The Battle Beneath

This blog post lived in my blogs drafts folder for a long time, years may be. I chose the title in  2014 and today, I found a very valid reason to complete the thought and its narrative. Today's blog is about battles and warriors. I am a Kshatriya , battles/wars & warriors are my favorite topics. You should notice that most Hindu Deities, male or female, that we worship, have some sort of ammunition with them, the visualisation of the Deity must have been done thousands of years ago and the reason of weapons is simple. People look up to someone stronger to protect them. Fast forward to today's age, in action films and in movies that depict protection of the weak, superheroes are loaded with the armoury. There is a lot of focus on their beefy looks and sharp sense of attack and defence. Actually, all of this isn't as right as it seems. The bravest people I have seen in my life have fought  battles  quietly and with armoury which is not in their physical possession. Today's blog is about warriors without weapons, the "Brave" people who are not seen as brave by the society. They fight a battle beneath the surface. In my conviction, a good warrior doesn't just win the battle, he/she changes the battle. In Hinduism, there is a primary belief in the cyclical nature of events, that no individual, no ruler and nothing lasts forever, except the virtues and self-understanding that overcomes all sorrow.

As usual, some poetry, my first nazm and a song "Faasle", Coke Studio 10. 

Warriors with Values:  I saw "Lamhe" for some 118th time two weeks back in the flight.The movie is about moments and how those moments of Love and Valour where valour needs no arms. In lamhe, Kunwar Viren Pratap Singh, played by Anil Kapoor is negotiates with the owners of the haveli which his beloved Pallavi has lost in litigation. He pays around 10 Lakhs to buy a few days that Pallavi needed in that house before she is married. I used to wonder and think, this is the Kshatriya behavior, the warrior. Viren doesn't come across as a six pack, mustached guy with a toned body, he is a usual person, his strength is in fighting a battle without arms.  Infact , he may come across as meek and weak to many in his portrayal . Viren loves Pallavi but never tells her, he organizes Pallavi's  wedding and moves aside. His indefatigable love for Pallavi doesn't let him fall for anyone else till Pooja (Pallavi's daughter ) reminds him of the same persona. The toughest battle is inside our head, in the entire movie Viren keeps fighting the battle to support the values he believed in till Pooja's conviction of love wins .  We come across such warriors every day, we don't value them enough, in fact, most time we don't even acknowledge their battles and their response. It's very easy to jump to conclusions and judge people, but it's important to understand their battles. 

For reasons we can never know, fate connects a person to another person and then leaves the rest to human nature. The results are mixed. Some acquaintances become friends and some friends become loved ones and some become foes. While a few special friendships last a lifetime, the vast majority prove easier to leave behind. Some take years to fade away; others end spectacularly. 

In fact, we have to lose a few friends before we can appreciate their most important gift: the stories we share. In hearing these stories, you may begin to sense a deeper truth, that our friends and friendships are not as "Vanilla flavored " as we first believed. In my view, if your battles are similar, if your war strategy is similar, there is a good possibility people will stay around for much longer. 

मेरा अक्स तुम्हारी आखों में रहता है , तुम्हारी खुली आखों में मुझे अपना अक्स दिखता है.....

मेरा वजूद मेरे अक्स से काफी मुक्तलिफ़ है......

मेरा अक्स तुम्हारा हो गया और मेरा वजूद किसी और का........

मेरा  वजूद और मेरा अक्स एक दिन तुम्हे मिलने आएंगे , उस दिन का बस तुम इंतज़ार करना.......

अगर मैं  ना आया तो समझ लेना  मेरा अक्स मेरे वजूद  से हार गया.......

और फिर मेरा एक आखरी काम  कर देना , मेरे अक्स को किसी किताब में दफना देना........

मेरा अक्स तुम्हारी बातों में  सुनाई देगा , वो  सबको तुम्हारी आखों में दिखाई देगा.......

एक दो सदियां मेरा इंतज़ार करना , और  हो सके तो मुझे माफ़ करना.........

The "Prozac" Warriors : Prozac is a very common anti depressant pill, it is a cure of OCD as well and everyone who is depressed, gets Prozac as the "Happy Pill", while in some cases pills work but in most cases, you need a person or persons around you to pull you of the depression. Very rarely do people come out of depression without help and medication. I see such people around, they don't give up on you, they keep finding you, they keep checking on you. They don't make elaborate noise about how they stand with you but they do so, they love you unconditionally. There is a big issue with the word love, everyone has their own interpretation of it.

Love is a spiritual attribute to me and that means that love is not something that comes passively, it must armoury at throughout life. All spiritually valuable commodities come at a high price (such as patience, humility, kindness, optimism, honesty). That means that all these qualities are practised consistently over time. You don’t become patient or humble overnight. Similarly, with love, we do not become loving over night. We cannot achieve true love after 3 months with the partner we have chosen or after 12-hour hotel room rendezvous. A spiritually developed person, who has truly developed their ability to love, can feel this love for every living thing. They possess a special type of love for anyone.

It is impossible to decide to “love” and think of it in textbook terms (and I hate it when people see love as only romantic love ). It is one thing to say “I have made the decision to love everyone” and it is a completely different thing to truly feel that genuine and sincere love in our heart for everyone. We can only start to nurture this loving feeling within our hearts, we can create an environment in our soul that allows love to grow without killing it. This can take a very long time, sometimes a whole lifetime, sometimes more than one lifetime.

These days we throw around the word “love” like cheap currency. We make it synonymous with things like lust, passion, desire – but as you can see – there are other words for that. So we should try to keep the word “love” as pure as possible, and as true to its real meaning as much as we possibly can. Because love is not affection nor is its desire, and love is definitely not lust. These feelings have nothing to do with real love, and don’t give any realistic indication of what real love is. People who are able to hold the "love" for a longer period of time.

These warriors look for everyone who is going through a "low" phase and standby with them, love them. They are not shooting, they hug and they win. There is a movie I must mention here  Vanraj, the forgotten character played by Ajay Devgan in Hum dil de chuke Sanam released in 1999. Despite the shallow lust that his wife Aishwarya Rai (Nandini) has for Sameer (Salman Khan ), he lets her be, stands by her and in the end wins. Sadly, the world sees Salman as the Hero and not Ajay Devgan, he is the "Prozac warrior" to me, he beats Salman Khan without arms and a battle.

Kuch Hosh Nahin rehta , Kuch Fehem nahin rehta , insaaan mohabbat mein , insaan nahin rehta 

The "forgiving" Warriors : 2 years ago, I stumbled upon a term called "Kshamavani" practised by Jains when someone sent me a message on WhatsApp and I googled it. It has stayed with me an immensely powerful concept since then. Is there is a bravado and power in forgiveness, I have started to believe that once you forgive the ones who hurt you. How many times have we said to someone that "You win, I loose, let this victory be yours", You were right and I was wrong ". One always doesn't need to overpower and win the battle, winning can also be forgiveness. There is an interesting word called  "Planned Obsolescence" actually means a strategy or policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life so it will become obsolete, useless and unfashionable after a certain period of time. This thus drives non-perishable parts of our lives to become perishable. Some experiences happen within a few minutes or hours but we keep talking about them for years. The narrative of the experience takes much longer time than the experience itself.  We meet some people for a few days/months /years and within that, we spend some limited time with them but the experience they leave behind can take much longer to recollect and live with.  These kinds of moments, people, events, and movies keep recycling in your head for much longer. All hurt and pain, however, have a planned obsolesce.  

Forgiveness, therefore, is the right conclusion to some battles, which anyway have a planned obsolesce. 

Stay a warrior, Stay strong and keep fighting with your unique ammunition ...acknowledge who are fighing a  battle beneath . 

Today's song, Coke Studio,  Season 10, Track named "Faasle" How do people write poetry which is heart-wrenching and heart warming at the same time? Before I go to the blog, let me share why such tracks become such inseparable part of my persona. So the song  ...

Hue Faasle ....Choote Silsilay , Tootey Hue dil jaayein Kahan ...Mujhe Jo Khushi mili naa kabhi , jaayein tere sang , jaayein tu jaha....

Meri yeh dua hai ke tera jeevan Yun hee chalta rahe , saari khwashiyein ho poori ....teri duniya mein naa ho yeh kami ...

Yaad hai mujhe teri har adaa , muskarahatein teri , tera mujhse chupke se yun kehna ke tu hai meri ....

Jaane yeh kya ho gaya , ho gaye juda , tere waaste sabhi raaste , chod ke mein aayi yahan , tu to naa mila , yun hee chal diya , le ke mere dil jaane tu kahan ...

Jaaunga kahan , main to hun yahan , tere dil kee aahaton mein hun , sapno mein tu socho mein tu ...har lamhe mein tu 

Dhadke yeh dil tere hee liye , hoga kisi naa ab  yeh ...

Jaa Raha Hun mein ......Jaa Rahi Hun mein