise on Indian Politics of the Heartland you might rather want to watch Gulal.

But Rajneeti points to a deeper flaw within humanity. It signals an era where honour is dead where something is rotten not only in the State of Denmark but in the whole world.

The day when the dividing lines between Shakuni and Krishna vanishes, that is the day we need to get worried. The reason Mahabharata is an epic is because within each character there was a strain of nobility which was unadulterated. Every character had his or her own flaws and that’s why Karn remains the Greatest Tragic Hero of all times. That’s the reason why Duryondhana was able to reach the heavens while all the Pandavas had to face their times in hell.

Where is the essence of Good in Rajneeti? Where is Hope? Where is the assurance of Krishna that He will come to deliver us? Rajneeti shows the triumph of greed over good, of ego over humanity, of manipulation over love, of power over honour.

I had to watch Shrek Forever After and the deal we have made with the Devil can only be broken by Love but then there is no longer any Love left in this World. Nightmares of Shutter Island fill our dreams and we try to live our life in a world created by a master director.

Mahaprasthan. – The last walk of Mankind is soon to begin.

Evil

“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” – Mark Antony, Julius Caesar, Act III Scene ii

Things have not been going well for my country. India’s IT capital Bangalore and Ahmedabad the capital of it’s most prosperous and entrepreneurial state were hit by a series of terrorist attacks. Thankfully my friends are safe and sound, but not everyone has been as lucky as I have been. The pictures on television were disconcerting to say the least. Families have been torn apart, once again, for no fault of their own. They do not understand the ideologies of hate that took away their beloved; they do not understand the apathy of their own leaders who perhaps seldom have lost anyone near and dear to them. In a country where prime ministers have been targeted successfully, where can the common man find safety?

Evil. That’s the first word that came to my mind when a friend was trying frantically to reach her dad in Bangalore. Evil, the word kept ringing in my mind all through the gloomy weekend in Mumbai. I do not know how many of you have watched The Dark Knight. If you haven’t I suggest you go and see it.

When I was in college, I was exposed to evil for the first time in the form of a movie and a book called The Clockwork Orange. A year later, I saw someone jumping down from the World Trade Centre as the planes crashed into them and a few days back I met The Joker. If there has been one character in the history of movies that has been evil from its core, it has to be The Joker played by Heath Ledger. It’s the evil that wants to corrupt the world, it’s the evil that goes about its task not because it seeks vengeance or recognition but because it’s entire DNA is structured to cause misery and destruction and bring an end to all that’s good and that’s beautiful.

Often in Left extremist literature you will come across the concept of Injustice. The ideology broadly says when justice turns a blind eye to reality of oppression; injustice is the beginning of justice. Sometimes, one country’s struggle for freedom is an act of anti-establishment in the eyes of the occupier. But the evil of terrorism is all pervasive. It knows no boundaries; it knows no definition of good and evil. It can not be stopped because it can be anywhere. It can be sitting in the mind of the person in the cubicle beside you as you read this post, it might be in the minds of the person smiling at you from across the room. But yes, it can be fought. It can be fought by showing we are not afraid, it can be fought not by politicians who claim every time to handle terrorists with an iron hand but by you and me by showing that at the end of the day the human spirit is indomitable. We can fight it just like Mumbai did when it bounced back the very next day after the blasts in its lifeline – the local trains, it can be fought just like Gotham City did when it decided not to press the detonators.

As I was writing this, I was reminded of another movie, Aamir. At the end of the day, the choice lies with each one of us. The choice of deciding what’s right and wrong, what’s the definition of good and evil, every single choice lies with us. Sometimes, we are afraid to make that choice. Sometimes, we want others to choose for us, the police, the government, someone, anyone – but not us.

As evil grows around us, the world can not wait for a white knight to appear and lead us to safety. We have to look deep within us to find the dragon warrior – the saviour – the messiah. As Po the Kung fu loving Panda put it beautifully, the secret ingredient is that there is no secret ingredient. We just need to believe.

And today, I believe. I believe in the power of a billion dreams. I believe in the indestructible human spirit which no Joker can corrupt. One day when it asks us, “Why so serious?” I believe that we will be able to look evil in the eye one day and say, “Why can’t you be happy?” I believe in my country and her people.

The optimism, the power of sensibility is what will win on the day of judgement. And till that day comes, we fight like there’s no tomorrow.