Author: Shonar
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 2, 2006
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1354392.cms
Introduction: Time present and time past are
both present in time future
The drums roll and from inside the temple
comes a short yell; out jumps the body of the Sun, huge and wide, dancing
with flaying arms, eyes blackened and stark, darting here and there, terrifying.
It is the night of a Theiyyam performance
outside a kavu in one of Kerala's umpteen villages and our orange-hued man
is now no longer the toddy-tapper he was an hour ago.
In trance, consumed by the spirit of his deity,
he is now God, and God moves on earth to dance and bless his people. They
believe in him, they touch his feet, they touch his hands, they hold their
ears and bow before him.
He is God and he has come to them on this
special day. For one hour he showers love and blessings, collects in return
tokens of gratitude, and then retreats just as suddenly into the temple.
The Deity leaves man and goes back into the
stone image, where it will remain, worshipped with milk and honey, until another
special day arrives, another Theiyyam begins, another toddy-tapper becomes
God for just one hour, and lets the devout touch him, touch God.... Bhakti
cannot be completely annihilated from a people who have survived on it as
a principal nourishment from the day of inception.
Bhakti is still there, but dormant. And all
it needs is a shake, a little poke, and it shall rumble out of its latent
state, to come cascading from the dark grottoes within our souls, pushing
ahead, drenching every slumbering cell - the millions of cells in our body
are just the same as the millions of people that make the body of this nation.
If the wake-up call begins in us, the trumpets
will echo into the air and under the seas until each and every soul is wide
awake and ready to blow into the dying embers which are waiting to be refuelled
once again.
We have a historical past that has outlived
other civilisations and is still coursing through our blood. But we cannot
piggyback on the achievements of the bygone eras. We have to learn from them,
better them, and move one step ahead.
And in this, our education plays the biggest,
most crucial role. It is the most widespread, albeit still not sufficient,
instrument that we have in hand by which we can paint vivid pictures of the
values, the ideals, the forces that drove this country to a status of superstardom.
We have to tell each child who grows on this
soil everything about this soil. Not just what pertains to his religious background
or his regional placement.
He must be as well informed about the other
areas of his country as about his own. Without having to go there, he should
have a feeling of awe for what exists there.
Konarka in Orissa and Chidambaram in Tamil
Nadu, Alchi in Ladhak and Golden Temple in Amritsar should all be familiar
to him.
He should feel the currents which flow into
the sculpting of gods, of the painting of cultures, of the spinning of yarn.
His eyes must see the diversity, his ears must hear the multitude of tunes
that mingle with each other across the valleys.
He should hear not the sounds that break the
silence but the sounds that make it. When this is imparted to him, then all
else will follow.
Once he has even the faintest glimpse of that
eternal beauty, the beauty that we have lost contact with, then all that the
ancients have discovered and left behind will be swept up in his arms and
carried forward with love and tenderness.
He will improve all that they have done -
not to outshine them but make them proud as a son who vies for his father's
approval.
The past has left us many lessons to learn
and if we wish, we can dip into our reserves and let them act as constant
reminders, or we can simply closet them in the darkest cupboards, and plunge
into the wrong once again...
To highlight the achievements of today's India
is not our concern because we live in the present and we know; we know the
leaps we have taken in science and technology... We know of the foresight
that has led our businessmen into crafting empires...
We know that our brothers-in-arms are tough
as nails and save this soil, laying their lives down in sacrifice. We know
we have the dedication of teachers, the skill of craftsmen, the enthusiasm
of children.
We have all that it takes to make a perfect
nation. But we are not perfect yet. And that is what we need to look into...
(India's) culture sits inside a genie lamp, always ready to spring out a new
surprise.
But she is also restrained and confused, suspicious
and insecure. These are evils that rankle any growing soul. (If we do not)
jettison such negatives, we will travel... with the pace of a snail, not the
gallop of a cheetah.
Excerpts from the author's Of Past Dawns and
Future Noons: Towards a Resurgent India.