I’m constantly torn between Ram and Krishna, you know,” the young ’un uttered not so long ago. “Ahem!” I muttered, “that’s quite a choice between maryada purushottam and eternal consciousness, I guess.” Before long, the young ’un had made a choice.
It didn’t surprise. “What makes?” I turned to the Hermit.
“It had to happen. Lifecycle choices, after all. Dashavatar. Each a hero...until came Ram, maryada purushottam...the ideal man to be. Politically correct. But the next one’s eternal consciousness. Krishna, for you. So, integrity no longer holds. It’s a great thing to hold on to your values, like Ram, but it’s even greater to let go. The superior mind has no integrity of its own. Just like the sky above, it’s what we perceive it to be. And you constantly wonder, what’s your life choice: Ram or Krishna? Yet, to reach that stage of eternal disconnect, you need to connect first. So, before you reach out for Krishna, you need to call on Ram,” said the Hermit. Given a choice, I’d rather opt for Buddha, the next in queue...and his great renunciation act. I can’t quite guess who’d opt for Kalki, the last in the line of succession...and that great leveller.
Lifecycle choices? We have a problem of plenty today. The economy’s booming. Call centre jobs are aplenty. Forex kitty’s bulging. Per capita income’s up. Inflation’s down. Sensex’ on a jolly good ride. Everyone’s going abroad. Many more are returning home. Everybody’s holding a cell phone. And everybody’s reading The Economic Times. Lifestyle’s changing. India’s finally arrived. That’s what 2005 was all about.
Yet, come to think of it, standing at the near end of the rainbow, do we really have a choice? Now, I won’t stand in the judgement, but I guess, for every cheer we lead, that great outback of India resonates with a collective disgruntled murmur. And, once in a while, you hear that murmur turn into a desperate scream in remote Jehanabad. Which is to say, we might as well be among the fastest-growing economies in the world today, but we are also a large area of darkness in the rural hinterland. No water, no light, no road, no education, no sustenance.
Yes, 700 million Indians are living in its 600,000 villages. And millions more in urban sprawls. Without a choice. Do we spare a thought for them — those 260 million souls below the poverty line, those 5 million HIV-positive patients? Or do we only celebrate the success of India’s 7 million stock market investors, 7 million car owners, 20 million income-tax payers, 27 million organised workforce and 70 million cellphone users.
“Err! beg your pardon! We live in a value-neutral world,” said the young ’un to me having made the lifecycle choice. “You can either look forward or behind. Pick up either of the two.” I’d rather not make a Ram or Krishna choice. Because lifecycle choices make for schizophrenic deals. They are two sides to the coin. And soon your luck may well run out. For, it could well head I win, but tails I also lose... once that other India stands up to make its voice heard. That’s when I remembered the Hermit: “Before you disconnect, you need to get in touch.” The irrelevance of the other India needs to be made relevant first.
So, where do we go from here? 2006 should tell.
I think it’s time we had a Hero. And a Real one at that. We haven’t had one for ages. Yes, we’ve had Ram and Krishna and Buddha. And that last mahatma ... Gandhi. But, they all lived in their times, and now they live in calendar art. For well over half a century, India’s lived in a make-believe world of its own, disconnected, worshipping make-believe gods, without a real Hero. If 2005 was the year of the great arrival, it also exposed our gods with feet of clay. And one too many at that. We found that out in the people we elected to public office, caught in cash-for-favours scandals. We saw that in our sporting heroes, unwilling to call it a day. We saw it in our software czars grabbing land on the sly. And we saw it in our yesteryear superstar, voted on TV as the ultimate Urban Indian, defending his rural credentials of also being a farmer.
Yet, every great civilisation standing at the tipping point of change has had a hero to deliver it to its chosen destiny. History tells us so.
So, whatsit what makes for a hero? Is it your looks that make you a hunk? Is it your stamina that makes you chase the ball? Is it your valour that makes you die? Is it your brilliance that makes you win? Is it your material success in life that makes you among the arrived? Like the young ’un, perhaps, I too am torn between Ram and Krishna's choices, but I guess I’d rise above individual maryada and cosmic irrelevance to choose a person with boundless compassion as my real Hero. How about you? Come, let’s spend the better part of 2006 searching around for one. Should you have a clue, let us know at [email protected].
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