The Power of One - Take 4

Cheers, the big one!

How far a seed could travel, and thrive? 

'Depends', you say.

What if I say, 7069 Kms over a span of 54 years?

You won't believe me...right?

June 7, 1893, PieterMaritzburg railway station, South Africa. An Indian lawyer practicing in South Africa boards a train carriage only to realise that it is 'Whites only' compartment. He is asked to get down. He refuses and gets thrown out of the train.

The guy who pushed him out of the train on that fateful day had absolutely no idea what his act would unleash upon the world!

Later the lawyer writes, 

“I was afraid for my very life. I entered the dark waiting-room. There was a white man in the room. I was afraid of him. What was my duty? I asked myself. Should I go back to India, or should I go forward with God as my helper, and face whatever was in store for me? I decided to stay and suffer. My active non-violence began from that date".

54 years later, 7069 Kilometres away, a great Nation got its freedom owing to this singular incident.

While living (working) in South Africa, I made a specific trip to this place and stood at the very ground from which this humble guy rose with the mightiest weapon our world has ever seen...and offered my sincere thanks silently. A statue of him stands tall at this place even today.

This train moment happens in all our lives in some form or other. How we react actually defines / redefines us...

Enamoured by his thought and actions, we hailed him as Mahatma, erected plenty of statues, named thousands of roads and institutions and moved on with our lives to do greater deeds.

Well, not exactly.

Whatever happened to his memories, happened to many transformative leaders who brought massive positive changes to our lives...

We idolize them, forget all they stood for, romanticize them and reduce them to just memorabilias (just look at what happened to Che Guevera!).

This great soul today exists only in our currency notes and 'Clean India' Campaign - how symbolic we are! 

Had he been still hanging around, he would have emphasized that Clean India must start from our minds, followed by intent packed action. Most of us, most of the times, are too drunk anyway to ponder this...mainly on alcohol sold with a declared intent to kill the drinkers and countless poor souls who happen to cross by these drunken souls, but also on other stuff like true patriotism, survivalism etc...

Still, We the great Nation, sober up every year on October 2nd to offer our gratitude to him (this day is one of the seven or eight official 'Dry days' in a year when the liquor shops in all forms stay closed (Government as well as Private run ones)). List of such Dry days are available aplenty in Internet in advance, goading our citizens to stock up in advance accordingly!