Well this has been one of the most discussed/debated issues, right up there with say the 'Indo-pak' debate or 'Sachin Tendulkar being the best batsman, debate. I am sure what I am going to say here today has been said hundred times before, but I do need to say this, as I just cannot digest the way a lot of Indian people treat 'The Mahatma' - MohanDas K. Gandhi, without the slightest of the tiniest ounce of respect. Don't already conclude where this post is heading, please read it till the end, before you conclude.

Time and time again, many Indian people have insulted and abused the Mahatma. Biggest of their concerns was his soft-corner to Pakistanis and Muslims and the 55 crore bounty he wanted to give Pakistan despite the lack of interest in doing so by the Indian Government, among other things. For an intense discussion on this and much more please follow this blogpost by my friend 'Anand' which contains a 'nice discussion among various friends about the Mahatma.'

Another major concern was this excerpt taken from the 'Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.LXXXVII, p.394-5'

"I would tell the Hindus to face death cheerfully if the Muslims are out to kill them. I would be a real sinner if after being stabbed I wished in my last moment that my son should seek revenge. I must die without rancor. You may turn round and ask whether all Hindus and all Sikhs should die. Yes, I would say. Such martyrdom will not be in vain."

Now here is my response to it. I urge everyone to read this with a clear mind, please.

Firstly, agreed he was cynical in asking Hindus to put down their lives for Muslims, but hey, why do we get so emotional about it, isn't that the exact same thing ' the great mahatma' said 30 years before to make the Britishers leave our country. Did he not ask all the people to put down their lives for the freedom of the country ? When it worked then, why didn't it work now ? That is because of the sparks put in by the Muslim leaders and misinformed people like Nathuram Godse, who had only half-knowledge about things beneficial for the country in the longer run. Someone great truly said, 'half-knowledge is dangerous'. It indeed costed us the 'Great Mahatma'.

Mahatma has achieved so many things which we couldn't have achieved by going through violent means. He is known the world over, for this unique method he employed - Nonviolence. He was just being true to his ideals of nonviolence and urging the folk of his own country- India to follow the path of nonviolence. Be it for achieving freedom or when Muslims were going to attack India, for a separate country. He tried his best not to separate the two nations, but after he realized it was not in his control anymore, he just urged his countrymen to follow the path they have been following successfully, that of nonviolence. In line with that, I believe he said the above statement, if at all he did. 

Secondly, just because he asked us to put down our lives to Muslims, didn't mean that was going to happen. Take the case of the Britishers before, everyone agreed to put down their lives for the freedom of the country. Did all the leaders die ? Did all the people die ? NO. True few of them died, but most of the people who died were because of the violent routes they took, how many people who took nonviolent ways got killed? Not many, but ironically the Mahatma was one of them, thanks to the misinformed people. Also, the final choice was with the people, he did not force anyone to do anything, he had his own teachings. Did anyone have a better plan, if they did why weren't any of those plans successful ? I believe the tension between India and Pakistan presently could have largely been avoided if 'Mahatma' was indeed not killed at that time.

And lastly, Gandhi is after all human and mistakes do happen, but he deserves the tag of Mahatma, more than any other person would have deserved. If anyone, it had to be him .....For all the great things he has achieved through nonviolence, he definitely deserves the respect and the title of mahatma, true he did some blunders, but hey he is human !! When sachin can make mistakes, Mahatma Gandhi also can ;).. they are both human, after-all..... but they are 'Maha-Purush' or 'Mahathma' meaning a 'Superlative Human', but still human.....RESPECTTTT !!!! :D

A little background about me. I am Indian :).... I don't like the aftermaths of the Indo-pak separation and wish it never happened and also hate what Pakistan do to India, every day.... Also I totally am a violent person ;), but I just respect what Mahatma Gandhi has achieved through nonviolence. It makes me question my own violent ways, but I have enough reasons to justify my violent actions and will take another post to explain those. Also I hate being humble and modest, which is the 'international identity' of Indians. I would like to change that, but what to do, being humble is in our blood :P :)...

But all said and done, Gandhi is indeed a Mahatma ! :D .. but then people can have different opinions, ... but I would just hope that people have a little more tolerance towards Mahatma, look at the 1000 good things he has done for India, instead of focusing on few blunders.. and if you actually read what I said above those blunders ain't that bad either, just a mis-interpretation!!

To a more tolerant Indian attitude to 'The Great Mahatma Gandhi' on his 140th Birthday celebrations.
Oct 2nd 2009.

Jai Hind !

So there are moments which change your life, moments you look back on your death bed, moments that will flash when you are breathing your last, well this is one such instance. It dates back to about 2 years from now. I was a normal kid, used to watch 'em damn movies like the Mummy, The Terminator, The Matrix, Speed, Rush hour, Mr and Mrs Smith, Jurassic Park, Titanic, etc, those which appealed to the common man and which were highly publicized and totally commercial in nature. I was not obsessed with movies, hell, I found 'em boring, except for those movies with cool graphics or you know boning scenes :D.  It was all cool then.

Then one fine afternoon I saw this list of  IMdb's ''Top 250 movies''  on my friends laptop and realized I haven't seen a 10th of them. High up on the list was a funny looking name, which made no fuckin' sense at all. PULP FICTION was its name. And I wished for the rest of my life, I never saw that name that day, as it changed my whole life. See. I sound melodramatic, like those people in movies, don't I. See that's why I keep blaming that day.

The moment I saw that name, I heard an internal voice, sounding excited, stimulated by that friggin' name and made me get a DVD immediately. Unable to resist the temptation, I gave in and lo the movie started playing and what's the first thing I see? Something like this "pulp /'p&lp/ n. 1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter.
2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper. ". and I was like what ?? and then immediately we see 2 funny looking people, esp Honey-bunny, talking about robbing a restaurant. Yup, you heard me. Her cussing is enough to get you scared, forget all the funny things about her. Next up, 2 weird looking guys in tuxedos, one with hair like a Jheri curl joker, talking about Burgers, pilots and foot massages with pistols in their hands and then shoot people coldly amidst weird conversations about burgers and hell lot of cussing :D !!! and then Butch appears........ and rest as they say is history !!!!

And the next 2 hours were the best 2 hours spent of my life, the best roller coaster ride I have ever been on and Mind you, I did not follow anything. Great analysis and watching the movie over and over again, in the next few weeks, made things somewhat clear, but let me tell you no movie that I have ever seen in my entire life, was anything like this and will never be, because the next 2 years and about 1000 films old, I am still desperate, angry and willing to do anything to see a movie like this again. That day started my obsession with movies, I should say obsession with Pulp fiction, obsession to find a movie halfway close to this one. No movie ever came close to it and I am gettin tired now, guess the only solution is to keep watching this movie again and again, or writing articles like these or even better try making a movie like this again, which would fail badly, that explains why there is no Pulp Fiction Jr. Kill Bill came close, mind you, like 5 % close, but the difference is it had a plot, you see, thats the difference !!!!!

What is so different about this movie? Well, everything. For starters, there is no plot in this movie and this movie doesn't make sense, hell you will say aren't there millions of movies out there like that, well, this is different in the following sense. A movie like this can come out only when you put together the acumen of Tarantino, Cold chilly looks/dialogues of Samuel L Jackson, 'never-say-die' attitude of Uma Thurman, bullheadedness of Trovolta, a chicken like Tim Roth, total weirdness of Amanda Plummer (Honey-Bunny), Innocence and naiveness of Maria de Medeiros ( Fabienne), a stoned up complete bitch like Rosanna Arquette, a totally serious Harvey Kietel, The so called puppet Bruce Willis and the so called Don called Ving Rhames. See, you gte my point now, see how it is different from those other movies without a plot ?
The movie has no fuckin' genre. Comedy set against the backdrop of violence and yet is so totally serious, when there is hilariousness enclosed in every scene. The movie talks about the emptiness in the lives of the above characters, how everyone gets excited at the smallest of the most insignificant things, forgetting the big picture, quite easily. Things like, 'It’s not a motorcycle baby, it’s a chopper' or 'No No, they didn't have blueberry pancakes, I had to get buttermilk' ,when the most important things like death, injury,blood, etc are forgotten so easily . Let me not dig too deep now, I am tired of doing that now, I leave that to you, its your headache now.

With lines like these and acts like the ones above, this is a movie which is the only one if its kind and a repetition if which is not possible and would drastically fail. These are some of my favorite lines. Click here for a list of my fav lines/passages from this movie, from my other article about this movie.

'I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that'.
'Check out the big brain on Brett! You're a smart motherfucker'.
'That was pretty fucking trippy... heaaghhhh..haaahhaaahhaaa..'
'But you know what's on my mind right now? It AIN'T the coffee in my kitchen, it's the dead nigger in my garage'.
'You know, touchin' his wife's feet, and stickin' your tongue in her Holiest of Holies, ain't the same fuckin' ballpark, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same fuckin' sport'.
'All right, everybody be cool, this is a robbery! Any of you fucking pricks move, and I'll execute every motherfucking last one of ya'!

So that day started my obsession and the day when I went into the dark lanes of 'finding a movie like Pulp Fiction' and hence became a movie addict. I am deep down this hole now, far from being rescued. My obsession is real bad, right now, ranging anywhere from 5-10 movies a week. I analyze movies, reserch 'em, critic 'em. Hell no I have no plans of becoming a director, but just hope to find  a movie like Pulp Fiction again, which I know I never will. So I am caught in a vicious circle here and I know it and still can't get out of it. God, Please god !! give me salvation, show me a movie like Pulp Fiction, free me from this deadly world of movies. Please god, help me !!!! Please take me back to those wonderful days when I watched movies to see some cool graphics or someone boning. Please take me back when the world was still a good place to live in, those days when I wanted to spend my time fighting with real people, instead of trying to find a movie like Pulp Fiction. Darn I sound like 'em movie guys, don't I ? sheeeeshhh

That was pretty fuckin trippppppppppyyy.... hhahahahahhahaaha

Picture this !!
How would you react if your ex gf from about 1 month, were to sleep around with some other guy, drunk or no drunk ?
That when, she kept saying she loves ya all along, even after you broke up with her. You broke up with her, bcs you felt things were getting too close and too complicated. You liked her, but you did not want to take it anywhere more, but things were taking you somewhere and you didn't want things to go there, bcs of other obligations/commitments or bcs you saw no future in it. And so YOU broke up with her. You did not want to, but you were forced to, bcs there was no choice. So, meaning, you had feelings for her too, but you did not want to accept that and so you broke  up with her. Now, even after you have guys broke up, she still keeps sayin how much she loves you and you keep telling her to get over you.

And you see her getting close to some new bunch of kids and you don't like it, bcs remember somwhere deep down, you still like her. Of course its not like you go and tell her that, bcs you know that she is not answerable to you. This is just what you have in your head. You still feel she is yours and you can't accept her getting close to any other guy, yet. So, I mean you are not over her yet. But being the guy, you wanna be all macho, no feelings, no emotions and hey, remember you broke up with her, so you keep giving her a picture, that you are over her. That's the picture you give her. Maybe you were actually getting over her, but once you see her getting close to someone else, you are back to square one. And she keeps tellin you, all this while, that she hadn't laid her hand on any of them yet and she still wants you. So you don't tell her your feelings, hoping not to make things difficult for her and she keeps telling you that she still loves you, caring not even an inch, about how it is going to make you feel.  She is trying hard to get over you, but she is not able to.

And one fine day, she tells you, the other night she was drinking with this kid and things got complicated, she got drunk and they had sex. And she woke up next day, feeling bad, dejected at herself, feeling like a whore, and wanting you more than ever. And she tried hard to keep it away from you, but it was killing her. And she couldn't hide it from you anymore. She doesn't want to hide anything from ya, ever.

So she tells you what all happened. Of course she would be crying when she would say that and of course she would be feeling sorry for you, dejected at herself, cursing herself and saying 'I love you' more than ever. And you will obviously feel that she means everything and you don't know how to react. One side of you is getting furious, volcanoes are bursting inside you, but on the other hand, you would you be angry, weren't you the one who broke up with her, weren't you the one who asked her to get over you ?

How would you feel then ? How do you react to this ?

You start feeling why am I being involved in this ? Why am I being dragged into this ? Didn't you have enough issues yourself, not letting your emotions out, not able to share it with noone, especially her, since you didn't want to make thigns difficult for her ? Do you need this now? Why am I suffering, for something bad, which you did not even commit ? You were just having a normal day, when this news came to you from nowhere ? You did not ask for it !!! Why should you pay for it ?

How do you react to this situation ?
Interesting ha ? Puzzling ha ? How would you like it, if the confused and helpless boyfriend was YOU ? Yes you, the one reading this ?

P.S: Lemme know your response, your answer could help someone I know !! I personally, have never been in such a situation before, so I am not sure how would I react to this. So I am passing it around !!!