Tryst With Destiny - Forgotten Promises

"This post was published in DNA - Mumbai Edition on 20/08/2012"

In certain places, after the birth or during the thread ceremony, along with the celebration a few sacred words are said in the ear of the child. Those words are said to realign the divine energy to give a rousing start to the unpredictable journey.

Sourced from Internet

When I was reborn, my birth was also celebrated although with certain criticism. My rebirth brought happiness to many, as they had achieved the unthinkable, but a few were sad, because on the way they had lost everything. Why they had to sacrifice? Why was that unavoidable? I knew, with my growth such debates would accompany me for a long time and one day they would die. Yes! They died but not before giving me a wound that will remain with me forever. Even today, a few people are not allowing that wound to cure itself, but over the years, I have learnt to live with that pain.

I still remember the first words that were spoken after my rebirth 65 years ago. As I took my first breath of independence, my first caretaker said, “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.  At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”  Yes, it was a rare moment in the history. I was awaken to a new life, a life that my soul was waiting for centuries to embrace.

A life that would lead many generation and set examples the world would follow, my caretaker announced my arrival with enormous pride and unmatched attitude, “It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes.”

A life that would rewrite the history as it progress and I was assured many times that the pledge, a part of which was still left to be redeemed, would be redeemed with pride and honour. “The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us ... The past is over and it is the future that beckons us now ... That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means, the service of the millions who suffer ... We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be.”

The voice was not of a dictator. The voice was of a worshipper, a caretaker, who was impatient to redeem the pledge in full measure. The voice was firm and the determination was absolute. The voice worked as catalyst to relax the nerves that were worried about the uncertainty looming largely on my future.  The voice gave me confidence that this life would bring back, if not full but partially, the glory that once the world envied.

As I moved on with life, I realised that sometimes the words are meant to be forgotten and the promises are meant to be broken. The aura created by those words fizzled out even before the enthusiasm subsided. The actual meanings of those words were yet to sink in.

I am 65 today, still in my infancy. I tried many times to raise myself up, I know I should be walking or rather running by now, but I am still crawling and at times with a help. I don’t deny that certain things have been done but still there are innumerable things pending. The pledge is yet to be redeemed, but I don’t know from whom should I expect. I could not even realise when my caretakers became my ruler. My nightmarish past life still haunt me. I am scarred of dictatorship. I have seen its repercussions. I don’t want opportunist dynasties to rule me. I am scarred of egoists who try to dismantle my integration. I want patriots, I had seen many of them in my earlier life, is such a class extinct now? Or, they are also being suppressed by my rulers, the way my dictators did in the past. Has the extremely horrifying period of suppression come back? Has my future been left on the mercy of destiny? 

I have a dream.  Will somebody rise selflessly and firmly hold my hand? I want to run. I want to flaunt my achievements. I want to listen to the envious appreciation from the world. 

I am waiting anxiously. My desperation is mounting. I don’t want my desperation turn into a frustration. I want to see my dreams become a reality. Am I asking for too much? Am I asking for something unachievable?

[On this Independence Day, if you agree that our MOTHERLAND must be feeling something similar, the voice should not be suppressed. You can use the sharing link below and spread the message. – A Frivolous Analyser.]

(Bold sentences within the quotes are an excerpt of Pandit Nehru speech, popularly known as “Tryst with Destiny”. The speech was made to the Indian Constituent Assembly, on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947. You can read the complete speech in Wikipedia)