A Great Speech for Humanity's Sake

The wonderful speech from The movie "The Great Dictator" featuring Charlie Chaplin.

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible -- Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another; human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there's room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me I say, "Do not despair." The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass and dictators die; and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers: Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel; who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate; only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers: Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written, "the kingdom of God is within man" -- not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men, in you, you the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite!! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people!! Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise!! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers: In the name of democracy, let us all unite!!!

Moments of Silent Pleasure

I have read some where that love is not looking at each other for hours without end but it is looking at the horizon together. I have repeatedly failed to grasp what it meant but now things start coming to light. The fact that love has a language on its on and its synchronizes two souls that in otherwise would have nothing in common. The purpose of hope and ambition in love is simple, it serves as the bread and butter of love and it essentially distinguishes love from lust. When in love you know where you want to be now, where you want to be in one year time and where you want to be after a decade. It certainly is not planning but it certainly is a subconscious route map to where you are headed in love. Some understands it, some cherish it and some are scared the hell out of by it. Some run from it, some hide from it and some boldly face its adrenalin rush. 

Love is not what is said and written about. Love is the happiness, the silence and meaning of wordless-ness. Cherish it, embrace it and most of all dare to fall into its depth.

The Days that I Fear

It had happened at last, I knew it would come one day. The haunting realities of old age makes it impossible to forego. I knew it would happen it would only be a matter of time. The truth is that upsets me is not that it happened but I was not here by his side when it happened. I was not here to catch him when he fell, I was not here to sit by his side when he was lying in the hospital bed, and I was not here to take flowers and fruits to cheer him up.  It strikes me hard and I can’t forgive myself for making him be all alone when he needed me the most.

When I woke up yesterday, it was a beautiful day; a day like any other. The day was not meant to be anything other than what I have been planned. It was supposed to be an all holes barred canister of monotony but the heavens had plans that were greater than mine. When I reached home after a meticulously planned day which was executed to perfection, I was confronted with a rather off handed remark from my aunt. She enquired whether I knew about my grandfather been taken for a ‘service’.  All I could respond with was a rather confused look and a big question mark hovering over my head.

Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
Black Elk

I was to be at the receiving end of some very shocking news. While I was away in my college worrying about my petty exams a whole lot had happened here. One day my grandfather felt dizzy and almost collapsed, My mother and aunt tried sugar solution thinking that it was a drop in his sugar level, then the called a doctor who lives across the street, she came in and did some preliminaries and then they called my uncle who is a doctor and he was quick to recommend a hospital and insisted that they take him there instantly. He was admitted in Intensive Care Unit and was under observation for three days and a hoard of test was being conducted on him. All this while I was laughing, joking and partying with my friends, unaware of anything that was going on in my hostel.  I despise myself.

Photo by     Corbis Super RF 

All my life my grandfather was there for me, when I took my first steps , when I passed my first class, when I was not able to sleep and when I was down with a fever. He would come to me from anywhere he was. Je would abandon all that was important and come to me sit by me and care for me  and now when he was sick and tired where was I? Writing exams of no real significance in life? I was doing things that I could have written at some other time and passed with the same ease. No body informed me what had happened and nobody told me that something was wrong and I did not feel it, I should have felt it when he was sick. I should have. He does so should I shouldn’t I? My grandfather had asked everyone not to tell me anything.

"...there is no grandfather who does not adore his grandson."
Author: Victor Hugo

Now I know not what to do, Should I be angry at him for not telling me anything or should I be happy that he is alright? Should I be making a tantrum about why not me? Or should I just be ‘adult’ about it. But one thing is sure if at all anything happens to him which I believe will not and I am not here by his side holding his hands during his last few moments in life I know I will not forgive myself ever. 

Wiki-ing, Goggling and more

Look how the world has changed! I still remember around the time I was in 8^th grade and so, every time I ran into something interesting, finding out more about it was an uphill and upbeat task, you had the reference books, then there was occasional newspaper write-ups, the not so frequent shows in the discovery channel or the National geographic and then there may be the library, a teacher who could help me out and many a times a really good dictionary. Those were my close friends’ every time I found myself fascinated by something or the other. But that’s all history now!

Goggling the World

I don’t even bother opening the dictionary these days and the last time I touched it was to dust it! Every time I see something I go to that fabulous website that can be termed nothing short of a window into the world outside. I Google! The refreshingly clean and no fizz home page of mine that gives me an answer to all my awkward questions even the ones to which my mother’s answer would be “stop asking such stupid questions”.

Simply enough Google has literally revolutionized the world and the rise of Google has been nothing short of a revolution in itself. But of all things it revolutionized it revolutionized the education sector most, free and open information was now freely available and any person who had a question in his mind had a place to ask it and hope to get an answer to it. You could follow anything you want you could study all that you can and want; there were no longer any restrictions. And the education was becoming more fun as it is meant to be. The single most important factor that made it possible is the ability to select and study any subject you want without the walls of a curriculum closing on you or any pressure being put on you. For the first time you were free! But what Google did was simple enough, it put everything there was on the internet and put it in a shelf so that we could find it easily, it opened the way to a hoard of services.

Wikipedia : Creating a world with Free Knowledge

Then the next revolution in the world of world education ought to be the Wikipedia, a site so simple yet so powerful that it just changed the way we learn things altogether, the very definition and purpose of an encyclopedia is rewritten with Wikipedia. There is practically nothing under the sun that the Wikipedia doesn’t have an article about. Even the organizational hierarchy is worth the praise, an encyclopedia anyone can be part of the making. Whenever I want to know something, a place, a thing a concept, whatever it may be it’s a one stop place for information.

The internet has just realized its potential and is coming up with innovative ways to enrich the experience of education; the days when education was confined to the walls of the classroom and monochromatic black board are history. The education today is more an holistic approach and when its powers are truly extracted education can be real fun and an experience worth experiencing.

The Discovery of a Friend

She was just as I had imagined, her rounded spectacles, her classy selection of colours, her magnificent smile, when I saw her walking towards me after three years, one month and twenty eight days, she was just as I imagined. It was three years, one month and twenty eight days ago that we first met, a truly serendipitous discovery in every sense of the word. The memories of her lies in the most vibrant colours available in my mind, these images boast some of the most wonderful memories I will ever have to cherish. People say a long distance relationship is hard, it may be true in case of a relation that has a future with a wedding and kid in it but not for friendship, it can survive some of the harshest conditions that the nature can throw at it, it can be deceived sometimes but not deceived always, it may have some dark days but it sure will come around and the friendship will flourish.

It was on a warm sunny April 12^th way back in 2009 that I met her, we were sitting next to each other in the examination hall for IIT-JEE, I had wonderful plans for the day and so did god but it’s not the case that I did anything for either. Half an hour into the examination I was pretty sure this is not going to happen not with three answers a zillion random guesses and that’s when she caught my attention. She was sitting there doing most humorous things in the world, at one point in time she actually held her hair up and used her question paper for a fan, Oh! God I wanted to fall to the floor and laugh my heart out. But then she turned around and it was as if destiny bought us together, a friend for life served in a platter.

Now if you had by some chance came from Indiblogger, you must be wondering what in the world does this have anything to do with the internet, this doubt is sure to rise in any readers mind who understands that this was submitted under the tag “Internet is fun”. The ambiguity is because the part where internet played any part is just about to come up. Those who just lost it here try this link here.

So as I was saying we met for the first time, but this is not a love story it’s a friendship story so just one meeting is not going to suffice, we should meet again and we did too( otherwise there won’t be a story to tell. Would there be?). We left the hall with just a smile and I had her name and knew where she was from. That night I had the stupidest idea ever why not Google what I have, then the popular network was orkut and I searched for her there. I still think what if I had second guessed it, I would have been really stupid had I not been stupid then, I would have missed meeting my best friend and would not have even known that. Oh! Yes I found her on the first try, I send her a friend request and she accepted, we started talking and we chatted and then orkut became Facebook and then messages and then calls and now, three long years have passed and thanks to some stupid decisions and the amazing world of internet I had a friend, not just any friend my best friend was discovered hence.

When I think about it now it occurs to me had I there not been there, had there been no Facebook or had there been no orkut, I would never have had her, never would have got to know so well a wonderful human being and above all a magnificent and irreplaceable friend. Isn’t it wonderful what you can find in the internet these days? I tell you this internet is not all a fairy tale, there are dark corners in the internet that’s is better not talked about but it’s not an evil place to be, the vast majority of it is marvelous, the vast majority is about sharing, friendships, chatting, getting to know and exchanging ideas. Internet sure is fun when you get discover something marvelous in the tangible web!

"A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature."- Ralph Waldo Emerson