Showing posts with label Mahatma Gandhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mahatma Gandhi. Show all posts

October 2, 2013

A lesser known fact about Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri also shares his birthday with Mahatma Gandhi, on October 2,as we all know. Even though he ruled for just over two years, it was one of the most eventful tenures for an Indian Prime Minister - the time when Pakistan fought a fierce war with us. 




A lesser known-fact was revealed by my father today at a dinner conversation as he was reminiscing those tough days of war-years circa 1965-66 (and I was not even born yet). He said India was short on food grains and was importing them from outside. USA had a notorious scheme called PL-480 which restricted the import of food grains by India especially because Pakistan was in a bloody war with India and the US tried its best to upstage us - thinking we could be bull-dozed as it was a new man after Nehru. But Shastri was short in stature, not short in size of thinking or easy to be bullied. He lashed out against US for exploiting the situation. He also realised that the food grains were not enough to feed India's millions; there is a food crisis at hand if all Indians were to consume three meals a day. He went on air to exhort all Indians to show their patriotism for the country in a much more dramatic manner than what today's Raghuram Rajan or Chidambaram would ever make to save dollars and import bills. He asked all Indians to make a supreme sacrifice: Miss A Meal once in a week. The savings combined with this single act of a meal saved will save India millions of import bill of food grains and also a national embarrassment. It worked, it seems. Except infants and aged, most people volunteered to miss a meal, even some restaurants closed down for one session a week, and it became a national cause that everyone loved to stand for in one of India's greatest food crisis. Today, we are reasonably self-sufficient in atleast 20 out of 24 varieties of food grains but those days, a measure like this which was more a request from a Prime Minister carried far greater response; it resonated because politicians like Shastri came up from humble origins and lived like farmers, simple, honest and out to make a difference to the country without amassing fortunes in benaami accounts. Shastri was a true leader who commanded a rare respect that only diminished with time in sync with the shrinking moral compass of today's politician leaders.

My father adds that the simple "Miss A Meal" became a rage at one time. He remembers a famous cartoon too which shows women at Beauty pageants parading with their respective country banners: Miss America, Miss Soviet Union, Miss England, Miss France and so on. When India's turn came, it was a woman with a banner which read "MISS A MEAL". Good night, friends and remember this soul whenever you remember Gandhi too. I hope we don't reach a situation when someone remembers Ravi Shastri more than Lal Bahadur Shastri. That will be tragic.

February 19, 2012

Today is World No-Google Day


I was accidentally googling something and found out that the World Teacher's Day is Oct.5, not Sept.5 as celebrated in India. World Children's Day is celebrated on Oct.20 and not on Nov.14 (as in India). It appears Indians are poor at marketing themselves in areas where there is an opportunity. On the other hand, a Valentine's Day or a Halloweens or a Mother's Day or Father's Day and even such day...s as today - World Cancer Day are celebrated without questioning. Mothers Day and Fathers Day should be celebrated everyday - and doesnt just apply to NRIs who dont even visit their parents once an year. Incidentally, World Book Day or World Reading Day, if I get it right, is celebrated on William Shakespeare's Day on April 23. I dont know if it helps in improving reading habits - does it mean you can read once a year and then you are done with it for the next 365 days? Anyways, the point is clear: Indians are pathetic at marketing their own icons of Peace/Children/Teachers/Art(like Tagore)/Love(Mother Theresa)/Science(CV Raman) to the world outside. Incidentally, my wife's favorite day of the year is 7th March - World Mathematics Day - because she is a mathematician! And thats not the birthday of Srinivas Ramujam either! Jocularly, some Indians dont know what to do on a Father's Day too! An ill-informed friend of mine, years back, bet on a Rs.500 that Father's Day means October 2nd - because thats the birthday of the father of the nation!

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