Voice Of Change- From my bestie's perspective :)

So this post has been written by my BEST FRIEND- Akshat from IMAGINATIONS UNLEASHED for  for the Time to Change contest on Indiblogger.  

Well his request to join Indiblogger is still pending and this contest really caught his interest. He is been telling me he's wanted to write this for long. And after reading his post, I knew this post has to be SHARED :D .. I TOTALLY LOVED IT! ...

So Indiblogger please consider this post... And guys read on :) 

You can connect with him on his site.. Do pay him a visit :D

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So I am having a conversation with a friend on my way back home from work and I am being told about all the bloggers talking about the need to change, the time to change, them talking about changing something or the other, and also about her own desire of what she wants to change.

We hang up as she has her exams coming and she’s got to study. But the conversation we had and the epitome of it- “Time to Change”, continued to travel along with me in my head to home, to my work, the next day and now is with me clearer than ever before. So I am going to tell you all about it. Read through and give an honest thought to the entire Idea I wish to share with whoever reads this.

Change, is what we all want. But before I start, let me give you a small example to clear your thoughts before I SEED you with some new ones.

Imagine one night you go to sleep after watching your favorite soap on your television or after listening to your favorite playlist and the very next morning you wish to watch the same, but the next morning when you switch on your television set or play that play list of yours, it isn’t the same way you left it. No channel is in the place you had left it last night or no song you like the most is in the playlist anymore… Will you like it? Accept it the way it is? Or will you struggle for a while and then perhaps let it be……? But I am sure you will not like it.

Change never was easy. Never is Easy and Never will be.

But yet we like to think and say- Change is good, and it is time to change.

So if it isn't easy and we still want it, because it is not as trivial as the television channels or the favorite playlist, but is a bigger issue like child abuse, corruption, domestic violence, poverty, terrorism, global warming, sexual harassment of women and every other thing we all want to change to make this place a better place to live in … HOW DO WE DO IT???

I’ll tell you but before I do, let me SEED you with a thought and BE HONEST to yourself and think for a while before you go on reading. 

My Question is Simple and you have the answer, I only want you to say it out loud. Do it because it is important you tell yourself what you already know. So the question is:

Who is responsible to bring about the change and make sure that the change is here to stay..???

Who is it?

If you know the answer, say it.

Is it the government? The IAS? Anna Hazare? The Parliament? The Law? Your Boss? Your Colleague? The Women? The Men? WHO?

If you honestly think they are the ones, then you look to me like the actors from the movie “The Super Man” who look helplessly onto the TV screens as a Man in blue saves the day.

But Reality is there is no Super Man… So who will bring the Change?

Well if you said-

Me/I.

Let me tell you, both ME and I are on the same path, and I see success at the end of the way.

To those who think, well there he goes philosophical, just here me out. I have some practicality with me; I did give it a thought, a serious thought, before I came here and before writing this. So just go along with the thought seeded well in your head that I/Me IS responsible for changing everything.

How?

Simple.

Promise that I will switch off my car engine at the signal or in traffic jams, well but then others don’t, how am I just making a difference?

You are. If you aren’t changing everything you aren’t making it worse. You aren’t wasting the fossil fuel in your tank, you are not. I am not.

Promise yourself that I will never litter even if it is bio-degradable (A seed, rotten Apple, Peanut Shells, corn sticks) nothing at all. I will carry it along till I find the next dustbin. It’s not hard to find a dustbin. They are available at every Station, every petrol pump, every bus stop, and every office and at every home. 

My nation is not a dustbin, and I shall not litter. Well if others don’t, request them or ask them to give it to you, but don’t litter yourself. If you don’t litter, you are not increasing it. If the government doesn't clean the roads, don’t litter- you will help in not making it worse. I don’t litter.

Promise yourself that you will respect women, and come whatever may, you will respect them irrespective of everything. You want to empower women, show your respect to them. Stop domestic violence, you don’t do it yourself. Treat your mother as equal. 

Respect her, not by just touching her feet in the morning but by standing with her in the kitchen and helping her with the knick-knacks. Don’t let her eat alone at the end, serve her food and eat with her. Respect her and mean it. I do.

Promise yourself you shall believe in your own religion and get to know it truly before you give it up or you make a negative opinion about it. I was born Hindu, but I will tell you that every religion talks about almost the same good things. All religions talk about Charity, Daan, Sadqa (they are the same thing J trust me) but no where do the religions ask you to help the poor by giving them alms or giving the beggar a rupee or 5. It can be (my suggestion, give it a thought). Getting together and fixing up that patch of public road in front of your house or getting someone to do it for you. You can give something by Shram (it means Work). I do.

Promise yourself that you will give your children an opportunity to know their grandparents and let your children be fortunate enough to hear stories every night, till your parents live. There will be no need of old age homes. My heart breaks when I see one. I was fortunate enough and I know the value of it. I promise so will my kids be.

Promise never to travel without a ticket, the TC will never catch you and ask for a bribe. Never Break a traffic signal and the Cop will never charge you with a fine or ask you for a bribe instead. Pay the fine and not the bribe and there will be no corruption.

Everything you want to change will be changed. But only when I change.

So when do I change?

Right NOW, from this very moment. If I don’t like something, I will not change “what I don’t like” or wait for someone else to change it. I will think of how a change in “me/I” will help and start doing it.

But it isn’t as simple as it sounds…… Easier said than done…

Let me tell you a story which we all know but not in detail. We know the story under a shadow of a great man’s image. I am sure all of us Indians know about it. But may be for the first time you will only read the story that is veiled behind the shadow of a great man. So go on and read it.

Don’t leave it, its Important you know this.

I was young, 18 and full of aggression when for the first time did I read about revolutionaries and how they wanted to fight a war and win us Independence. I cursed the makers of this nation I call my own, and spoke to my father. Our nation could have been much better if we would have fought for our independence rather than the show of cowardice we adopted in non violent protests. It took so much longer. What wonders could we have done with a few more years earlier, our constitution would speak a more ruthless language than what it does today. My father, looked at me and spoke “You are ignorant”, he smiled as I got angrier. “You miss, to see the strength our nation was built on”. “What strength?” I questioned… to which he said nothing then but when I turned 20 he came up to me and brought back the memories of our conversation. I said “I still hold my opinion”, this time he gave me book. A small book that tells a story about how few handpicked men started from a small village and chose to walk up to another small village on the sea shore in Gujarat, and how everyone on the way who could join and be a part of this long walk came along to show the world that it was the time to change. They walked and reached the destination. Their leader made salt and was taken into custody for breaking the Law. They did not have the man who had led them till here, the great leader under whose shadow they had walked till here, but they were on a mission. Their job was not done yet. Their leader had told them and the government the plan was to raid the Dharasana Salt works, 25 miles of Dandi. The leaders were arrested; only the men remained, led by a singer a poetess. She reminded the men, the common men who had marched to shake the foundations of the empire the government, that they were not to use force in any circumstance. As they walked closer to the salt factory, there were soldiers waiting with steel tipped lathis in their hands.

An American journalist standing there reported the incident in the following words:

Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows. They went down like ten-pins. From where I stood I heard the sickening whacks of the clubs on unprotected skulls. The waiting crowd of watchers groaned and sucked in their breaths in sympathetic pain at every blow. Those struck down fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing in pain with fractured skulls or broken shoulders. In two or three minutes the ground was quilted with bodies. Great patches of blood widened on their white clothes. The survivors without breaking ranks silently and doggedly marched on until struck down....Finally the police became enraged by the non-resistance....They commenced savagely kicking the seated men in the abdomen and testicles. The injured men writhed and squealed in agony, which seemed to inflame the fury of the police....The police then began dragging the sitting men by the arms or feet, sometimes for a hundred yards, and throwing them into ditches.

I stopped reading. I remember, and I wondered what was it that kept these men from hitting back. All couldn’t be cowards. Didn’t any of them the strength to fight back? It took time and a lot of thought before I realized that my nation was built on strength of will power, on the strength of forgiveness.

We had strong fists but we had a stronger will. And that’s what My nation was built on.

I tell you this story because we all know it’s not easy to change. But we are the children of our ancestors, who had such a strong will that it shook the entire world. And we are only the best of what our ancestors were, so we have all that was the best of them.

A great leader once said “Be the Change you want to see in the world”. 

I just add to it and tell myself “Be the Change You Want To See in the World and Be It Now”.

And remember “All flesh and blood can be killed but then there is an idea. And Ideas are bulletproof.”

I seed you with these Ideas, nurture them into action. Even If you can't, I still would be doing it.

The TIME TO CHANGE IS NOW, THE CHANGE IS ME, AND I AM HERE TO STAY.

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PS: Give these ideas a strong thought. Not everywhere, but put it to action anywhere you can and see the magic happen. I will be glad to have discussions, so feel free to leave a comment. J