Life can be a strange journey.
The right given to every American for ‘the pursuit of Happiness’ in their Constitution, is absurd, says a book that I am reading now. The writer, a middle-aged rabbi, says that Happiness is a bird that perches on your shoulder when you are busy with other little things in life- things that matter more- like kindness etc.
That still seems to me a strange proposition, though I seem to have marched that way after all the other experiments in my life.
I have dared to stop looking for happiness and strength in life, by attending to other urgent matters on my list of priority like a job-change, taking up a job that I can look forward to going to, every morning.
I have taken a certification in training, and now have joined a technical institute where I train adolescents in English and Personality Development. I have been given the freedom to train them as per my discretion, and that means there are no more Noun, Pronoun lessons for them, or learning the names of vegetables like cabbage which they might perhaps never use in a city like Bombay.
My approach is to teach them the way a baby would learn- learning sentences that would be used in a certain situation, building confidence in them by telling them that no matter how poor their English is they have the advantage of knowing two other Indian languages which is a great feat in itself to be proud of!
I tell them that we would no longer ‘yearn to learn’ English but would ’seek to master the colonial language’ with a sense of pride in our National identity. I tell them to look in disgust at all the people who use the language as a means of feeling superior to those who speak the local language. I tell them that English is no pre-requisite to build an attractive personality; there are other things that build a personality- like their attitude to life and nature.
So, in the first lecture I speak fluent Hindi and make them feel good about their mother-tongue and the National language by telling them how the Japanese, Italians and the French frown on English and respect their local language.
I show them clippings from Amitabh’s India Poised campaign ( http://www.indiapoised.com/anthem.htm ), where the Indian Superstar speaks of “two Indias existing in this country, at this great precipice of human history, when the country is turning a new page”. I tell them that they, the new breed of Indians, is the New India.
I tell them that Laaloo Prasad Yadav is a symbol of Indian democracy, and not just a laughing stock. I tell the ‘Marathi Manus’ that Bombay would shut down completely if the so-called ‘Bhaiyas and Biharis’ were to fled Mumbai. I tell the students of UP that most of Indian Prime-Ministers were from UP. I tell the Biharis to be proud of their motherland as that was once the land of ancient Nalanda University- where scholars from all over the world met in their quest of Knowledge.
I play Chinese Whisper with the class, where a simple sentence in Hindi turns out to be a sex-loaded statement, and inform them of how our own thoughts can distort what we hear and lead to a Communal Riot.
That’s what I do now-a-days. Train them in English, by commiting to them that I will not leave my job before they finish their 15-months Course and that by the end of the course they will know to speak Practical English.
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I work 8and a half hours a day/ 6 days a week, working in flexible shifts to accommodate batches starting at 6 in the morning, and those ending at 10 in the night.
In the India Poised anthem ( http://www.indiapoised.com/anthem.htm ), Amitabh says that the World is looking at the rise of an Energetic new pulsating India, and that every moment people from the Old India that had doubts in their hearts are crossing over to a New India that looks at the sky saying- This is our time to fly.
I want this New India to fly, not with the mindset of slavery to a foreign language, but with a heart that is aflame with the sentiment of National Pride. I want to blow into their wings a strength that will allow them to be proud of their brown skin and look at horizons that the older India never dared to look at.
I encourage them to set up their own enterprise (business) and provide employment to more ten people than stay a perpetual employee. I tell them how being nice to the Customers does not only mean being a good fellow-Indian, but also makes a good business sense.
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Then on a Tuesday morning, after 17 days of work, I forget to take my anti-depressant when I am already regretting taking up a rented apartment at Mira Road because my new boy-friend would not commit more than an hour to me everyday and does not like my new house.
I fail to wake up the next morning at 3:30 am to travel all the way to my workplace in town, and sleep till 12pm. I miss work.
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And as I try to reach out to the new India, inspiring them with the truths I found in my ten years of adolescent journey, I struggle myself between the old and the new I.
I feel scared at taking up the new flight to freedom myself, shifting to a new-rented apartment where I would not be in the proximity of my mom’s care. I feel threatened by loneliness and the subsequent pain.
And in all this journey of life, at times I wonder if death tastes better. But for all I know, I better take up the challenges of life, than face the uncertainty of a life after death.
