Where the mind is without fear, head is held high

 Hi friends, 

        Rabindra Nath Tagore's Nobel Prize winning poetry Gitanjali, carries words of profound wisdom. 'Where the mind is without fear,  where the head is held high,  where the world has not been broken into pieces by narrow domestic walls, where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way. ' I have mentioned before that Iam not a great fan of poetry for unknown reasons, but these lines of that great poet was and is still my favourite.  These words will be valid as long as the human race exists.

              We the ordinary citizens live in perpetual fear of something or other throughout our lives. Sometimes,  the fear is less, sometimes it is more, but never gone. For the 'weaker sex ' and that too in developing and unsafe countries like India,  the fear is more .  We fear society and we shape our lives according to the ' expectations of the society ' , and not what we really like/want to do. This is mostly the root cause of so many stresses , tensions and health problems. We fear those who rule us. We fear bureaucracy,  confronting corruption that is steeped in our daily lives , the law enforcing agencies. The fear is so ingrained in us that we do not know what all we are afraid of and how it has shaped our behaviour. The fear in me has shaped my behaviour and made me an introvert to some extent. Iam not talkative,  but I express myself through my writings. Like many of us, I am an armchair critic, but for that also, we need a constraint-free environment around. These days, if I think twice before putting my thoughts which go against the majority, then the fear is more.  At one point,  I decide not to waste energy in putting controversial thoughts which are fruitless and therefore divert my energy somewhere. 

     Unfortunately,  the world is still broken and more fragmented than ever by the narrow domestic walls. Narrow-mindedness and divisive thinking leads to the rise of those invisible walls which divide people further and treat the fellow beings with hatred. Hitler tried to make Germany the most superior by highlighting the Aryan race and killing lakhs of Jews. His ideologies failed. Berlin wall was constructed by USSR and allied forces only to be demolished after 28 years by Germans themselves. They proved that a United Germany is a stronger Germany. Seeds of hatred and narrowness is sown somewhere only to be brought out at opportune moments by the leaders and politicians to keep their vote banks alive and not for the good of the people and the country. When the majority of the population are swayed by the repeated extremism of ideologies,  a small percentage of population will doubt the validity of their thoughts which are opposed to the thinking of the majority. Out of helplessness,  they will be forced to painfully accept this new normal. Maybe,  this is just a phase in the history which will be there for some years. The clear stream of reason has lost its way in lots of noise and chaos all around.  The countries may be bleeding,  but the picture painted by the leaders will be otherwise to keep its population under perpetual illusion that everything is fine. 

                That is when we turn to the pages of history and find that all through the ages, many of the kingdoms have been ruled by all kinds of rulers which has shaped a place either progressively or otherwise.  

      I close this article by quoting George Santayana 's words " Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." 

See you again,

Deepa.