I am missing him!

I think I am missing him. This is not the first time that I am missing someone like this. But still he is special and I am missing his each and every word, the moments we spent together, my sleepless nights after his meeting and his unending stories.

For last few days we were away from each other, at least 800 kms. Otherwise also he is thousands of miles away from me. But I always feel his presence when I am at home. I keep listen to him quietly. He takes me for the World tour from Afghanistan to Iran, Iraq, the places I would like to visit searching his footsteps. Slowly, I start feeling sleepy but he doesn't stop, just goes on and on. I close my eyes and sleep in his lap feeling his body moments. Till morning he sits besides me.

He is actually an intelligent man. Of course, he does not need my certificate, the whole world would agree with me. I am the stupid person realised it late. He articulates things whenever we meet. He has lot of knowledge about the World and has a presentation skill also.

These are not only things I like about him. What I like most are his views. They are very much anti-establishment and against imperialist powers. He has gained that authority to speak against his own country, England and the superpower America. He is no more a citizen of any country, father, lover or anyone but an individual in true sense.

There are many such things that brought me so near to him and now he is a part of my life. I don't want to end the relation so early with him but want to cherish it.

More I miss him more I would go close to him and communicate with him. But I don't want
him to stop, he should go on and on and on....

Hmmm I think I need to meet him tonight where I left him last, page no 298 of The Great War For Civilisation by Robert Fisk.

Things Fall Apart

I just finished reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian author. The book is based on the South African tribal culture, which is on the verge to change and people's dilemma over accepting the new World.

It portrays life of the tribal people, their happiness, sorrows, rituals, beliefs and gods. Everything seems fine and normal with the people but change is inevitable in life. That change comes in the form of Christian missionaries.

The villagers are confused over resisting or embracing the Christianity. It is difficult to suddenly abandon their culture and take on the new unknown one. Some of the them are excited about the
Christianity and its modern look while others are adamant to leave their roots easily.

Though, I am not in favour of any religion, I liked the technique used by missionaries to show the tribals that their Gods do not exist. But the same formula can be implemented to show that the God otherwise also does not exist. It is very interesting to know.

All the tribes have their evil forests, which are preserved by the community. Missionaries come to the villages and build church and other institutions on the same land. They challenge the God of the
tribesmen that if he really exists then he would stop them. Poor villagers keep waiting that their God would punish the missionaries for the blasphemous act. They wait for few days and months but nothing happens and that raises question in the minds of tribesmen about their God.

The incident leads to the curiosity about Christianity among the people and some prefer conversion. In initial stage, the clan's outcasts people get converted and embrace Christian values which give them more elevated status than the original.

The missionaries with their modern technologies and thoughts create threat to the age old methods of farming, harvesting, building, and cooking. The methods, once necessary for the life, are now,
dispensable.

The title of the book which has been taken from W B Yeats's poem "The Second Coming" is very expressive.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

Death for Life

I have been reading William Dalrymple’s new book Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. It is based on real stories of nine people in search of piece, divine and sometimes giving up materialistic world.

A first story is about a nun of Jain religion. She gives away all her life with the belief that all attachments bring sufferings and finally embraces Sallekhana- fast to death.

Her life talks about all sacrifice, control of emotions, pain, sufferings to take new life. “When the body withers completely, the soul will take a new one, like a hermit crab finding a new shell. For soul will not wither, and in rebirth you simply exchange your torn and old clothes for a smart new suit,” she says.

After reading the entire story I have failed to understand the philosophy of the religion. It goes against the basic theory of human birth. We are born to live and death is the ultimate reality.

Why one has to forcefully push oneself to death when we are born to live the life. Living is the basic instinct of human being. All the discoveries and inventions in human history may be good or bad came from this instinct.

Now the second half part of the philosophy, which says the death is only for the body but the soul gets rebirth. It means you have greed to get another body. So, to get a new body, you torture the earlier body by giving up food, pulling hair, refusing to wear proper clothes etc.

I wonder why these contradictions in the theory are not being raised by the followers.