But after the initial embarrassment

24 May But after the initial embarrassment

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She was the celebrity who had come all the way from Paris as jury in the Mumbai Film Festival and as a journalist I was given just 10 minutes by the PR person to interview her. As is customary to make your subject comfortable, canada goose outlet uk sale I started with general chitchat about her time in Mumbai.

What was supposed to be a minute long, went on for half an hour because this perceptive, sensitive, kind hearted, young human being called Samira Makhmalbaf, who by canada goose outlet store new york then in 2010 had already made a name for herself with some sensitive films, had gone to canada goose outlet florida Marine Drive the previous evening and was conflicted canada goose parka outlet by what she saw.

canada goose clearance In a reverse turn, the interviewee asked the interviewer a question: aren’t all of you in Mumbai ashamed that while there is so much money all around, there are so many people who live homeless, who beg on the streets? canada goose clearance

canada goose coats When one of these controversies about the national anthem, national flag on doormats or the recent photo of Gandhi canada goose outlet uk on flip flops raise their head, I find myself being embarrassed by Samira Makhmalbaf’s question all over again. It is as if she is stabbing me with a question from that sharp brain of hers all over again: aren’t you ashamed of giving so much importance to national symbols and national icons while neglecting everyday people who constitute your national identity? canada goose coats

Canada Goose sale There is a sudden upsurge of Patriotism in the country that sees us taking offence at the slightest transgressions. Vigilante patriots thrash even the disabled for not standing up for National Anthem in a cinema hall. Canada Goose sale

cheap Canada Goose Twitterati is disturbed enough by the printing of a flag on a doormat to direct the attention of an extremely busy External Affairs Minister. And that minister has time and canada goose outlet shop energy enough while she is recuperating from a life threatening medical situation to scare the company Amazon with threats fit only for goon on the street. cheap Canada Goose

canada goose clearance sale Like monkeys on a tree, these citizens on twitter howl and screech and beat their ’56 inch’ chests and calls these victories and canada goose jacket outlet themselves canada goose outlet germany true patriots. Swami Vivekananda canada goose outlet woodbury had something to say to them. canada goose clearance sale

buy canada goose jacket cheap “Feel my would be reformers, my would be patriots! Do you feel? Do you feel that millions and millions of the descendants of gods and of sages have become next door neighbours to brutes? Do you feel that millions are starving today, and millions have been starving for ages? Do you feel that ignorance has come over the land as a dark cloud? Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone into your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your canada goose outlet new york city heartbeats? Has it made you almost mad? Are you seized with that one idea of the misery of ruin, and have you forgotten all about your name, your fame, your wives, your children, your property, even your own bodies? Have you canada goose outlet toronto address done that? That is the first step to become a patriot, the very first step.” buy canada goose jacket cheap

canadian goose jacket If there ever has been a patriot true to the spirit of what Vivekananda said, it was Mohandas K. Gandhi. One of the last things he wrote, just days before he was killed by ‘brutes’ who are now hailed as patriots, is: “I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are canada goose shop uk in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest canada goose factory outlet toronto location man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if canada https://www.gooseyou.com goose outlet toronto factory the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own canada goose factory outlet life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.” canadian goose jacket

If either of these two men, or the thousands of others who fought to alleviate the misery of millions were alive today, they’d have asked questions like:

canada goose coats on sale Where are we going wrong as a nation that we feel insulted when a canada goose outlet eu national symbol or icon is insulted but feel nothing when canada goose outlet online uk its living breathing citizens go through or are subjected to worse? canada goose coats on sale

Canada Goose Outlet Why is it that we are so quick to take offence but so slow to come to the defence of the defenceless, the ignorant, the hungry and the destitute? Canada Goose Outlet

Canada Goose Jackets Since when have canada goose outlet black friday we become so insecure that we have to attack others just to make us feel proud of our nationality? Canada Goose Jackets

Since when has buy canada goose uk the neglect of the suffering masses of humanity become a norm in this great, ancient civilization called Bharat, Hindustan, India?

buy canada goose jacket What is an insult is not the Mahatmas face on slippers, or the national flag on the doormat but that even amidst so much wealth, progress and development, we have so many Indians dying canada goose outlet vip in abject poverty. It is as if the poverty of food among the poor feeds on the poverty of conscience among the rich. buy canada goose jacket

canada goose store The day a foreign national like Samira Makhmalbaf walks on the streets of India without finding a single homeless, travels its villages and not find one case of malnutrition and hunger that would be the day when we would have truly earned the right to spend our energy protesting our flag on a doormat, the Mahatma’s face on an inconsequential flip flop. canada goose store

Canada Goose online The ‘interview’ with Samira Makhmalbaf went canada goose outlet price on for half an hour, much to the annoyance of the PR person. But after the initial embarrassment, I had time enough to tell her proudly of Indians waging millions of resistances everyday against oppression around them. Canada Goose online

Canada Goose Parka I told Samira of social workers, activists, NGOs and many concerned citizens working hard across the country against every form of tyranny and injustice inflicting the nation, heroes who instead of our collective gratitude often get nothing but abuse and slander. She, in turn, told me about heroes in Iran where she lived earlier and now in France who do the same. Canada Goose Parka

I did not file a canada goose outlet feature story from this interview, much to the anger of my editor (who wants a story about poverty) but I was glad for the common humanity I shared with a complete stranger from another part of the world. That is what keeps hope alive, doesn’t canada goose jacket outlet toronto it.