Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Am I Proud?

I was the first of two siblings to be born in a love and care filled family of Marwari migrants to the great city of Bombay. Our generations past had never visited what was once called Mumbai. We didn’t greatly participate in the pride of renaming it Mumbai nor the ego of sticking to the name Bombay. We are generally considered to be a practical clan adhering only to what affects us directly and staying close within the community. I believe we are one of few societies left around the world that still enforce community beliefs amongst our children irrespective of how much the world is shifting to a solo existence culture.

Being the only child for the first nine years of my life, I was pampered heavily in the family. My requests were fulfilled as demands and I was guarded from the outside world in safety as well as exposure. This came to a sweeping change with my decision to pursue studies abroad. For someone who hadn’t traveled beyond the East-West school ride of a single suburb of Mumbai, seven seas away United States was a distant prospective. While safety was still paramount for the family and guarded with the presence of relatives in my US state of study, the exposure was something that couldn’t be guarded anymore.

Almost a decade later, spent more abroad than home, the return to India was mesmerizing to say the least. While some attributed the return to Pride in India, others claimed the unmatched luxury available here to be the reason. Single chain of thoughts dismayed the punishing lack of civility in traffic while cherishing the spice filled Pani Puris as unparalleled to any cuisine available around the world. I came to realize the generalization of thoughts and the fascination of the Indian masses to follow them. Everyone had the same reasons to be proud of India and the same complaints to follow. Every emotion was reducible to an image share on facebook or a well phrased ‘forward’ on Whatsapp.
 
Exuberated by the introduction of social media, our mass following culture took to new heights leaving behind the political gatherings of the illiterate and encompassing an all billion populous to voice short lived, short felt single emotions. Pockets of collective rage against the current media chosen topic (Celebrity jailed, Rapist punished, Politicians exposed) sprinkled with moments of pride during colorful festivals, Gandhiji’s birthday, or simply while enjoying a vada pav with a friend became the norm.

Yes, I am proud. I am proud not in a measure of comparing India to any other country in the world as one does not compare apples and oranges. I am proud of how a country uniquely survives managing the most diverse and dense populous of the world and still find moments of collective pride. I am proud of a country that widely adapts a language introduced merely 200 years ago in a 2000 year history while preserving the existence of the hundreds of languages from times past. I am proud of how a country’s collective rage still has the power to sway the direction of the country and result those in power also to atone for their crimes.

I was born Agarwal, which is a sub-caste of Marwari, which is a sub-caste of Hindu, in Rajasthan, which is a state in India, which is a country in Asia, which is a continent on Earth to grandparents who would probably exclaim that I have married out of clan if I marry an Agarwal from southern Rajasthan. I am proud that our generation is bridging the gaps in bringing the world closer and hopeful that citizens of Mother Earth will learn to co-exist in peace, harmony and the rightful pride of being Human.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

You and I... In this Beautiful World...

Long idle stares and instant (usually ‘what’s wrong with them’) opinions when strangers cross paths have become second nature to the streets of our city. “Hello” and “It was nice to meet you” is generally the extent of our meeting new people. Over a couple decades of schooling, learning life’s important lessons, and generally the development we reach is to be wary of strangers, keep distance from new company and question motives behind any shred of niceness that someone showers towards us. Is this really healthy?
If you do not relate to any of the statements above, congratulations, you are doing it right. Know that your life is helping change this world infusing humanity one smile at a time. If, instead, something above struck a nerve, it is more than likely you realize this state but find it difficult to single handedly bring any change. Following is an attempt at finding a way to bring about this essential change.
The first and most important thing to convince one of is there is more good than bad in this world. A simple concept, yet almost always forgotten when developing new trust. This apprehension usually arises from the fear of being hurt by people we let into our lives. However, instead of resolving the issue at hand, being hurt, we go on to avoid anything that can remotely reach that point. One case where I do not feel prevention is better than cure.
We often hide behind the comfort of old relations, partners and family. It is this satisfaction that perhaps keeps us from venturing too far out or letting someone too far in. There is one study after another to be found that accurately equates human happiness to doing ‘good’ for others over doing ‘good’ for self. In our satisfaction of life, not only are we accepting the secluded nature of the world but also missing out on all the positive moments we are capable of generating with others.
As for my part and I hope someday you reach the comfort to join in, I vow to connect as many lives as I can. To make an effort beyond the initial “hello” by sharing, imbibing and reflecting any and all positive aspects of people I meet. To strongly get influenced and vocalize such influence which gives people a new insight within themselves. Accept a nice gesture unquestioned and respond in utmost kind.
We have come to be a culture which has all the negative insights in celebrity lives, all the know-how about the ‘Real Housewives’, but little awareness amongst our closest friends. I wish to pen next, a few character sketches of positive influences around me. Whether you find yourself relate to one or more, may you inculcate them all. If it is you I write about, please consider this my honest and glad appreciation to have had you come into my life. 

Saturday, April 14, 2012

When searching for your place in this world...

One year almost to the day, I’ve missed you dear blog. Inspiration, exposure or lacks thereof have kept me from writing. Perhaps a transitional period of ABSOLUTE change, in personal, professional, spiritual, emotional and any life I had come to create for myself, has also kept me from penning to you.

Regained control, revived thoughts and restored goals bring me to you today to share some stark influences of my life. Having spent 17 years of youth, childhood and countless mistakes in India, I hadn’t completely grasped ever what the country had to offer and more importantly, what I had absorbed from it. 7 odd years of my twenties spent in America probably provided a period of better clarity, better absorption; however, it was a period lacking something, something I was only able to truly grasp upon returning to India.

If I were to truly reflect upon the major differences between the two cultures, I’d have to say, there was one I never considered but stood out most. America gave one the ability to be satisfied and content with their life. It showered one with every opportunity possible to make leaps in their career, explore their hobbies and interests and was ever so accommodating to the novice within them. Happiness, however, lay only in the control of the individual rather than anything the land had to offer. For this life also brought with it a lack of enforced societal ties that eventually left the individual in a sea of comforts, shared little with the world while ever longing to do so.

The ruthless drive, constant competition, cutthroat need of survival in India, on the other hand, perhaps wasn’t so rewarding in its opportunities or the acceptance of the beginner, but… It formed a community, a society, and a culture that would never be satisfied in its own achievements. This lifelong inculcated need to excel produced countless winners, countless successful generations, but I question its achievement in creating happiness. Success in the wake of morally questionable directions to create a populated society with a finicky adjuration of its people leaves one, somehow, with a fake sense of joy. This however, gives true reason to the phrase ignorance is bliss.

Pick your poison yourself, as the rest of the world can very well be placed upon the above split canvas. What you gain from culture, what you gain from different lands, will never get even close to what you gain from a five minute story of the stranger who you crossed paths with in your pursuit of Nothingness today.

Stay positive, Stay alive.

Love, Mo

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Ting-Tong...

As the rumors may have it, the day is finally here…

Describing Mohit to Mo is how this blog took shape. Now it’s time to share with you all, a journey that will eventually lead towards Mo to Mohit. The countdown has begun as I move close to a day that has been awaited almost 7 years now.

A wait that involved always knowing that one day it would come,
A wait that involved proving wrong those who never believed it could come.
A wait that was more of a journey of its own,
A wait that brought a life I could have never known.


This day to come isn’t much different from the one 7 years back.

Little did I know of my life to be then
Life as it was would turn boys into men
I came with anxiety and a will to succeed
I came as a kid and wasn’t much worried


The anxiety hasn’t escaped me as I decide to return
The kid I won’t let escape as it keeps me young
Life likes to remain unknown as it did these years
I sure like its surprises as I hold no fears


As I bid adieu to this phase of life, I look for your blessings and love. I hope to cross paths with you in the near future. Whether you are in America, India or any part of the world, there is house that awaits your visit wherever life takes me.

For now, if you ask me why… it’s a simple urge to have the door bell ring and not know already who is on the other side of the door…

Love,
Mohit

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Mommy.... :-)

Shivers of fear... Creep from my thoughts...
Uncertain are actions... To move these rocks...

One thought, so very pure...
Of your sight, always cures...

Peace within, your warmth provides...
The calm it brings, a pure delight...

Smile today... Do smile always...
Thoughts I'll conquer... Shadowed by your grace...

Close to you... I'll always be...
My rock you are... I lean by thee...

Thoughts conquered... Peace attained...
Love you mom... Shine or rain...

Love, Mo
PS: Thanks, Christine...

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

If my silence spoke...

If my silence spoke... It would say to you...
With courage & fear... It would whisper few...

I would like to meet you... I really would...
I would like to know you... The best I could...

In your search... I abandoned words...
You know best... How to break the curse...

In your presence... The rhymes begin...
When you're gone... I scream within...

I am quiet today... For you to see...
You are my voice... My soul to be...

If I know you... As I have come to know...
My silence will break... To you I'll owe...

If my silence spoke... It would say to you...
With courage & fear... It would whisper few...

Love,
Mo

Sunday, November 28, 2010

A friend in sight...

A frown on your face...
A thought misplaced...
Crawling into the night...
Nightmares stuck in your sight...

Comes along a smile...
Comforts your mind...
Battles your frown...
Turns your thought around...

A smile on your face...
Dreams back to a steady pace...
You crawl into the night...
With a new friend in sight...

Love,
Mo