Bapu's Talisman

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

- One of his last thoughts. We have read it on the opening page of every NCERT book. Do we remember?
We dream. We dream for ourselves. We earn. We earn for ourselves. We think we win. Wait, can we win unless everybody wins?
We have responsibilities in our lives. We have goals to achieve. But if there is one greatest responsibility on our shoulders, isn't it to ensure that everybody, including the poorest and the most deprived person out there, is happy? Now, is our next thought, our next action a step in this direction? If not this, what are youths for? What are IITians for?

i'M tHE YOUTH

Till last Sunday, my take on life as a youth was -

“Who cares, let's party guys!"

And then I came across -

"One vision I see as life before me: that the ancient Mother India has awakened once more, sitting on Her throne rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. Get up, and set your shoulder to the wheel."
- Swami Vivekananda

Youth is energy. The word dynamic finds it's origins in youth. The youth is the work-force, the powerful, the inevitable, the informidable, and nevertheless it's the youth that is the source of all changes. I'm sure God must have created the universe when he was youth if at all he is not any more. In Hindi, yuva is an anagram of vayu. And indeed it deserves it for youth has speed, it's in everyone and hidden inside youth is an enormous potential to overpower anything that comes in it's way. Youth symbolizes freshness. I'm youth. You're youth. We all are youth. But what for?


No any Bose is going to ask you Give me blood and I shall give you freedom. But each one of us has a Bose within. We've been inspired by Bhagat and Azaad since childhood and at least during pre-adolescence we wanted to be like them. A man is what he aspires to be and thus we all have the spark in us. But that spark is waiting to be unleashed to become a fire as widespread and engulfing as the one in our wildest dreams. Unleash your energy to spread the will to work for thy nation and not for thy self. Repeating honourable President's question - You say, say and say. What do you do about it? Each one of us has heard the Gita Shloka - Karmanyewdhikaraste mafaleshu kadachana. We even apparently know the meaning - you are only to perform your duties without an eye on their fruits. But we seldom know the implication or the application. If you put the community's self above your self and realize that your actions are going to affect the whole nation, you would be far more efficient, dogged determined and honest for you no longer worry about or speculate the results but concentrate on giving the best of what you have. We've an outstanding example of that - the Indian Army, the best in the world.


With firm realization of what we're and what we can do, let us work towards taking mother India to such heights that no bull-bear games pose threats to our economy. Let's run into politics in huge numbers to cease any further reservation or other suicidal bill. It's high time now - the situation demands it, the nation's craving for it - Inqalab Zindabaad!