Confused, aren't we?

2^nd October. Gandhi Jayanti, also popularly known as ‘Dry day’. A nation-wide gazetted holiday for all government and non-government organisations as well as the perennial drinkers (Pity them). A leading newspaper daily printed an article today saying, ‘Using Gandhigiri to tackle drunkards’.  Apparently, the locales of a housing society in Delhi took a very popular bollywood movie ‘Lagey Raho Munnabhai’ a little too seriously. They employed what popularly is known as ‘Gandhigiri’ (which the movie introduced to us) to silently deal with the drunkards disrupting the social life of the residents.  However, no matter how farcical the move might seem to some, one has every reason to rejoice in the fact that even after 60 odd years, India still bears the traces of the ‘Father of the nation’, even if in a miniscule form . I must mention that I am no patron of Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or the Mahatma as the majority choose to call him, nor is the housing society which is currently in the news. At the stroke of the midnight, India shall awake to the inevitable hooliganism, which many here consider their birthright.  

Interestingly, Gandhiji’s doctrine of Truth and Non-violence isn’t foreign to us. Indians practically grew up with these lessons, thanks to our school curriculum and the Ministry of Education which makes sure they are a part of the curriculum. The pity is, we need a bunch of movie-makers to come and wake us up to these principles. One fine day, a big-banner star-studded movie hits the theatre and the next day, ‘Gandhigiri’ becomes a nation-wide phenomenon. A group of ardent followers of Gandhiji hit the streets soon after and create ruckus over the term, which to them was an assault to the man and the principles that he lived by. Frankly, they owe a lot to Mr. Vidhu Vinod Chopra. At least, he coined a term ‘cool’ enough to be used by the Indian youth as well as the rest of the masses. Gandhigiri was the ‘in’ thing and we Indians never go out of fashion, you see.
Something very similar happened when Mr. Salman Khan came up with his ‘Being Human’ tees. Until the great man with all the good intentions in his heart founded the organisation, we were living under the impression that India is already on its way to prosperity, so we can sit back and relax. Suddenly, Mr. Khan hits the ramps with the leading ladies of Bollywood, all donning his patent ‘Being human’ tees and the next moment, epiphany descends over us- where in the name of God is the ‘humane’ angle to our existence? Blasphemy it is! One ‘Being human’ tee is a MUST in our wardrobe. 


Who are we fooling? Is it so difficult to being our own self? Do we need to have a jargon to follow? Do we need to do that which everybody else does? Aren’t we capable enough to make our own minds? These are questions we must ask ourselves. Just one last word of caution from my side. India is a colourful nation and looks beautiful, as long as the colours are in a pattern. Too many random colours would only make us look more confused and messed up.

Image courtesy: http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/21/2127/4MXED00Z/posters/ryo-takagi-three-wise-monkeys.jpg