Skip to main content

A century after Gandhi

 Mahatma Gandhi belonged to the 20th century. He was arguably the saint of that century. 76 years ago, on this very day - 30 Jan - he was assassinated brutally by a misguided and perverted ideology which, unfortunately, has laid siege to contemporary India, thereby assassinating the spirit of Gandhi again and again. 

Allow me to present a few images here on this death anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. These images have little to do with Gandhi himself. But they have much to do with what he was trying to teach the world about things such as development without heart, greed without limit, craze for power and self-aggrandizement, political chicanery...

The rich and powerful have all the goodies and buddies. The poor are plundered of everything, even their food. When a few choose to live life kingsize, the majority get trampled under their boots. [The images may have little to do with Gandhi directly, as I've already said. Nor with India per se.]



Two faces of religion in the Mahatma's Land. The new devotee and the new High Priest. 



The above is the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning picture taken by journalist Kevin Carter. A starving child in strife-ridden Sudan. Carter committed suicide later. "I'm really, really sorry," his suicide note lamented. 

We all have reasons too many to be sorry today... Let us, at least, keep alive the memory of the Mahatma in our hearts. Maybe, we can still light a candle while the darkness is engulfing us. 

And let me end with just two more images. 







Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanJanuary 30, 2024 at 6:30 AM

    Hari Om
    That last is offensive, heh na? Not a patch, no, not even a thread resembling the original. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Liz A.January 30, 2024 at 6:39 AM

    You'd think we would have been able to figure out how to fix the things he pointed out. Sadly, those in power don't want those things fixed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. magiceyeJanuary 30, 2024 at 7:19 AM

    Doing what he loves doing best, spinning tales to his devotees!

    ReplyDelete
  4. TheMoon'sBOYFRIENDJanuary 30, 2024 at 8:47 AM

    I feel bad for Kevin, to let all that pain rein on himself. People critiqued about him not helping the kid, well where these people before and it wasn't his fault for the world being like this.


    Of course a part of us will feel bad for the kid and for him leaving, he was only human, he may not have realized the gravity of things that would rile him down.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CareenaJanuary 30, 2024 at 11:00 AM

    The kevin Carter image is haunting and the aftermath of it even more so. But the last image speaks volume. The PM looks like he's having trouble sitting in that position, rightly so, its not easy to sit where the Mahatma did...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2024 at 9:31 PM

      Kevin wasn't at fault, he had some mistakes of his own but the main issue was that He wasn't allowed to touch anything foreign there as it might bring in any diseases, He indeed did shooed away the eagle and the food centre wasn't quite far, later sources suggest it was actually a bit and he indeed did survive, The fault of Kevin was that he didn't inform authorities about the child crawling and waited for 10-20minutes keeping the child in vulnerable position just to get that perfect shot , But the photo did bring out much donation and raised issues of incoming threat to other countries ,

      Delete
  6. marietta pereiraJanuary 31, 2024 at 2:24 PM

    A sorry state of affairs indeed which seems to be getting worse with each passing day. The image of the starving child tells it all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rajeev MoothedathFebruary 3, 2024 at 8:47 PM

    A disturbing post... With no immediate answers .

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...
12 comments
Read more

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
47 comments
Read more

Death as a Sculptor

Book Discussion An Introductory Note : This is not a book review but a reflection on one of the many themes in The Infatuations , novel by Javier Marias. If you have any intention of reading the novel, please be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. For my review of the book, without spoilers, read an earlier post: The Infatuations (2013). D eath can reshape the reality for the survivors of the departed. For example, a man’s death can entirely alter the lives of his surviving family members: his wife and children, particularly. That sounds like a cliché. Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations , shows us that death can alter a lot more; it can reshape meanings, relationships, and even morality of the people affected by the death. Miguel Deverne is killed by an abnormal man right in the beginning of the novel. It seems like an accidental killing. But it isn’t. There are more people than the apparently insane killer involved in the crime and there are motives which are di...
7 comments
Read more

When Cricket Becomes War

Illustration by Copilot Designer Why did India agree to play Pakistan at all if the animosity runs so deep that Indian players could not even extend the customary handshake: a simple ritual that embodies the very essence of sportsmanship? Cricket is not war, in the first place. When a nation turns a game into a war, it does not defeat its rival; it only wages war on its own culture, poisoning its acclaimed greatness. India which claims to be Viswaguru , the world’s Guru, is degenerating itself day after day with mounting hatred against everyone who is not Hindu. How can we forget what India did to a young cricket player named Mohammed Siraj , especially in this context? In the recent test series against England, India achieved an unexpected draw because of Siraj. 1113 balls and 23 wickets. He was instrumental in India’s series-levelling victory in the final Test at the Oval and was declared the Player of the Match. But India did not celebrate him. Instead, it mocked him for his o...
6 comments
Read more

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...
8 comments
Read more