I didn't blog yesterday because I had gone to watch Rang De Basanti. The movie began well. The narrative had set the premises of the story firmly and it really was turning out to be a good patriotic movie in which these young guys who have no clue about Indian freedom fighters suddenly become aware of them and awaken to their violent principles. Am talking bout the extremists here. So these guys get inspired and when their friend, who's a MiG pilot, dies in a crash and the defence minister blames it on negligience on the part of the pilot, these guys are furious and decide to fight corruption in the system by assassinating the defence minister, drawing a direct parallel from the Saunders murder, by Bhagat Singh, Azad and company. Sure, I agree that one should fight against corruption but not in the way these guys did. When Azad and Singh fought for the freedom of our country, times were different, and now times are different. Sure, we should follow the ideals of the great kraantikaaris of our country but their ideals should be adapted to our times. And lets not forget, the Extremists did not get us the freedom, it was Gandhi's non-violence that eventually won us independance. It was also the Gandhian principles that Martin Luther King adopted that got the African-Americans their freedom. Lets not forget that peace as a continuous process is more beneficial to human kind as compared to violence as a continuous process. In Afghanistan, there is a whole generation that knows nothing but war and strife due to the many years of conflict in the country. So I suppose that I've made my point.

Anyways, today, for the Psychology project, we visited Bal Anand, a home for destitute and abandoned children. We spoke to the lady in charge and once we were done with the interview, we went to meet the kids. The younger one's were shy, though there were a few enthusiastic and interactive ones. The babies regarded us as though we were strange beings from outer space. And the slightly older ones...well they were a friendly lot. We sang ABCD....with them, and some nursery rhymes....they introduced themselves and when I introduced myself their first reaction was .. Abhishek?? Bachchan!! And then a few of them forgot my name but remembered the Bachchan surname and so they began calling Amitabh Bachchan. They were simply fantastic. I am definitly gonna visit them more often. For somebody who has been abandoned, they seemed pretty content and cheerful. Brought tears to my eyes, but I didn't cry in front of them cause that would make them realise that I was feeling sad for them. We, the fortunate ones, have everything, we take things for granted and yet we are never content. But these children, who have no parents, who've been abandoned, these kids, they are so happy and content with their lives. One often needs a child to remind you that all the material possessions that all of us crave, want, and some of us commit atrocities and crimes for, are all fleeting. All we need to do, is to peer into a child's innocent mind to realise this most common fact of life. Our society is divided, on the basis of caste, colour, wealth, sex...why...why all this division when the end is common to us all, Death is common to us all. Death is the same to a white man and a dark man, to a rich man and a poor man. So why do we differentiate, divide? Is it because we like to feel a false sense of power. Does a white man flog a black man so that he can be proud that he has control over another HUMAN BEING? Having control over another human being is not that big a deal cause we aren't the greatest y'know, we're just full of ourselves. And why is someone proud of the power he wields, the power to control ANOTHER human being. Often, the most powerful are those who are able to control themselves and not those who are able to control others. Anyways, however powerful one may become...there is always a power greater than all powers, the greatest of all powers - Death. For death brings balance; discrimination ends with Death and hence death is the power that brings balance to the human thought and mindset. So maybe Death is not such a bad thing after all.

I don't know if you guys would have got my point. It is vague. I am sorry if it is too philosophical for your tastes but the point of all this is too analyse one of the many wrong things that human thought has created - discrimination; the gift of thought has corrupted us to such an extent that I don't even know whether to call it a gift anymore.