reposting an old one

It is said that Shloka comes out of Shoka (as in Ramayana). Not a shloka, but here is an old poem, written at a time when I was going through a lot of issues, academically and otherwise.. posted once in Jan 2006, posting again after 12 years with some minor updates.. - "certainly uncertain"

from: http://quotesonimages.com/i/the-only-constant-is-uncertainty-quotes-9337

As a little kid when time is all what you had
Happy you were making houses of card
And little did you think while pulling each one
That uncertainty is life’s only fun

Hopes you keep, even as you see others suffer
Life sure has for me better things to offer
Soon you realize that in the world that’s real
Uncertainty is the only truth, that's never partial

When the road you took seems so uphill
You pray and pray for a stronger will
Sure for stretches you will have some one
But forever uncertainty is your only companion

Oft you find yourself doing a thankless job
Many a time does it make you sob
And yet there is hardly a chance you want to miss
For uncertainty is life's only promise

And one fine moment you find yourself enjoy
For the seers of the yore knew you are nothing but joy
And thankful you are for those moments you find
For uncertainty is life's only background

tip up for future fane

Note: fane in archaic English means temple. This is in some sense "part2" of previous post

16 May 2014 : A day when many of the 35+ "RW" activists' belief got shattered - in a pleasant way. Many of us had deep within felt, in our lifetime we will not see a RW party like BJP winning on its own - it is going to be either a Congress led coalition, or a BJP led, limited by allies coalition..

By noon that day, it was clear - history was being made, notions were being rewritten.. I had taken leave that day, at home switching my eyes between TV and internet to get the latest.. When it became clear that it was a comfortable majority on its own, and a thumping one for NDA, I was emotionally overwhelmed.. Spoke to my friend in US with whom I had done many of my activism over there .. His almost immediate reaction was "Tu iske chakkar me mat pad..." ... (Do not get swept away by this) ... He continued ... "Our responsibility and work has only increased.. Govt or not, we have work to do..." .. I would not claim that I put his words into practice, but I can say, he had it spot on..

Flashback further: 2004 general elections.. I was in US .. It was sleeping time by the time counting started, but then work up the next day for a shock.. Vajpayee had lost .. I have in some of my previous posts analyzed this one, so dont want to repeat it.. but two quick points (a) BJP's tally went from 182 to 138 (24% reduction), and its allies nosedived from about 90 seats to 47 or so - almost 50%
(b) While in power, BJP had no strong Party Presidents (Khushabhau Thakre, Bangaru Lakshman, Jana Krishnamurthy and Venkaiah Naidu -- none of whom had great organizational capabilities )

On both the above counts, 2019 is different from 2004 .. Amit Shah continues to aim at a big number on its own, and he has been to nook and corner of this country, to get even that single seat that he can swing his way, to compensate for possible losses due to anti-incumbency.. I could see the effect in NE

Yet, there is the other major factor -- "disenchantment" among BJP supporters/Sangh itself.. In many ways, this group was disappointed in 2004 .. India's not at all convincing reply to the IC-814 hijack episode, the increase in Haj subsidy (which earned PM the name "Haj"payee among sangh circles), Vajpayee's perceived ill health (his pause between words had become really long), and no progress on the original core issues of BJP - Ayodhya, UCC and Article 370 .. Now, at a not-so-deep level, let me quickly categorize those who would have voted for BJP in 2014 -- a) hard-core supporters, come what may they will vote BJP (as long as no major messups).. b) issue based BJP supporters c) BJP supporters (even internet activists), normally lazy to vote, but 2014 saw them vote d) disenchanted congress/other-party voters  e) no real political inclination, but vote based on aspirations/hopes


In some ways, people have started comparing 2019 to 2004 -- there has been an increased feeling that "Hindu issues" have not been addressed enough... temples have not been freed from governments, whip has not been cracked enough on "conversionists" etc .. I think the feeling is more in the b or c category (though, I must admit, in reality it is not as black and white). I do not mean to criticize these folks, they do have a "right to complain", but at the same time, more often than not, they seem to look at the governments achievements (or the lack of it) through only 1 or 2 issues.. Just imagine for a second, this is a country of 125 crore.. with such diversity and complexity.. there is NO WAY you can satisfy one and all.. The Indian PMs job, if sincerely executed, is one of the toughest jobs on earth... And yet, in my opinion (and NOT as a passive onlooker, but having had my eyes, ears and brains closely glued to Indian politics for 28 years now), I will confidently say that this has been the best government so far in 30 years .. Could it have been better ? May be, but don't kill "good" for "ideal"

In many cases, for example when an otherwise pro-BJP person becomes disenchanted, say on twitter, many of the comments will be along the lines of "think of the alternate.. you want to bring Congress back to power ?" .. While I totally agree that such a situation will throw India back by yet another 10 years (the damage caused because of which will take years to repair), I will also say that TINA (There is No other good alternative) is not the only reason that Modi should be elected back in 2019.. On many many counts, it is "swayameva mrugendrataa" for this govt - deserves on its merit ..

Though I am no one really to do so, I have a little piece of advise for the pro-Hindu writers and activists -- I know that on many issues you feel govt did not do what it could, especially core Hindu issues.. and it is all fair to have brought those up for the last 3-4 years in a spirit of constructive criticism .. but perhaps, for the next one year, I would advise caution -- there will be many young generation folks, new voters, getting active within the next year or so ..  a criticism on a particular issue, if not understood in the proper context, can easily misguide them.. So why not, for the next one year, help the govt highlight its real achievements (publicly) and point out deficiencies (privately)

To those twitter activists who are still "disenchanted", I would say, take a break, go do some seva work - may be go help some poor children - look at their faces and think "What should I do, so that they have a bright future ?" .. and I sincerely believe you will find your answer and next steps...

trip down memory lane

A few days back, on twitter, some of the threads ended up as a discussion on the Nationalists writers on rediff of the early 2000s - https://twitter.com/RajeevSrinivasa/status/942200530301886464 and https://twitter.com/drisyadrisya/status/942976110345707520 for example . That sent me down some nostalgic memories.. I had in a previous post ( here ) touched upon some aspects of my early political learning and leaning, but here I attempt to fill a few more gaps.. By the way, I do not use the words right wing and nationalist in a US context.. its vastly different..

So it was when I was about 10 yrs or so, around the year 1990, that the Ayodhya movement got me interested in politics. It was also the time when election related stuff --> predictions and discussions before the election ; almost live coverage during the counting day ; and post-results analysis --> started on TV (DD at that time). I remember being glued on to many of them, immaterial of whether my party of interest would be there or not .. Till I got into IIT, (that is at 17+) the focus was much on academics, so politics was just a side interest - on and off..

cartoon from: https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/f/floppies.asp 

IIT Madras changed me in many ways.. from a person who would take part in "individual competitions" only because I inherently did not "trust" team work, I quickly transformed into someone who learned the importance of "sangha" .. thanks to the voluntary organizations I was part of at IITM .. I still "maintained" my own activist-identify as well though, as I continued to do things even outside the organization, in an individual capacity .. some of them had a secretive nature too, which I enjoyed.. for example, I single-handedly did some "counter-propaganda" work, and would silently listen into the hostel-mess discussions "who dunnit" .. what I sensed at IIT was that there was an overall "tilt to the right" among the youth, but the ones who would really "do something" were rare -- partly the "self" being higher in priority, and partly perhaps the shyness of being labelled. 

 

The lessons learned and in some sense the "training" received from IITM was of immense help for the almost 6 yrs (out of 7) of active volunteerism while in US .. I will not elaborate on the "ground work" -- suffice to say that when I look back, I feel happy, for I must be among a handful of Indians who would have gotten an opportunity to do that kind of work (in 3 "main areas" I would say).. Not to say that those 6 yrs (and the 4yrs at IITM) are "good enough" and I will stop working.. but I do tell myself, those 10yrs I have done so much, that I wont regret if I die this very moment.. and yes, I continue to do what I can -- the 9.5yrs so far, after I returned to India -- perhaps I have done work equivalent to may be just 1 yr worth of of the scale I did for those 10 yrs, but then I take it as a bonus

That was a bit too much bragging about myself :-) .. let me get back to the point of discussion of those twitter threads .. yes, those early 2000s when I was in US, I used to look fwd for those articles from Varsha, Rajeev et al.. those used to the "extra adrenaline"...  It used to appear as a "losing battle", with almost 99% of main stream media towing a line that was not healthy for India.. (for a brief period, my housemates and I subscribed for Washington Post, and seeing Rama Lakshmi spew venom, I decided to not pay for it any more..  such pathetic articles were written about India .. indeed , the root was the Indian media outlets themselves which always used to paint a grim picture ) . Added to that was the feeling that a vast majority of the english educated youth did not care - be it in US or in India..  But years thence, looking back, it appears that there was a silent new generation itself being built up .. 

A parallel stream to Varsha and Rajeev were the likes of Dr Kalyanaraman, Vishal Agarwal and so on (Rajiv Malhotra , in my opinion, for a long long time was too "academic", he got into an "activist" mode only recently) and the "voice of india" publications...  Not to miss out on the "non-Indian" contributors there -- David Frawley,  Koenraad Elst , Yvette Rosser and so on ... So where does "sangh" fall into all this.. Well, intellectualism is a world that sangh "office-bearers" are happy to take a back seat on...  If I remember it right, there is a scene in Savarkar movie where Golwalkar meets Savarkar and says "Many things I thought in my mind, you wrote it.." :-) ....  (FYI, I have my technical differences with Savarkar, like on "pitrubhu", but thats for another day). The sangh  however subtly did the logistical help for dissemination, even when some of these right wing intellectuals did not fully agree with it --- it even raised funds during some of their ill health 

 courtesy: suneesh @Ksuneesh86

And now, after a decade of all that, when I try to get more active on twitter, I realize - it was not just me... across India, across US,.. across the globe, there were the pro-right Indians like me.. struggled through the apparent solitude (well may be not solitude, but an apparent disinterest in the vast majority that we were trying to "activate") at one time..  But all that effort is now paying off .. Every day on twitter I keep finding more and more twitter handles, not hesitant to openly declare their "RW" inclinations... some like me may still remain semi-anonymous (partly may be the subconscious impact of the kind of circumstances that I grew up where pro-RW meant inviting sharp looks... and partly may be simply because I like being a "voice without a form"...) .... And the interesting part is that many of those twitter activists are young.. and many are ladies/girls ..  

And for this new generation, the means may be different, even the language may be slightly different -- but one can see, the core is the same..... same as of those handful yet powerful writers who inspired the "half-generation" after them ..  and these folks seem to correctly realize that if they are not on the "right-wing" they could end up being "left-out" or even being on the "wrong-wing" :-)