Idealism

A few years back i was travelling from Bangalore to Erode by bus.I was in the aisle seat and i happened to get a series of calls from friends from different corners of the country and the gentleman seated near the window became curious about me.He asked about what i do and other usual queries that are asked to fellow travellers.I told him that my job entails hell lot of travelling and is quite adventurous.We started getting along well.He worked in a leading IT company and has put in around ten years.His wife is also with him in the same company and i could gather that they are well placed in their company heirarchy and satisfied with what they have achieved.We then discussed about working conditions in private sector and government.After a while he pointed out a hoarding that extolled a cine actor as the only hope for the poor and asked me how i felt about this phenomenon where politics is the refuge of all scoundrels.i asked him whether he has ever voted in the elections. He replied with out embarrassment that he has never voted.

This conversation kept on coming back to me.I evaluated the contours of my life since i left college in chennai.After college I was at the University in delhi for around seven years.I am surprised to learn how far i moved away from being a believer in uncompromising idealism to being practical in life.Does every body believe in some fundamental ideals?universal ideals? I was a student activist in college and university.So i was in some sort of laboratory condition where one had the confidence that change for better is always possible through activism and all of us have some thing to contribute towards a better (ofcourse 'better' meant different things to different people)world. But that optimism and confidence started eroding so subtly that i failed to notice. I guess that for people who were not exposed to the possibilities of social dreaming being practical is the very essence of successful living.I am not eulogising activists. Most of them become pratical at one stage and get swallowed by the wider system. I believe that to hold on to one's ideals is a tough task given the material consumer culture that envelops our every aspect of life. The most important strategy is to be aware of our own actions and what they mean to us personally.Idealism should be sought not in great deeds but in every day life.In what we do at home,at office, in every day chores of life.

A Visit to Fathepur Sikri and Taj

A visit to Taj Mahal is a must for any tourist in India. I had been to The Taj a few years back in a pak(c)aged bus tour. The image of Taj was much better than the actual visual experience.I went expecting to see a beautiful structure made of pure white shining marble that one sees in modern monstrous buildings. But Taj is built of small pieces of marbles that are in all possible shades of white.
The general traveller in India is never bothered to learn beforehand about the places he is visiting.He simply wants to SEE the place without troubling about artistic or aesthetic aspects.So i also did the same. For this visit i thought i will read some thing on Taj and Fathepur Sikri. But i could not do it. I along with four of my batchmates from NACEN set out in a Qualis to Agra from Delhi on this saturday(21-06-2005).Just before we reached Sikandra where Akbar's tomb is situated our vehicle broke down. Fortunately, my batchmate Balaji had a friend who is working as a wild life vetenerian in the Bear Rescue and Rehabilitation center that was a Kilometer away. So we spent around two hours at that center discussing and learning about an interesting aspect of wild life conservation. The center rescues bears from the traditional tamers of bears who eke out a living by making the bears do some acrobatics.A community of Muslims called Qalandars is involved in this. The center buys the bear from them by persuasion and rehabilitates the bears.

I have read something on Fathepur Sikri as part of my civil service History mains preparation. I had the image of dilapidated and ruined structures in mind. But the remains are impressive.It is a very huge complex and it is among the best preserved palaces that i have seen.I earlier had a serious aversion to hiring guides while visiting any historical monuments.The guides had their own version of the historical events which are absolute nonsense. But over the period of time i have changed my opinion. We spend so much in travelling to these places and the cost of hiring isn't much in comparison. With out guide we might we miss out many features although their narration of history is of no use.

O.V.Vijayan

On reading about the famous malayalam novelist, O.V.Vijayan i was reminded about the nostalgic pleasure on reading his work The Legends of Khasak. It was in November 2001 just before i was to appear in civil service mains exams. i was preparing at Indian Agricultural research Institute (pusa institute), New Delhi. As it was my third attempt at mains i was pretty annoyed at having to go thru the ritual of giving exams. Anyway pusa institute was a better place than JNU for i had spent the first four years of my life in JNU in extra-career activities and built up enough avenues of distraction. my schooltime friend sasi had got admission into pusa institute and was in to civil services preparation. that's how i ended up there. Another of my friend P.S. who had a taste for literature was also at pusa institute . As i was finding it difficult to read anything distantly related to upsc\ civil services, i asked him to give me some novels to read. he gave me the legends of khasak by O.V.Vijayan. I started to read in the morning and at a stretch finished it. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it but on completing it i felt as if i was rudely being awaked from a dream that i wanted to last forever.