India inspiration

It suddenly dawned on me, that what inspired me to write my previous blog was listening to beautiful music on an elaborate and partly self built “music machine” at a friend’s house last night. Closing my eyes, floating on the musical clouds, scenes of the movie Aakarshan that I had watched earlier in the day, came back to me. As did previous talks, discussions with and comments by other people on India.

The movie reminded me of what life, history, books, fact and fiction, have been telling me all my life: There have always been and will be people in the world, and many at that, who against all odds and various predicaments, stand out and do good. People whose integrity compels them to do the right thing, not for themselves, but for people around them, their local society, their country and sometimes the whole world.

Their acts and words may impose huge changes, the ripples of their deeds extend to faraway corners, and the inspiration of their actions and ideas reach to the end of the world.

The Bolliwood movie, a genre with which I am highly unfamiliar, took me by surprise with the occasional sudden bursts of energetic singing and dancing in the midst of a dead serious film sequence, together with scenes showing theatrically stone faced characters, enforced by dramatic music, seemingly lasting for minutes at a time. But, easily moved as I am, I was touched by the story and the integrity and uncorruptibility of one of the main characters and the inner struggle, but eventual right conclusion or choice of several of the others.

We should never underestimate the power of good, of love and of hope, all moving the world forward in the only sustainable way. Believing in and striving to live and breathe these properties is our only option, both as individuals and world citizens.

India is a land filled with dualisms; good – evil, poverty - wealth, hope-hopelessness, corruption-idealism, greed-generosity, backwardness-foresight, and pluralisms; past-present-future, different religions, various regions, the many layered cast system, to mention a few.

There may be no place on earth where the discrepancies are greater, the dualisms more distinct, more visible, more resilient; parallel worlds within the boarders of one country.

Still, people who have spent time in India seem apt to fall in love with aspects of the country, be it people, culture, religion, history, landscape. Qualities and values of India clearly have something in their nature that appeal to us, features that draw us in, ways of living that we have forgotten or have never known. 

Bearing that in mind, we may trust that some of these innately virtuous qualities are what India and we may build on, to shape the future and to make economical growth benefit Indians from all walks of life, and in the process teaching ourselves a lesson or two about a better and mindful way to live our own hectic lives.