LET YOUR LITTLE BOY WALK FREE
“Polarization
affects families and groups of friends.
It’s a paralyzing situation.
A civil war of opinion.”
Mick Jagger
The Independence Day – I am referring to any Country’s Independence Day – only marks the day
that country got free from a foreign rule. In our case, it’s 15th
August, and we celebrated it two days ago. As an Indian, I know how hard it had
been for generations before me to achieve that freedom. I, therefore, feel
privileged, grateful and blessed to have been born in a ‘Free nation’.
Well, that being
said, I see around me, and see within me - and ask: “Have I become free from my
prejudices?”… “Have I become free from the curse of polarization?”
Did I say ‘Curse’?
Yes, I did…
The British have
left us, the Mughals and every other ‘outside’ rulers have gone… But, to see
ourselves freed from social, religious, political and cultural prejudices, we need a
different kind of ‘freedom struggle’. Territorial freedom, therefore, has only
limited significance in our development as good human beings. What matters the
most, to me, is the freedom from all kinds of prejudices and polarized outlook
towards the society…
We all are created
and ruled by the same God… If anything, let our attempts be to treat our
fellow-humans as children of the same God…
Our difference
of opinion should not make us enemies. I am a Christian or Hindu, Muslim, Jain,
Sikh or whatever, I am an Indian, Pakistani, American, Israeli, Palestinian or
whatever – why should I walk on this land leased out to us by God with
arrogance?
The worst enemy
of mine resides in my own head. As Leo Buscaglia said, so poetically, I feel
like shouting aloud:
“Don’t walk in my
head with your dirty feet.”
But, who am I shouting
at?
Look around,
look within… I am sure, we have plenty of people inside our own families, in
our groups of friends – and, above all, inside our own heads – at whom we may
have to shout aloud: "Don’t walk in my head with your dirty feet.”
Yes, Sir, the
struggle for freedom will never cease till we cease to walk on this leased life…
Prejudice and polarization
– these two ‘foreign rulers’ try to walk into our heads with their dirty feet…
yes, unless we remain extremely vigilant…
Last
night, I was enquiring with a young woman, someone very dear to me, about her newborn…
Her first child, a little son. Understandably, this young mother was
overwhelmed with a hundred different emotions. The motherhood - particularly,
the maiden one - is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which only a mother would
know. You see, we never know what is in store for each newborn. One of the
things I wrote in my last-night message was weaved around an old saying:
“We can count the
seeds in an apple;
but, not the apples
in a seed…
Blessings to you seed.”
But, what I did not write in my message, but
really wanted to, was this…
“Dear, let your little boy walk free from every kind of prejudice and polarized outlook… This Life is a leased one.”
It’s never late to wish one another – ‘A Happy Independence
Day’.
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic’s: Pixabay
Video: TheEllenShow
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