The Mahatma and his Principle

As is the 117^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at sway, counting on to the success of his principles of ‘Satyagraha’ and ‘ahimsa’ becomes the necessity of the time. How the lean and frail figure, through his ideology of non-violence, the very first of its kind, could expunge the greatest of forces at that time, ‘The British Empire’ from the Indian soil, is the question of the 1.26 billion Indian population, exercising their rights, freedom and duties in this very democratic country of ours.

Gandhi: A Teenager

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2^nd October, 1869 at Porbandar, otherwise known as Sudamapuri, and spent his childhood there. Gandhi recollects the days of his schooling as such,

“I recollect having been put to school. It was with some difficulty that I got through the tables. The fact that I recollect nothing more of those days than having learnt, in company with other boys, to call our teacher all kinds of names, would strongly suggest that my intellect must have been sluggish and my memory raw.”

Young Gandhi was an introvert, often at times running from the school as bell rang, worrying of the lame jokes other boys would mock on him. He would dearth only to the books of his, and would possibly try avoiding any type of social interaction. At the ‘preposterously early’ age of thirteen, Gandhi was married to Kasturbai. Having failed a number of times in school, his elder brother decided of sending him to London for his further studies. The financial burden quirked the family, and finally Kasturbai has to sell her jewellery to buy the ticket, the rest promised to be sustained by his brother. At London, Gandhi faced the acuity of the British culture and mannerism. Homesickness made him tear down on a number of occasions and kept sleep out of the question. He tried accustoming to the English way-of-living, but the relief was short-termed. It only made him more self-conscious of what others would think, and moreover, was he being funded by his brother, the expensive deal brought him into chasm. The studies too seemed to haunt his inner-conscience, as he was not able to connect what he was studying to what he knew.

 The day he passed the examination, he was called up to the bar, enrolled to the High Court. The other day, he fled for his homeland with the worrisome thought of his ill mother. He was informed of his mother’s death by his brother when he reached the Indian shore. He contemptuously tried overcoming the sad demise of his mother, and tried for an earning as Rajkot, but was disappointed as a ‘Briefless Barrister’. Then came the phase of his life, which he describes as an act of grace, and unfolded as the turning point of his life. Through his brother, a Muslim firm offered to help Gandhi with a year’s contract at its South Africa’s office. At South Africa, Gandhi found himself, hitherto, lacking the confidence and expression that was needed to address a case.

His experience at London began to pay-off. He started practicing book-keeping and found his deepest of concentration to the case, which his intellect provincially cultured to. He devised the cases to the glitters of the truth, and the secret of success was at his galore. He started earning $30,000 an year and also galloped the respect of his fellow Indians and black Africans. Satisfaction still appeared at bleak, and he was deeply stressed with the prevailing discrimination among the Africans. Finally it awakened with Gandhi that, to know was to feel, to feel was to act, and to act was to live. He immediately disposed his extravagant lifestyle and vigilantly started exercising for the rights of the Africans. His selfless and adamant nursing service and his armed Indian troop for the Boer War were the newest of his revelations. He, viciously, hired a second Indian ambulance troop for the Zulu natives against the Natal government, but was astonished with the strikes on the Zulu villages and the distress of the same. It then appeared to him, the rampages and ravages of war, he henceforth, committed himself to hinge to the wisdom of NON-VIOLENCE.

Not until thirteen years later, when Gandhi was thirty-seven, when he frenzied non-violence as a mass suppression and resistance. The Transvaal government had proposed of fresh legislation against the black natives, and if the ‘Black Act’ came into being, it would have been an end to Indian communities in South Africa. He, instead of battling the government with the violent of resurgence, decided for a higher challenge in the course of action: to refuse to obey such degrading legislation and accept the consequence without violent retaliation, without yielding a inch in their demand for equal and fair treatment. With this, Gandhi triumphantly won, “the moral equivalent of war”. Within a short span of time, the developments that were to follow were tentative with the demands – General Jan Smuts of the Transvaal government, melted to the Gandhi’s appeal and vigour for justice, and the laws against the black, were slowly repealed one-by-one.

Gandhi’s way of love

Bhagavad Gita became the devising and guiding principle of his prophecy and helped him teach and shape his ‘law of love’. Though being acquainted with the Bhagavad Gita from the days of his childhood, he did not dare foster the virtue of the sacred until he was in England, where he and his friends tried to transverse an English version of the text. The perpetual appeal of the book transformed his life, and The Gita became a sacrosanct of his philosophical and political demeanour.

“The Gita has been a mother to me ever since I became first acquainted with it in 1889…One who rests his head on her peace-giving lap never experiences disappointment but enjoys bliss in perfection. The spiritual mother gives her devotee fresh knowledge, hope and power every moment of his life.”

Kasturba was the other bliss to his practice of the ‘way of love’, and was she, who through her endurance, sacrifice and devotion nurtured in him the seeds of satyagraha. Kasturba’s tolerance to Gandhi’s domination of his English ways stipulated anguish and often led to altercations between the two. Withstanding his contempt, she followed and consented with him, for the love and respect she cultivated for him.

When Gandhi returned to India, he was vividly accepted as the leader of the 200 million people to fight back the tyranny of the British. One of the earliest steps Gandhi took to revive the self-respect and the integrity of the country was the liberation of the lower castes. Kasturba, for the same, had to clean the toilet herself, which she wholeheartedly agreed, for the betterment of the minorities. He overnight changed the status of the lower castes, by giving them the title Harijans, ‘The children of God’.

Gandhi’s Satyagraha and ahimsa

The word Satyagraha, which Gandhi introduced as the new means to fight injustice is a Sanskrit word which means ‘the holding of the truth’. Gandhi argued, it is only with truth that fear, injustice, violence and discrimination wither away. Satyagraha is the abiding force of the enlightened, the one who understands that he and his provocateur are one. He never resorts to violence and engulfs the attacker with resentment of his own behaviour and guilt.

Ahimsa means non-violence. Satyagraha and Ahimsa became the coveted words of Gandhi which he often described as the ‘two sides of the same coin’. Gandhi himself, explains the principle of Satyagraha as such,

“A satyagrahi bids goodbye to fear. He is therefore never afraid of trusting the opponent. The appeal is never to his fear; it is, must be, always to his heart. The satyagrahi’s object is to convert, not to coerce, the wrongdoer.”

It was in 1930, that he laid forth his path of Satyagraha through the Civil Disobedience movement at Dandhi. Gandhi, along with seventy-eight of his trusted followers, brisked a 220-km long walk to the coastal village of Dandi to break the salt law. The comrade grew from seventy-eight to thousands as they moved along the 28 days journey. Wherever Gandhi stopped, he conveyed the people of the strength of non-violence and ahimsa, and its repercussions when practiced by each and every individual.

Gandhi: The Man

“My life is an indivisible whole, all my activities run into one another; and they all have their rise in the insatiable love of mankind.”

Gandhi’s spiritual essence, fulfilled by the Bhagavad Gita, guided him to greatness and mastery. His regular practice of meditation and yoga at the time of dawn helped him poise and cater to the truth. He, during his lifetime, created a number of communities. He called them Sevagrams, “the village of service”. Men, women, children of all ages could come at these Sevagrams and learn the ideals of love and non-violence.

Gandhi had by the end of his life, mastered the ‘law of love’, and as were the challenges of the end brimming, so was his acuity. During the time of independence, there was a complete unrest between the Hindus and Muslims in the country. Hatred towards Gandhi had swelled, because he was the one who urged for brotherhood. So great was the man, that during the time of his death, when he was shot by a miscreant, his departing words were Rama, Rama, Rama which meant I forgive you. I love you. I bless you.

The spiritual and divine excellence that the Mahatma has gathered, indicate the greatness of the lean and fragile figure who completely changed the politics of India as well as the world. Behind the political greatness of the legend, lies igniting his conscience, the spiritual greatness, bound with selfless service devoid of all the earthy pleasures.

“You must watch my life, how I live, eat, sit, talk, behave in general. The sum total of all those in me is my religion.” 

S. Ramanujan: The Mathematician

"An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God."

S. Ramanujan

 

Born Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyegnar on December 22, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu, the child prodigy through his passion and devotion to mathematics gave to us, the greatest and the most coveted of research the field of mathematics can ever witness. A vivid and enthusiastic student when young, the genius would play with numbers often asking his teachers “Will everyone get a single mango when zero mangoes are divided among zero people?” His mathematical abilities were discovered, not so early, by the British Lecturer G.H. Hardy when he was introduced to the dubious of solutions to the improvable Ramanujan had kindled. He was then invited to the Trinity College, London were he did some of his most articulate and purest of discoveries. He henceforth went on to become a fellow of The Royal Society of London on 1918, selected second of the fifteen tied to the robe that year. Nobel Laureate Neils Bohr was the one who had topped the list. Soon after he developed an incurable disease and forced of returning to India. Circumstances vitiated his urge, as the First World War creaked shaking the entire of Britain. His wits finally revived the day he reached the shores of the Madras Port on April 2, 1919. He spent the remaining two years of his life, inscribing on his notebook the developments of his latest pursuits. Unfortunately, the early hours of April 26, 1920 saw the demise of the greatest of geniuses to have ever embraced this soil of ours.

The following chronology[1] jots down the events that earmarked the short life of his.

1887 – Born on December 22 at Erode, Tamil Nadu

1894 – Joins the Town High School, Kumbhakonam, Tamil Nadu

1903 – Passes the Matriculation examination of the University of Madras with First Class and joins the First Arts Class in Government College, Kumbhakonam, Tamil Nadu

1904 – Reads George Shoobridge Carr’s book titled A Synopsis of Elementary Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics

1905 – Discontinues studies and spends some time in Andhra Pradesh

1906 – Resumes studies at Pachaiappa College, Madras

1907 – Appears as a private candidate for F.A. but fails

1909 – Marries Janaki

1911 – Meets R. Ramchandra Rao in Nellore and secures is personal scholarship

1912 – Secures the job of a clerk in the Madras Port Trust, Madras

1913 – Secures the research fellowship of the Madras University; sends letter to the British mathematician G.H. Hardy

1914 – Sails for London aboard S.S.Nevasa from Madras Port on March 17

1916 – Receives the Honorary B.A. degree from the University of Cambridge

1918 – Awarded the Fellowship of the Trinity College, Cambridge; elected the Fellow of the Royal Society of London

1919 – Returns from England and reaches Madras on April 2

1920 – Dies in Chetpet, Madras, on April 26

Ramanujan’s brilliance litigated with passion accounts for the unwinding of numerous sects to the subject and further inspires us to discover the unravelled mysteries science withholds.

"As long as people do mathematics, the works of Ramanujan will continue to be appreciated."

S. Chandrasekhar 

[1] S. Ramanujan The Mathematical Genius, Dilip M. Salwi

The Teenage Days

As will I be turning 20 within few months and would hence enter into the amazingly exuberant stage of adulthood, I would hence like to revisit and ponder upon the lifeline of a ‘Teen’, right from the time he enters into the adolescence stage and draws himself through the drastically enormous number of changes he engrosses till is he ready to mature into an ‘Adult’. Through these years, a child witnesses himself changing delicately both in terms of his physical strata and his mental or emotional state. Also does the rearing and teaching that is imparted to the youth determines the adult that he finally becomes both psychologically and morally.

Strict and careful rearing has been witnessed since the mythological era, when children were sent to Gurukuls and Ashrams under the guidance of sacred and reverent saints where they would virtue and learn the attributes of respect, knowledge and self-control. The ashrams admitted students irrespective of the background they came from, that is, the son of a king and that of some Amir at his court would both sleep under the same roof (until he was a Brahmin). The students practised religion and knowledge simultaneously dignified with respect and praise for their gurus at the extreme.

But as has time changed, so has the rearing and emotional plight of the teens. Children find it difficult to respect their elders and would further exercise their own will and wants ignoring any of the guidance they are adhered to receive at this crucial age. This exercise of ignorance is the root cause behind all the happenings and deeds these going-to-be-adults commit, misleading them to fall into the dangerous hole of trauma dug in front of them. Teens break into thieves, murderers and rapists out of the sheer demand for lust and emotional satisfaction. The result is many more Juveniles, terrorists and militants. Several terrorists organisations such as the ISIS and the Al-Qaida hence prey on youths who can easily be mislead and pushed into such evil deeds. Students who are bound to make their career at this crucial age eventually break them. There is no doubt why we hear of the numerous crimes being committed these days, mostly by youths. The Parliament recently passed the Juvenile Justice Bill, redefining the age of a Juvenile to the tender age of 16 years instead of 18!

So, what has led to the youth getting deviated from his bound path to improve and grow into a responsible citizen? Why are youths aged 15 and 16 turning into rapists and murderers? Why do the children eventually grow up hating their own parents and elders? In this article would we try to understand the problems that the adolescent faces and how should he frame the methods to tackle these ever-growing menaces, rising out healthily into the individual he is ideally bound to become.

Firstly, the disrespect and hatred that students enrage towards their parents is an important issue to attend to. This roots back to the irresponsible and free rearing the parents these days adhere to. The parents should right from their childhood teach them the important ethics of discipline and self-control. Also, must the parents account to their sudden demands and changes explaining them of all the critical topics associated with the adolescence period.

The rapidly growing technology and Internet has also initiated and flamed their growing instincts and desires. Youths are left open to sources and information irrelevant and inadequate to them at this age. Here does the job of the parent arises, where should they guide with the dos and don’ts when online. Moreover, have social networking sites gained much of their lucid attention, their precious time hence put to garbage.

Education is, and will always be the only way to literate and guide them through for better understanding and maturity which they demand at this tender period. It guides the youth to the positive path enriching him will all the necessary and adequate knowledge that they must acquire. The awareness and urgency for literacy is the task of the government to drastically reduce the number of Juvenile criminals.

The practice of self-control and the inducing of positive vibes and energies may further deter them from the follies and ill-sagas that characterise this growing period. Activities like yoga and meditation may serve the purpose. They must be taught that the short-instincts of the present time may hamper the future of their mature times.

Our modern society is defined by the present youth, most of them in their teens. Henceforth, the progress and betterment of theirs would help us build the ideal society we visualise of. The modernisation and civilisation that seems at pace during the present time must not deter the youth from the path they are envisaged to. Instead should they be conceived for the betterment and growth of the present day youth glorifying the society to the purposeful future that lies ahead to us.

The Diary of Anne Frank

“Had he heard something after all and now wanted to check out this mysterious-looking bookcase?  It seemed so, since he kept knocking, pulling, pushing and jerking on it.

                   I was so scared I nearly fainted at the thought of this total stranger to discover our wonderful hiding place. Just when I thought my days were numbered, we heard Mr. Kleiman’s voice saying, “Open up, it’s me.”

The horror that grasps the conscience of the inhabitants of the Secret Annex were of the chances of their vulnerable discovery, since had they gone into hiding fearing of being captivated by the Nazis and then tormented to death. ‘The young girl’, Anne writes the heart-throbbing incidences in her dairy quoting out the days of her stay at hiding in her dearest ‘Kitty’ dating from June 12, 1942 to August 1, 1944. The dairy, ‘Kitty’ was gifted to Anne on her 13^th birthday by her parents Otto Pim Frank and Edith Frank, and hence is the first entry on 12^th of June. The dairy also glances of the various phases of the emotional, social and physical changes that evolve of a young girl growing into her mature self.

The Holocaust during the Second World War was the dreariest slaughter of humans that would have occurred in this planet. It clearly highlighted the divisions and discriminations that have since time immemorial prevailed in this society of ours. Humans have been termed mundane and damnated by their brother humans with the greatest of agony and wrath, which clearly depicts how inhuman the creature has become.  Anne, cites the plight of the Jews in the following excepts from the entry dated October 9, 1932,

“Today I have nothing but dismal and depressing news to report. Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they are sending all the Jews....The people get almost nothing to eat, much less to drink, as water is available only one hour a day and there’s only one toilet and sink for several thousand people. Men and women sleep in the same room, and women and children often have their heads shaved....”

Anne reportedly quotes a number of times her altercations with her parents, and wails of her mother unable to understand her growing instinct and feelings of being independent and not be shouted upon rebuking her of being wrong all day. The dairy also reveals of relationship with Peter van Daan, who she would always comprehend of being her companion to curb off her growing need for one whom could she talk to openly. The friendship gradually converts to romanticism and would they spend most of their time upstairs staring at the sky and stars all night.

The emotional being of a girl during her adolescence can clearly be substantiated from the dairy, when on a number of occasions she discloses of her state of despair and pain of being alone and no one able to understand her growing self and the need to be left independent on her opinions and views. She would always discuss of her fragile relationship with her mother and the hatred that she contains for her. Gradually does she matures and understands the difference that prevails between them. Later on, Anne writes of a number of topics that a few of all ages can cite – Gender Inequality and Religion. She dreams of the era when women would be treated the same as men, and not be taken for granted as simply as house-keepers and producers of their children. She also wishes her of becoming a journalist or a writer in future falsifying the human testament of her being the house-keeper like her mother.

The hideout retains for such a long time because of the numerous helpers of theirs – Mr. Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Ms. Miep Gies and Elisabeth (Bep) Voskuijl whom she thanks in her dairy a  number of occasions.

Anne befits through her writing the ill-fated Jews and their sufferings during the war, the agony of a maturing girl child trapped in a hideout devoid of the worldly pleasures and still rejoices of her dreams of the day, would she be the same she had been and enjoy the nature to the fullest whose importance has she discovered only after going into hiding. She also suffocates of her relationship with the members of the Annex and her longing need for a partner to fill the void that had engulfed all the happiness of her life (which she later finds in Peter). The extrovert finally on 1 August, 1944 talks of the fight between her cheerful, easy-to-go personality and the serious, thoughtful and sensible Anne whom does she wants to win.

The family is finally discovered on August 4, 1942 because of an impetrator informing of their existence to the police and the eight residents are finally sent to different concentration camps of which only Otto Frank survives at the end of the war. Anne is believed to have been killed of typhus that had spread of the epidemic that had struck at Bergen-Belsen, the concentration camp where she and her sister Margot had been brought.

Though did Anne Frank die, but her diary would for long spread the message of the Jewish girl eying for peace and harmony and would forever remind us of the brave girl who fought not only the war, but also her inner self to mature out into the better and self made ‘Anne Mary Frank’.