Winds of Change

The Winds of Change have indeed begun to blow as the misty curtains of 2008 lifted and paved way for the not-so-chilly 2009. The winds of change pat our cheeks infusing unprecedented hope in our hearts, hope for a good present and a better future. Yes, the winds of change have come riding by on the wheels of Hope.

Hope knows no bounds and comes to everyone, at least that's our ordinary understanding. A hope that all hood winkers will surface (which has indeed happened in the corporate world), hope that politics will change its course of workings, hope that human deaths would be relatively 'natural' and not humiliatingly 'unnatural' (as opined and lamented by the protagonist of 'A Wednesday'), hope that Justice would no longer be denied (May the unfortunate ones rest in peace! Amen!), hope that Economy will revive and provide everything for everyone (though that's a dream rather distant for some), which reminds me of another hope that our very own Bollywood would continue to stir and shake our sensibilities with 'realistic' movies like 'Saas-bahu aur Sensex' (I hope I have put it correctly), and topping the list of hopes is the hope generated by Obama (not to be confused with Osama, whose capture still remains a hope for Bush), hope that he will change the world, even though I fail to understand why we always shoulder an individual with the responsibilities of the entire world. So as I see it, we are in a state of flux, Hope being our common lifeline, a lifeline that obviously comes free of cost.

Be it our sheer optimism or our inscrutable unscrupulousness, 'winds of change' phrase more than often, connotes a rather progressive meaning to us. Mundane promises made by our political leaders, with an occasional event here or there satiates us and makes us blind to our own follies. As 'Ignited Minds', we must not be blind to adverse winds, winds that instead of being fragrant Zephyr, turn out to be a cutting slap to our ever-nurturing hopes. To cite an example, (which has become pretty commonplace these days), we bade farewell to 2008 with terror and embraced the dawn of 2009 with another.

We expect these winds to be messengers of hope, but forget that Hope is fulfilled by responsibility. For many these hopeful winds have never blown. While we greet morning with a bright smile, for many it heralds another back-breaking, unrewarding and a frightful beginning. For a beggar on the street (who is least aware of the rules and laws made to contain terror or ameliorate his poor conditions), the rag pickers (who are most often children), filthy, murky streets, dwellings, breeding grounds of deadly diseases, communal undercurrents, for a peasant who accepts the clutches of moneylenders as his fate, for a girl child whose 'destiny' kicks her out before being born etc etc...One can see that cynicism breeds easily and rules longer than hope.

Obama's three words have been doing wonder these days. I would like to conclude by using these three words- words that denote hope with a sense of responsibility. These three words, standing for all-inclusivity, transcending socio-economic, political and cultural boundaries, embody not just a political change in one part of the world, but a way of life that all of us need to internalize. "Yes We Can", lets make the Winds of Change, change for the better, always.