A letter to Chachaji.
Dear Chachaji,
I know that today is your birthday. A 23 year old writing a letter to a dead man on children’s day might be a bit fatuous; but for the romantic life that you led and the dreams you had, I am sure this isn’t impudent enough.
I know that you are long dead. I know that you will scold me for writing to a dead man. You didn’t believe in life after death. You didn’t believe in god. I can only imagine that startled look on your learned face, when you saw millions of your countrymen killing each other in the name of their imaginary friends.
Ram or Allah, didn’t save any of them. From Noakhali to Lahore, as the pestilence spread with the wind, you were inheriting a colossal legacy that could crumble any normal soul.
Yet you, along with your friends, took it upon your shoulder — just like the mighty Atlas and steered us out of that phase. I know that people of my generation are ignorant and contemptuous of this past. They like to believe that everything that we see around us came into existence out of nothing.
Just like the way they believe that this world was “created” by someone, they hope for a messiah to appear from nowhere and fix it for them. The institutions you built and the efforts you led to make India a great nation, is nothing to them!
I see the crazy cauldron that was world politics, when you took the helm. The Cold War. The Chinese aggression, vices of the not so “free trade” and much more!
I have read the letters you sent to Indira. When they got published as “The Glimpses of World History”, nobody would believe that this 1200 pages of comprehensive world history was written by a man who was jailed and had no access to reference books and solely relied on his memory to recollect 3500 years of world history!
You made H.G Wells look singularly insular to the world, but your own countrymen can’t comprehend what you are. I am not blaming them. For the fairy tale life that you led Chachaji, it is quite understandable when they can’t comprehend what you are.
You built institutions. You sat with mathematicians and scientists like H.J Bhabha and P.C Mahalanobis to formulate policy. You derived courage from the masses, wisdom from the learned and knowledge from the experts.
In 2017, Arun Jaitley is slated to realise 72,000 crores by dis-investing public sector enterprises. Still some people ask what you did for the nation. I don’t know how to answer them!
Then we have the IITs, IIMs and other institutions that you built. Perhaps it’s my fault, talking to them. Many of them are only used to rallying a mob and tearing down monuments. What is the point in talking about nation building to them?
For me as a kid, you were that rose pinned to your coat. As I grew up, I saw the Plato’s Philosopher king in you. The depth of your knowledge, Your unbreakable patience and your infinite wisdom — These are the things that helped this country sail through the difficult times.
I know you despise flattery — you would want to distribute the credit to the hundreds and thousands of people who stood around you and put their best into the nation building. But I beg to differ — if there were no leading figure like you to teach them that a nation can never be created; it is built brick by brick by a people who believed in themselves and in humanity.
The way the world adored you Chachaji! How you dedicated yourself to the cause of humanity. How you realised that Indian nationalism, a nation of nations, cannot be parochial and sectarian. The identity that you help build lives to this day — despite the continuous onslaught of perverted nationalisms!
May be you were an idealist. Some of your actions hit the wall after a while. I am sure you expected your successors to build on your wisdom and innovate — but alas, we failed you!
I know that the times are difficult and the waters tense. 53 years after your death, things aren’t really looking up. But then I realise — things weren’t pretty at your times too. But you were among the people who chose to fight. You weren’t ready to accept the world as it was presented to you.
I want to take away this learning from you. We refuse to accept this world. We will indeed change it!
You read books, you looked everywhere, you travelled and you learnt. When your time came, you acted.
You loved children. Perhaps, you knew that it is the children who are the most impressible. Give them a glimpse of truth and they will follow it. Give them hatred and they will die for it.
So you wanted every child of India to see the world and fall in love with it. To pursue truth and modernity. Not to hide behind idols or sky gods, whose help never came.
The image of Chachaji they created for me is long gone. But the Chachaji that I discovered — from your writings and your speeches and the way you interacted with this world — will live on!
Thank you Chachaji, for coming to us and lay the foundations of this beautiful nation for us. To the vision you had — to the nation you wanted to see — I promise that we will make you see them through our eyes.
Through the happiness of crores of Indians who inhabit this land. I know that you need no better tribute. It may be hard, but we will definitely go for that.
Thank you Chachaji, for coming to us, living with us and giving us the strength to dream! Thank you!
Look at you!
Yours,
