This one touches my heart...

Mujhse Ek Nazm Ka Wada Hai Milegi Mujhko
Dubti Nabzon Main Jab Dard Ko Neend Aane Lage
Zard Sa Chehra Liye Chaand Ufaq Pe Pahuche
Din Abhi Pani Main Ho Raat Kinare Ke Qareeb
Na Ujala Ho Na Andhera Ho
Na Ye Raat Na Ye Din
Jism Jab Khatm Ho Aur Ruh Ko Jab Saans Aye
Mujh Se Ek Nazm Ka Wada Hain Milegi Mujh Ko ....

Ignorant... who?

This is one incident which I m just not able to put off my mind. I think putting it down in words may release my soul of the burden which I have been carrying for over a few months now.

I had just returned back home from office and was relaxing with a cup of tea after a long tiring day. My maid – recently wedded, a twenty something woman with a penchant for non stop chatter when in mood , was as usual chit chatting about her family. I was half listening to her and half watching the vegetables she was chopping.
Somehow the conversation or the monologue so as to say turned to the days when she was at her parents home. I just happened to mention “shaadi ke baad to azaadi khatam” (sailing in the same boat as her on that front). I knew she had not been to school ever but I was shocked when she asked “azadi kya?”. I tried to explain the meaning of freedom to her as best as I could but saw that she was not able to comprehend. So to make the meaning clearer I thought of explaining by means of “swatantrata divas” that we celebrate on the 15th august of every year. But I was in for probably the biggest shock of my life as the words “swatntrata diwas” and the date 15th august did not make any sense to her. She could not even pronounce the words let alone the meaning of the context.

“It is Ok”, I thought. May be she is jus not able to recall. So I asked her “Mahatma gandhi ka naam to tu har saal sunti hai tv par yaad kar”. I felt I had been slapped and slapped hard on my face when she asked, “kaun?”. With frustration I said “ arre Gandhi ji tv par dikhate to hain”. “Who lambe balon wala?”, she asked. I was taken aback with “lambe baal” and then it dawned that she was talking about the then president Mr Abdul kalaam.

That was all she knew about her country, she did not want to know more. It did not matter. I had never before come across such ignorance before. I had always known that it existed but here it was right in front of me in the form of a person I suddenly detested.

I don’t mean to sound like a patriot, nor do I consider myself to be one but this episode took me by a jolt.
Then as I thought more about it I realized there are so many of us who are on the same plane as that poor innocent maid. We have been to schools, have sung national anthem every day in the assembly and yet how much do we know about our own country.

The only difference is that she did not even know the name “Mahatma Gandhi” and we just know the name “Mahatma Gandhi”. It does not matter or does it. Probably it does to most of us but in our struggle for life, for money and for survival we have forgotten “India”. I could have educated her, told her a lot more than she knew but I did not. I am living with the guilt and each time anyone mentions “Gandhi ji”, I remember this episode , give a sigh and then move on as if nothing had happened.