Last week, unwillingly I got myself invited into one of the political party’s core committee meeting. A vibrant and young leader from the party is a dear friend and I could not snub his request. Umpteen requests to explain my fallacy and unuseabilty fell on his deaf ears. He convinced me saying that country needs intellectuals to come ahead and play active role in politics. The word “intellectual” did the trick and feeling bloated, I laid down my arms.

I was instructed to reach the venue by 9:30 a.m. But punctuality is not one of my traits. Moreover political gatherings rarely start on time. I reached the place about forty five minutes late.

The meeting had already started. It was bit embarrassing, all eyes turned towards me as I entered the hall. I was surprised by the presence of a national level leader in the small gathering of about fifty party cadres. He was speaking on the mic and was questioning the cadres one by one.

As I left the place in the lunch break, sheer admiration and new found respect occupied my heart. The respect was not for the party or the leader, but it was for their ultimate dedication towards the vocation, they were in.

My understanding of the political leaders was shattered into bits. Unlike the mass perception, I found them extremely talented and very professional in their approach. The leader was ready with the data and was questioning each and every member of the party individually. I heard him singing praises for some and also heard him spitting fire on few.

As I stepped out, a facebook notification attracted my attention towards the mobile. I was tagged by one of my old students to sign an online petition requesting lenient evaluation for their physics board examination answer sheets. I scrolled down some more posts. I noticed a request to share a picture of God to get some good news. Another post was from a lovelorn individual claiming his love to be divine. Surprisingly the same message ended with a kind of threat and repurcussions if his love was not reciprocated effectively. Yet another post was a call of religion. It seemed that the Almighty was in dire straits and needed my help to save himself. The message further requested all to come and fight the war. (Which war? With whom? And does god really need my help?) I had my own doubts. Had the Almighty lost his might and needed my help to save his dignity?

A sort of comparison erupted in my mind. STRONG VS WEAK.

One side I saw a group of determined and dedicated politicians and on the other side vulnerable and weak generations who were completely lost within webs of religion, caste, emotional setbacks and freebies.

I wondered about the future of the nation. I realised that it doesn’t matter anymore to any of us. Which ever political party comes to power, we the citizens will always be at the recieving end. The simple reason is that we have diverted our energy into multiple smaller segments.

So friends, I will like to end with two simple requests.

• Keep only one chain to bind us all together and let that chain be of humanity. For a while forget about personal setbacks, religion and other factors however significant you feel they are.
• Secondly, fight for only one thing and let that one thing be “SELF RESPECT”. Don’t let anybody crush your self respect. Be it your parents, your children, your spouse, your friends or any body.

I seriously feel, these two points are going to take care of both of our ultimate needs. BETTER WORLD WITH BETTER ME.

(My personal opinion as always)