Skip to main content

Faces of 2013


Janus

January is named after the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, Janus.  Janus has two faces, one looking backward and the other forward.   January is the time to look in both directions.

I am terrified and challenged simultaneously by this January, January 2014.  Because 2013 has been the worst year in my life.  In spite of the fact I am not new to the usual ups and downs of life. 

2013 was the year of FACES for me.   MASKS.  I had never seen so many masked faces in my life earlier.  I had never seen smiles that looked angelic but turned out to be diabolic – not even when my students cared to point it out to me.  Not ever to the extent 2013 undressed itself.

I saw more than half of my colleagues lose their jobs in 2013.  I witnessed the march of capitalism and religion, hand in hand.  They marched wearing the best saris or the best of cravats available in the market.  They marched on the bones of people they buried beneath the land they acquired in the process of marching.  And they recited prayers every morning and evening, prayers copied from the internet, prayers from Tagore’s Gitanjali and Hopkins’s adaptations.   They performed rituals from the Vedas and they sermonised with the help of “workshop” experts.  They brought in criminals as VIPs whom we garlanded and bouqueted.  And they raped us.  Raped us worse than what the western colonialists  did world over throughout modern human history.   And they made us take pledge every morning that we are Indians and we should love all Indians.

No, I’m not writing fiction.   

Ashvamedha is not fiction in India.  Not in America either.

This was the reality for a lot of Delhiites in 2013.

I look forward to a better 2014.

I look forward to Arvind Kejriwal. 

This is the first time in my life I’m putting my faith in a politician.

My hope, rather.

Janus had/has 2 faces.  Looking backward, looking forward.  Don’t keep skeletons in the cupboard like Narendra Modi, for example, so that you won’t have ghosts haunting you everafter. 

Can I have optimism still?

My optimism is simple.  I want to see faces.  

Faces. 

Faces, not masks.

Not the best cravat available in the market.

Hope.

Hope sustains.


“Let noble thoughts come from every side,” said Rig Veda. 


Wish you a Better New Year.


Top post on IndiBlogger.in, the community of Indian Bloggers


Comments

  1. Sir, A post full of HOPE! Lots of wishes.
    May the New Year be fine for us all & for India too...
    May we see the better future through Janus & forget the past!
    May the AAP rise & shine & shut the mouths of the critics...
    New Year wishes to you & your family!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Anita. I look forward to telling you a bigger story.

      Delete
  2. Wonderful post! I too have hopes for a wonderful 2014! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. If one wants to know a person's true worth, give him a mask to wear. It's easier to catch him in the act then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When masks begin to rule the roost, what will people without masks do?

      Delete
    2. Unmask the masked. One cannot live in a kleptocracy.

      Delete
    3. We live in a kleptocracy called India. Can you unmask it?

      Delete
  4. Happy new year Sir - very rightly said about masks and who we idolize without knowing the face we see is real or a mask.

    This yes has been very challenging and difficult for me - having to see both my father and my child falling severely ill, a tough time I had never been through and now I look forward to hope.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy new year!! I too hope for a better year ahead..
    (My knowledge of the political scene is embarrassingly shaky, so I will not comment about that part of your post...)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Never mind the politics, Sreesha. Let's look forward with renewed hope and vigour.

      Delete
  6. Wish you a very hopeful New Year too although I can't help being pessimistic about what is to come.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do or die - what else is left, Brendan, when your very survival is at stake?

      Delete
  7. A wonderful post Sir..

    The year 2013 was not a good year for many of us ..but as 2014 is approaching let's have new hopes and dreams,,,happy new year to you and your family :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me reciprocate the wishes, Maniparna. I know it's going to be an extremely tough year ahead for me.

      Delete
  8. I hope you have a much better year Tomichan. The worse is over :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. 2013 has been a worst year to me as well... maybe the number 13 doesn't work out as it remains unlucky to me :P

    Anyways, loved this post! Wishing you a happy and optimistic new year :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. 2013 was a super year for me...Full of new beginnings and new hopes. Hope 2014 continues the trend. Awesome post full of hopes.
    A very Happy New Year to you sir..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. May you have equally wonderful new year, Preethi. And thanks for the wishes.

      Delete
  11. A great read! Like you, I too feel a glimmer of hope cutting through my cynicism. All we can do is hope that those eager faces can, and will be allowed, to remain unmasked.
    Hope you will have many reasons to celebrate in the year ahead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I intend to create reasons for celebration, Madhu. Thanks for your wishes.

      Delete
  12. Wonderful post, Sir. Wishing you a very Happy New Year :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Deepa, and wish you too a very rewarding New Year.

      Delete
  13. Replies
    1. Thanks Gowtham. May you too have a great year ahead.

      Delete
  14. Hoping for good times ahead. Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's me sharing your optimism and wishing you a wonderful new year.

      Delete
  15. Ah and on hope we continue to live! Fabulous post...wishing you and your family a fantastic 2014!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let us not just live, Aditi, let us flourish. Wish you a New Year which will allow you to flourish.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching is a Relationship

I met Ms Dhanya Ramachandran a few years ago at one of the centralised evaluation camps of CBSE. Then we met again every year for the same purpose until I retired from teaching officially. I’m not sure whether it’s her Mona Lisa smile or her commendable efficiency with the job that drew my attention more to her. Last week I came to know that Dhanya (let me take the liberty of calling her so) received an award for her contributions to the cause of education. I wished to bring her to a wider audience for the cause of education and hence requested an interview. What follows is the result. Since it is an email interview, it has its limitations. Nevertheless, Dhanya comes alive here. Over to the interview.  Tomichan : Hi Ms Dhanya Ramachandran, please introduce yourself for the sake of the readers of this blog. Dhanya : Hello. I am Dhanya Ramachandran, a passionate educator with diverse background. My career journey began in journalism, but life took me on a different path, leading

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Nishagandhi – Queen of the Night

Disclaimer: A friend tells me this flower is Kalyana Saugandhikam (garland lily) and not Nishagandhi.  Finally one of my Nishagandhis has bloomed. Here’s the picture.  I have four pots of this plant which is quite exotic as its very name implies. Belonging to the Cactaceae family, this flower goes by different names. The Indian name ‘Nishagandhi’ comes from two Sanskrit words: nisha = night & gandh: fragrance. This flower blooms in the night and wilts as dawn breaks. I took the above pic just before sunrise this morning. I have waited for nearly half a year now for this blossoming. It’s not easy to get these flowers which have a divine touch. It is known as Brahma Kamala, Bethlehem Lily, and the flower of healing. The Chinese consider the Nishagandhi flower to be lucky. I consider it as cosmic flower. The Nishagandhi has many medicinal properties. Ayurveda uses it for treating diabetes, breathing disorders, throat infections, digestive problems, and so on. Of course, I don’t

Why do you fear my way so much?

Book Review Title: Why do you fear my way so much? Author: G N Saibaba Publisher: Speaking Tiger, New Delhi, 2022 Pages: 216 G N Saibaba breathed his last on 12 Oct 2024 at the age of 57. It may be more correct to say that he was killed by the government of his country just as Rev Stan Swamy and a lot many others were. Stan Swamy was an octogenarian, suffering from severe Parkinson’s disease and other ailments, when he was arrested under the draconian UAPA. He died in prison at the age of 84 labelled by his government as a traitor. G N Saibaba was a professor of English in Delhi University when he was arrested in 2014 under UAPA for alleged links with treasonous Maoist groups. Polio had rendered him absolutely incapable of free movement right from childhood. The prison authorities deprived him even of his wheelchair, making life incredibly brutal for him in the Anda cell of Nagpur Central Prison. The egg-shaped cell (‘anda’ means egg in India’s putative national language) i

Octlantis

I was reading an essay on octopuses when friend John walked in. When he is bored of his usual activities – babysitting and gardening – he would come over. Politics was the favourite concern of our conversations. We discussed politics so earnestly that any observer might think that we were running the world through the politicians quite like the gods running it through their devotees. “Octopuses are quite queer creatures,” I said. The essay I was reading had got all my attention. Moreover, I was getting bored of politics which is irredeemable anyway. “They have too many brains and a lot of hearts.” “That’s queer indeed,” John agreed. “Each arm has a mind of its own. Two-thirds of an octopus’s neurons are found in their arms. The arms can taste, touch, feel and act on their own without any input from the brain.” “They are quite like our politicians,” John observed. Everything is linked to politics in John’s mind. I was impressed with his analogy, however. “Perhaps, you’re r