The Balance

India is a happy nation and more so, today. I can sense a certain satisfaction on the faces around me after how Indian Air Force has avenged the Pulwama attack. Personally, I also feel very calm after what was done. I am an observer and in the process I sense and feel the nerve of people.

After Pulwama, the general nerve amongst the common Indians was that they wanted action, revenge. People easily spoke words like war, mass-killing, cross border activity and what not. Cuss-words, abuse were almost used like prefixes and suffixes.  People were dejected and angry. But they were also hopeful that this government would do something. Surgical strike in Uri had set a certain standard of what Indian army and the current government combined, are capable of.

What transpired yesterday has only been incremental in the set standard. Today, we are a happy and satisfied nation. Thanks to the government and Air force for making things happen.

Having said that, I am happier about something else. I wish to bring to everyone's notice, the true Grace, Dignity and Valour of this current Indian government and Indian Air force.

In the anger that everyone felt, they kept their cool and neutralised only the enemy. None of Pakistan's aam janta has been harmed. We destroyed only the enemy of humanity. The innocent citizen of Pakistan has been untouched and safe. We went deep inside the Pakistan territory, we had tremendous strength and time hence an opportunity to destroy even more. But we didn't. We could have terrified, terrorised them but we didn't. That's the difference.

That's called non-violence. We still have Gandhiji alive within us. But we also have Bhagat Singhji. Therefore the Balance!

I salute my government and my Air Force for not only exhibiting courage but also for the respect they showed towards life, innocense and humanity.

Jai Hind! Vande Mataram!

Karm vs Fate

One thing that has always intrigued me and many others is Karma v/s Fate. A lot of people who are absolute karmayogis don't give much credit to luck or fate. They don't believe that a person meets success or failure due to his fate. On the other hand, there are some who have a simple answer to everything that happens, they say, 'it is destiny.'.

There are others who feel that God or good luck is on the side of someone who is well prepared. For instance, if there's a cricket match between a weak team and a strong team, generally the strong team wins. Strong teams generally prove to be lucky with some umpire's decisions going their way or an unbelievable catch or for that matter a dropped chance.

I agree with this notion that good luck usually favours those who are well prepared. But this doesn't stop here. There's a very popular saying in Hindi " Waqt se pehle aur kismet se zyaada kisi ko nahi milta." which means, No one achieves more than allotted in destiny and earlier than destined.
There are many who believe in this notion as well, the ones I mentioned earlier.

Recently while experiencing all these thoughts, I came across an idea which I felt is worth exploring and sharing. Imagine everyone's destiny being a book. A book in which only some pages are printed whereas many are left blank. We belong to the book and the book belongs to us. All the printed pages are the events that will happen to us, with us, at a prescribed time, as in the book. But the blank pages are for us to fill with actions or in-actions, time used or time wasted, thinking or overthing, being happy or sad, being angry or at peace. These are pages in our control.

I feel the printed pages might not be too many but their impact on our lives must be quite big. There are some things which we just can't explain in life. They just happen for whatsoever reasons. Reasons that might be beyond our reasoning powers. For instance, A person, quite healthy and health conscious, middle aged, fit, a film actress, is suddenly diagnosed with cancer. Or another actress found dead in an unexpected, shocking manner. On the other hand, some old lady surviving a severe heart ailment for years (a true anecdote). These are the printed pages, very impactful. But I am glad we have many blank ones to write on.

So this new year, let us all decide on one thing, that we shall fill in those blank pages constantly with something useful, fruitful, helpful, merry, interesting, relaxing, spiritual, knowledgeable. The rest depends upon destiny!