Bhagat Singh's last petition

To
The Punjab Governor

Sir,
With due respect we beg to bring to your kind notice the following:
That we were sentenced to death on 7th October 1930 by a British Court, L.C.C Tribunal, constituted under the Sp. Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance, promulgated by the H.E. The Viceroy, the Head of the British Government of India, and that the main charge against us was that of having waged war against H.M. King George, the King of England.
The above-mentioned finding of the Court pre-supposed two things:
Firstly, that there exists a state of war between the British Nation and the Indian Nation and, secondly, that we had actually participated in that war and were therefore war prisoners.
The second pre-supposition seems to be a little bit flattering, but nevertheless it is too tempting to resist the desire of acquiescing in it.
As regards the first, we are constrained to go into some detail. Apparently there seems to be no such war as the phrase indicates. Nevertheless, please allow us to accept the validity of the pre-supposition taking it at its face value. But in order to be correctly understood we must explain it further. Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference. No matter, if your Government tries and succeeds in winning over the leaders of the upper strata of the Indian Society through petty concessions and compromises and thereby cause a temporary demoralization in the main body of the forces. No matter, if once again the vanguard of the Indian movement, the Revolutionary Party, finds itself deserted in the thick of the war. No matter if the leaders to whom personally we are much indebted for the sympathy and feelings they expressed for us, but nevertheless we cannot overlook the fact that they did become so callous as to ignore and not to make a mention in the peace negotiation of even the homeless, friendless and penniless of female workers who are alleged to be belonging to the vanguard and whom the leaders consider to be enemies of their utopian non-violent cult which has already become a thing of the past; the heroines who had ungrudgingly sacrificed or offered for sacrifice their husbands, brothers, and all that were nearest and dearest to them, including themselves, whom your government has declared to be outlaws. No matter, it your agents stoop so low as to fabricate baseless calumnies against their spotless characters to damage their and their party's reputation. The war shall continue.
It may assume different shapes at different times. It may become now open, now hidden, now purely agitational, now fierce life and death struggle. The choice of the course, whether bloody or comparatively peaceful, which it should adopt rests with you. Choose whichever you like. But that war shall be incessantly waged without taking into consideration the petty (illegible) and the meaningless ethical ideologies. It shall be waged ever with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination till the Socialist Republic is established and the present social order is completely replaced by a new social order, based on social prosperity and thus every sort of exploitation is put an end to and the humanity is ushered into the era of genuine and permanent peace. In the very near future the final battle shall be fought and final settlement arrived at.
The days of capitalist and imperialist exploitation are numbered. The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives. It is the inevitable consequence of the historic events and the existing environments. Our humble sacrifices shall be only a link in the chain that has very accurately been beautified by the unparalleled sacrifice of Mr. Das and most tragic but noblest sacrifice of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and the glorious death of our dear warrior Azad.
As to the question of our fates, please allow us to say that when you have decided to put us to death, you will certainly do it. You have got the power in your hands and the power is the greatest justification in this world. We know that the maxim "Might is right" serves as your guiding motto. The whole of our trial was just a proof of that. We wanted to point out that according to the verdict of your court we had waged war and were therefore war prisoners. And we claim to be treated as such, i.e., we claim to be shot dead instead of to be hanged. It rests with you to prove that you really meant what your court has said.
We request and hope that you will very kindly order the military department to send its detachment to perform our execution.

Yours'
BHAGAT SINGH

Rapes, corruption and 'us'

Who am I? What is it that makes me a certain kind of individual? Sometimes I am furious without any reason. Sometimes I am kind. Every individual shows different attributes of his personality. Every one of us is different from each other, yet similar to each other. Who am I?

I am a hollow mind, a blank conscious; filled with the experiences of the past and dreams for the future, throughout this journey called life.  The personality that I carry is nothing but an accumulation of what I borrow from the personalities of others around me plus my own experiences in life. Being born in a particular culture, sect, religion, society, etc. shapes our personality according to that and helps us in becoming what we are as adults. We borrow all the ideas and thoughts in our mind from the outside world. Hence, what we become is because of everything around us and the experiences they bring along with them.

I am a little innocence of my childhood, naughtiness of my teens and politics of my youth. If, gradually all my experiences are taken out of me; everything that I learnt from this world is taken back from me systematically, what will be I left with?

A naught- ‘Shunya’

This is what I am in my true self ‘Shunya’. Like an infant who enters this world is neither a Hindu, nor a Muslim. He is neither a believer, nor an atheist.

In addition, nobody is a sage or a criminal by birth.

So if I commit a crime. Say a murder or a rape. Who shall be hold responsible for that? Is it just me? On the other hand, is it everyone and everything that made me a criminal? Are those parents not responsible, who failed to impart basic morals in me? We all must have heard a story by Aesop during our childhood days. The story talked about a young thief and his mother. In the story, the boy is condemned to execution for stealing and, on the day of his execution, he bites his mothers ear. He says that it is a punishment because she did not rebuke him for doing such things during his childhood; this is why he became a thief when he grew up. Now let us assume that the parents are innocent, because they brought their child in the best manner and were ignorant about all his negative deeds. What about those friends who lured me into watching porn for the first time, those item numbers and derogatory songs in our movies, those neighbours who do not allow their girls to leave the house, the society which encourages the attitude of ignoring the ‘mistakes’ of boys. Not to forget the system and the government, which failed to provide me a good education and robbed me the opportunity of becoming a better person? Are they all responsible? They should get punishment or not?

Greed, it is in our blood. Everyone is busy in running after money, power and more money. Anyone would jump to an opportunity of adding more money to his wealth, even if it is at the cost of others. However, the greed of getting more is in all of us; it has nothing to do with the people around us. This is what we all want to believe. But, what about that rich boy in my junior school, who could afford a bicycle, while I had to walk all the way to school?, that condescending look on the face of a man whose luxury car stopped right next to my second hand motorcycle? Moreover, that well equipped institution, which refused to take me in because I could not afford the heave fees they charged, the whole society that judges you according to the number of zeros in your salary amount and not according to your talent or intelligence. Are they all responsible for my greed or they all get away, just because they are incognito?


So the point is that how is punishing a person going to change the society? How is it going to bring a shift in the thought process of people? Will the fear of gallows plant the seed of respect for women in the hearts of men? Can the fear prison kill someone’s greed? If a criminal is hanged, or jailed, do we kill or imprison the experiences and influences that made him a criminal, or do we just kill the ‘Shunya’?
I do not speak in favour of those who do wrong but it is dubious to believe that fear of death or imprisonment can stop all these crimes. It is been mentioned in books like ‘Quran’, to punish a person who commits a crime. Did these thousands of years old laws change our world for better? In fact, our society is becoming more evil, greedier and more immoral with time. Should our jails not be like a rehabilitation centre for the inmates? We all know about Ratnakar, the robber who used to rob people after killing them. Later, because of a lesson taught to him by Narada, he became a big saint. The world knows him by the name of ‘Valmiki’, the one who wrote ‘Ramayana’. We have heard many similar stories, which are been taught to us by our culture or religion; the story of ‘Angulimal’ and the great King Ashoka. All these stories teach us that even the worst person can become a saint, if given a chance.

So now, is it not necessary, that we shun this attitude of blaming others and start sharing the responsibility as a whole? Will it not be better that we changed ourselves before thinking of changing others? Will that not be a concrete measure to make ours a better world to live in? We all should understand that when a person commits a crime, or does something wrong, it shows the failure of our society. It shows that there is a fault, a glitch in the society, and the way it is functioning because a man is just a manifestation of the society he lives in.

It is time to focus on what Mahatma said, “Be the change, you wish to see in the world”. 

Earning or Learning?

Connaught place is a very well known place for all the Delhiites and for people from other states as well. Located in central Delhi and probably the most well planned place in the capital of India, Connaught place is like heart of this city. The symbol of sacrifice and national integrity India gate, parliament of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan and many such structures are located inside or around C.P. The inner circle is famous for all the restaurants, cafes, shops, places to hang out and obviously not to forget, our very own Palika Bazar and Central Park. Huge numbers of people visit the place everyday and this place certainly represents the culture of Delhi in number of ways.

These two kids were so excited while telling me that they know the meaning of an English word which was taught to them by a stranger 'DIDI'

And from there it all started..we need your suggestions to do something for them :)

If you have visited the place, I am sure that you must have seen a contrasting picture too. Among all the people from different backgrounds and cultures, we also see dozens of little children begging on the roads. Perhaps, a lot of us chose to ignore them. However, two well aware and responsible citizens, who are also students of Delhi University, chose not to ignore this situation. Instead, they decided to take out time and gather more information about this.

On 16th February 2014, on my request Karan Kakkar and Vandana Khosla went to C.P., not to hang out but to do a little research about these kids. They were overwhelmed with the experience and managed to jot down a few points.

They interviewed a street kid (pen seller), a police constable and a security guard. The kid’s name, as he told them, was Abdul. He belonged to ‘Narela’ in Delhi and came to C.P. everyday along with his mother and friends. They all travel from their village in a train. They usually start from their places at 4:00 in the morning. He told them that his father is an auto driver and so he comes home only once in a couple of months. When asked about studies, he said that his mother wanted him to attend a regular school and get a proper education. However, he chose to sell pens because this way he earns 250-300 Rs. Everyday and he can support his family. Nevertheless, after persuading him to talk more and share his feelings, he agreed that he would join a school if all the other children did the same.

The constable also talked about his limitations and problems when asked about it. He was although happy about the fact that someone wanted to hear his or her perspective about the whole situation. Speaking about NGOs, he said that these organisations were somewhere promoting these activities by being over protective for these people. He also shared a personal incident, where he talked about how everything backfired when he decided to take an action. He told that once he tried to admit a beggar in rehabilitation centre. He was dragging that person to his van from outside the famous Hanuman temple and the beggar hurt himself intentionally as he was high on drugs. The NGOs took notice of this incident and he had to face an enquiry because of the whole incident.

He also talked to us about all the different ways or tactics used by these kids to get money from people. He also shared that sometimes these kids steal mobile phones and wallets whenever they get a chance. He raised a very important point about the ignorance of youth towards all these problems. He said that if the people stopped giving money to these beggars, then why they would continue to beg here. This is a very simple thing to do but still the picture does not change.

There are hundreds of organisations working for street kids, but the impact seems rather negligible in C.P. In addition, RTE is failing too. Both these young people invite the whole student fraternity to join hands and do something for this cause. 

अंध श्रद्धा

अंध श्रद्धा में सब चले जा रहे हैं,
भस्म भभूत माथे मले जा रहे हैं,
कोई बाबा, कोई स्वामी, कोई गुरु है बन कर बैठा,
भगवान के नाम पर सब छले जा रहे हैं।

सिंहासन पर बैठे वो उपदेश दे रहा है,
तोड़-मरोड़ कर धर्म सन्देश दे रहा है,
हाथ जोड़े, सर झुकाए, बैठे हैं सब कतार में,
गीता-कुरान के पन्ने गले जा रहे हैं।

छोटी सी बात है, सत्य है, यथार्थ है,
माया का खेल है, अवश्य कोई स्वार्थ है,
दरबारों पर चढ़ी है सोने कि चादर,
सड़कों पर बच्चे भूखे पेट पले जा रहे हैं। 

Hazaro Aine Hai..

Hazaro aaine hain,
mujhme kahi..

Har aine ka apna rang,
apna roop..

ek hi mere mann ke,
hazaro pratibimb..

In pratibimbo me,
kho gaya mera aap..

Wo bachpan ki galiyo me,
daudta khelta mera aap..

Dosto ki dosti me ghuli,
masoomiyat ka mera aap..

Wo sardi ki dhoop,
wo garmi ki chhao..

Wo dukh me rota aur,
khushi me hasta mera aap..

Har guzarte waqt ke sath,
khatte meethe anubhav ke baad,
judte rehte hain,
kitne aaine..

Jawani ke darwaze par khada,
zimmedariyo ka aina..

Samajhdari ki chadar me lipta,
sandeho ka aina..

Aina jab tootega to,
dard to hoga..

par iss bhool bhulaiya me,
umr bhar ke bhatakne se..

Nissandeh sweekar hai,
is dard ko sehna..

Hazaro aine hain,
mujhme kahi..

Waqt Purane!

Beet gaye jo dilkash pal, chhod ke yaadon ki hulchul,

Har pal jo bhula na paenge, phir se jo lautega na kal!

Sardi ki wo thandi raaton me jab jaam uthaya karte the,

Har baat pe hasna zoro se, wo khoob hasaya karte the!

Wo ladna jhagadna yaaron ka, lad ke jo manaya karte the,

Har chhoti chhoti khushi me jo, mil jashn manaya karte the!

Khatm hua wo safar suhana, jo chhoot gayi bas yaaden hain,

Hotho pe hai baithi hasi magar, sab jashn lage ab aadhe hain!

Dekho ki wo bandhan toot gaye, pakdo ki wo saathi chhoot gaye,

Ab palko pe hai nami bahut, wo khoob rulaya karte hain!!

Karnataka

Time Travel

Ever thought about possessing a time machine of sorts?.  Travelling back to the time when you were young and stupid. The most hankered of all is the time we spent in college. This is the time when we were neither too young, that we had to ask for everything we wanted to do. Nor we were grown enough to realize our responsibilities and think about our future in a very serious way. It was like a bridge connecting two opposite sides of our life, teenage and adulthood.

Recently, I got a golden chance to go back and live those precious moments of my life once again, albeit with a different set of people. Having been away from Delhi for about 16 months, I had lost contacts with college and almost all the juniors, except a few of them. Now that I was back in the town, I was invited to come back and help them with street play. Without thinking twice, I just grabbed the opportunity. Initially, it was weird to be a around people who looked at you and treated you like you were quite old. It was hard to digest so much respect, but it was also overwhelming at the same time. The practice sessions, the activities, the discussions, everything about it was so much fun. Slowly and gradually, I started turning into a friend from being a senior. The whole episode of being a part of ‘Abhivyakti’ was ecstatic. I was able to give back to the society which gave me a lot; which helped me becoming confident and shaped a whole new person out of me. Watching all my juniors cum friends was like looking into a mirror,  how you were a couple of years back. Throughout this course of time, I started to adore all of them. Also, I am thankful to them, that they gave me this opportunity to be a part of their group. I don’t know if I was able to give them anything or they learnt something from me or not, but I have definitely learned a lot from them.

This episode was then extended further. A junior, and more than that a very good friend of mine asked me to help him with the college festival. Now this took me back to being a student once again. Doing all the crazy stuff, we used to do in college. Again I was in touch with my teachers, my old friends and lovely new juniors. It was like I was back in time and living all those moments again. The same sleepless nights, never ending phone calls, tons of fun and not to forget, being silly again. All the hard work, pressure, staying out of home was worth it, because I was getting something so incredible in return, which nobody can even imagine.

Now that the event is over and so is my role, I might not be going back to that place again. I felt so sullen throughout the day. It was like I again graduated from college, leaving behind people I love. It is time to come back to the present from the past. But, this time travelling was a million dollar experience for me. Love to all those who were a part of this and all the new friends I made.

*ignore the errors.