60th. Year of India's Independence

So, I have not seen or experienced the rising sun at the stroke of that midnight when the independence of this holy land has crossed the Rubicon to sail across the oceanic times through prosperity and adversity.

And through adversity and prosperity it changes. And changes are the yardsticks of changes whether they are pointers for the better or for the worse. Howbeit, changes are changes. This is rule of the game, the thumb-rule if one likes to say. This thumb-rule is predictably in conformity with the laws of nature. Nature too changes and it abhors vacuum. But nature does not change in the strictest senses, it transforms and is just transformed. And it conserves, too. This transformation is not an appreciable change of nature and natural laws.

Change is the prime mover of this world. In the context of Indian philosophy, the true nature of this world is its eternal movement. Loss of mobility is catastrophic death and in mobility lies the root of changes. Nothing can remain unmoved for good.

I too change and have changed appreciably like others. And I have lived through the changes in and around my world. Not only that, I have been seeing and following changes since I have attained the age of discretion. Without attaining the age of discretion, nobody can realise the fathom and depth of changes. Can a child see changes around him/her?

Yes, I have seen a sea-change. The thing is that I am born at a juncture or rather I have attained the age of discretion at a juncture when the old world around me compulsively is giving way to the new one. That is, Toffler's Third Wave begins its intrepid odyssey into the olde' world terrifying everything and everyone to make a colony of the age-old strategic system which has naturally become miasmic and moribund. The Third Wave seized all the initiatives.

The changes were loud and clear at a fast and furious pace.

The frogs stopped croaking in the slimy mud. The birds left their nests for a sojourn to wilderness. The sirens of crickets do not deafen the ears at the dead of night. And how does a fish live out of water if their habitats are constantly bombarded by the Monsanto devils./

The Green Revolution had hoisted the red flags heralding a cautionary signal. Beware of this landmass, water! And Air!

Had all those empty stomachs stopped stoking fire inside? Had the two-square still remained a distant daydream? Where have all those birds gone? Where all those flowers lost their petals in the ensuing battle?

Where is that reality-check? The curve is still dwindling.

The time-capsule ticks all the way. It says everything and nothing. It is in the 60's.

In the 60's itself, the heavy-duty baron and magnates, the harbingers of new political ethology, declared glibly and unequivocally: 'Produce and Flourish'.

On the high crest of the Third Wave, how many people have flourished and how many people have got run over? Sure, a few things and places looked rather awkwardly looked snazzy. Only a few posh people got into rhythm and got their acts together to demarcate the lines between White Collars and Blue Collars. Pen Pushers and Pan Drivers.

Thousands of people were evicted from their homes and hearths. Thousands of people left their home and hearths. Some in quest of fortune and some in quest of destiny. The twain never met in unison. Poverty and pride, side by side.

Juices trickled in and seeped through the fractures.

Yes, these are changes, appreciable in dimension and perspective.

There are changes in many more hues and colours. Appreciable and significant.

Old fossils bit the dust making way for new values.

In politics, economy, culture, technological applications, human values, moral rectitude and so on and so forth.

And how many wars have been fought? And how many nuclear devices have been tested on the off-shores at the cost of public exchequer?

Mafia politics, scam and spam economics, cameo culture, globally purchased and worn-out technology in the name of indigenous application, belying human values and irresponsible moral rectitude - all paid in their own coins and bearing the brunt of over-population. In theoretical mumbo-jumbo, there is silver lining to cherish the politics of developmental changes. Only a select few are the real takers. The common denominators' hope belies hope. That is the bitter truth of reality that speaks eloquent for a strategic developmental change for a common future and common lot.

I have seen many changes from the Green Revolution to Information Technology, from indigenous bard to hybrid and synthetic culture closely and profitably in association and collaboration with the global players. Swadesi Jagaran Mancha has played to the under-tricks of those self-professed nationalists and has melted into the vase of mixed economy. Promiscuity has become the bottom-line of independence. Everything is intended for selling in the global market. So, everything is export-oriented and nothing for public consumption.

And Bhopal still is at pains here and there Union Carbide thrives on. No other Bhopal? So many and so many.

Is democracy has reached the grassroots? If it is just being at hosting years in and years out, then it is strong and stout in stature. But where is the 'demos'?

The detractors say that this ancient land of wise muni-rishis has been mortgaged to the interests of super-powers. Is there anything wrong to play the second fiddle to them?

Yes, I have seen many changes and am still seeing many changes at the 60th. year of the independence. But I wonder whether these changes are real or superficial, whether these changes are just cosmetic and skin-deep.

I even wonder whether the colonialists too have made some significant contributions to the prosperity of colonial India. Face the truth or face the music. You admit it or not, it remains to be seen in the last 300 years' history of India.

So, why is this hype and hoopla? Is this Jung's collective unconsciousness? Herd mentality propagated by all those honourable statesmen to hoodwink the people?

To-day, nobody remembers Mahatma Gandhi! Only his ghosts haunt one and all. He has been timely exorcised. He has been an old fossil!