I am not quite sure when I first heard about Ambedkar. It must have been in one of those history lessons wherein many national and international heroes appeared at a bewildering pace. But Alexander, Gandhi and others completely hijacked those page and I remember nothing about Ambedkar itself. At some point of time, I picked up that he is the one who framed the constitution. At some other point of time I learnt that he was a Buddhist. Somehow I never realized, till much later, that he was the was the messiah of the castes trodden by many over for years. I think that came out during the Mandal commission furor.
Those were the days of getting into college and the future did not seem made of possibilities but of impossibilities. Reservations and competition had driven away all chances of getting into a professional course. Hence a dark cloud was settling in on my sunny perspective of future. A similar cloud was settling in on my feelings towards Ambedkar. It seemed I have lost the race because I had to run with ten kilograms tied to each leg. Even without that I would have found ir difficult to "win" but with this weight it seemed hopeless. Of course, I was wrong. Life by itself is never hopeless its only the colored lens in our mind that darkens everything and adds less to hope.
Thus I lost whatever little liking I had for Ambedkar. I do understand that there was a lot of mess up that "our" forefathers did to to "their" forefathers. But today I don't even know who represents "our" and who "their". So why am I being penalized? Is it right to bring parity by changing the fairness coefficient between two sides every century or two? I did not think so but like every normal human being, I just forgot about the whole deal and continued living.
Ultimately the dark cloud I had seen earlier was only a passing cloud. The sun started shining again on to my life. A few years later I reached the dream stage for many of us Indians at that time - I was going abroad (applause). At that time, I was living in Bangalore but my flight was out of Mumbai. My father was posted in Mumbai those days and I decided to stay there for a day. I was very excited when I reached Mumbai. The excitement did not last long. It disappeared the minute I was told that there was a Mumbai wide 24 hour bandh the next day. Reason: Some moron had adorned a statue of Ambedkar with a garland of slippers. There he comes back into my life again.
The next day was probably one of the worst days of my life. I was tense from dawn till dusk. No vehicle on the road and hence no idea how to get to the airport. That evening, I stood on the road for a good thirty minutes or so before an auto decided to take me to the airport. He asked for a mini fortune to which I had no choice but agree. During the journey, the auto driver pointed out mobs running around, blood on the road, heads rolling by and such minor incidents. For some reason, I missed all these sights (maybe we were blinded by fear). Finally, I reached the airport in one piece and was glad to board the flight. Ultimately, Ambedkar-ji did not do much harm this time too.
Soon after, I started seeing Ambedkar statues being housed in metal cages. It looked weird but it was probably done to keep away those responsible citizens from garlanding it with slippers or similar objects of disgust. Every time I see this I am reminded about that day in Mumbai and though my memory is not sharp (understatement - it is very blunt actually) I can still remember the way I felt that day.
And now, we come back to the same name. The NCERT book cartoon issue has brought back Ambedkar on to the front page. As in the past, it has caused disturbances in different places. Someone's office was ransacked. There were a lot of ruckus in the Parliament( but that must have quite normal - "Its business as usual, let us shout our head out"). This is a weird issue though. All the ruckus for a cartoon done in 1949 by a person who was ultimately awarded many Padma awards. On the other hand, I wonder why should a cartoon be a part of a text book for school children? Why make them all cynical so early? Should we not let them be proud of our leader for a few years of their lives? Can't they just be happy be Chacha Nehru rather than learn about Edwina at such an early stage? So on the whole, I think the cartoon should be off text books but why all this ruckus every time the name of Ambedkar is brought up. Can't we let that poor soul rest in peace?
Those were the days of getting into college and the future did not seem made of possibilities but of impossibilities. Reservations and competition had driven away all chances of getting into a professional course. Hence a dark cloud was settling in on my sunny perspective of future. A similar cloud was settling in on my feelings towards Ambedkar. It seemed I have lost the race because I had to run with ten kilograms tied to each leg. Even without that I would have found ir difficult to "win" but with this weight it seemed hopeless. Of course, I was wrong. Life by itself is never hopeless its only the colored lens in our mind that darkens everything and adds less to hope.
Thus I lost whatever little liking I had for Ambedkar. I do understand that there was a lot of mess up that "our" forefathers did to to "their" forefathers. But today I don't even know who represents "our" and who "their". So why am I being penalized? Is it right to bring parity by changing the fairness coefficient between two sides every century or two? I did not think so but like every normal human being, I just forgot about the whole deal and continued living.
Ultimately the dark cloud I had seen earlier was only a passing cloud. The sun started shining again on to my life. A few years later I reached the dream stage for many of us Indians at that time - I was going abroad (applause). At that time, I was living in Bangalore but my flight was out of Mumbai. My father was posted in Mumbai those days and I decided to stay there for a day. I was very excited when I reached Mumbai. The excitement did not last long. It disappeared the minute I was told that there was a Mumbai wide 24 hour bandh the next day. Reason: Some moron had adorned a statue of Ambedkar with a garland of slippers. There he comes back into my life again.
The next day was probably one of the worst days of my life. I was tense from dawn till dusk. No vehicle on the road and hence no idea how to get to the airport. That evening, I stood on the road for a good thirty minutes or so before an auto decided to take me to the airport. He asked for a mini fortune to which I had no choice but agree. During the journey, the auto driver pointed out mobs running around, blood on the road, heads rolling by and such minor incidents. For some reason, I missed all these sights (maybe we were blinded by fear). Finally, I reached the airport in one piece and was glad to board the flight. Ultimately, Ambedkar-ji did not do much harm this time too.
Soon after, I started seeing Ambedkar statues being housed in metal cages. It looked weird but it was probably done to keep away those responsible citizens from garlanding it with slippers or similar objects of disgust. Every time I see this I am reminded about that day in Mumbai and though my memory is not sharp (understatement - it is very blunt actually) I can still remember the way I felt that day.
And now, we come back to the same name. The NCERT book cartoon issue has brought back Ambedkar on to the front page. As in the past, it has caused disturbances in different places. Someone's office was ransacked. There were a lot of ruckus in the Parliament( but that must have quite normal - "Its business as usual, let us shout our head out"). This is a weird issue though. All the ruckus for a cartoon done in 1949 by a person who was ultimately awarded many Padma awards. On the other hand, I wonder why should a cartoon be a part of a text book for school children? Why make them all cynical so early? Should we not let them be proud of our leader for a few years of their lives? Can't they just be happy be Chacha Nehru rather than learn about Edwina at such an early stage? So on the whole, I think the cartoon should be off text books but why all this ruckus every time the name of Ambedkar is brought up. Can't we let that poor soul rest in peace?
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