Free(doom) ?

His 136th birth anniversary. I remember singing 'Gandhian' songs in school on this occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi.
Vaishnav Janato...
Raghupati raghav raja ram...
It used to be a two hour function with all our teachers and a few students present for the occasion. The function would be led by our good old music teacher and a few kids training under her would be on the tabla and the harmonium, the rest would simply join the vocalist.
Brings good memories.

It fascinates me thinking of the 'khadi' days and thinking of Gandhi, his followers, his nationalistic movements, his fellow champions and a nation they loved so dearly. Freedom. They fought for it. They died for it. We have all read about it in our history text-books, listened to so many lectures, seen so many documentaries, seen movies. But to understand the essence of freedom, I believe, is something that will never happen to us.

The word freedom brings to my memory a few spellbinding lines of poetry, which also happen to be the lines of the title song of a popular kannada TV serial. It is so much hard for me to relate to the 'freedom' that Gandhi stood for. The lines go something like this:

"Mogge inda sere odeda gandha, hoovindha doora doora,
Elluntu aache teera?"



When translated literally, it means:
The fragrance of a flower that is in chains inside a bud liberates itself into the eternity of space, moves away and away from the flower.... but where lies the other end to this liberation?

This very much is the story of freedom. Very much the story of a freedom that the nation celebrates. Freedom leaves us directionless in an eternity of possibilities. And every generation tries to render freedom a direction. The direction of progress, industrialization, 8% GDP growth is what we consider should be the direction of our attained freedom today. The direction might change tomorrow with climatic concerns overtaking the dollar concern. Or when we succeed in making sufficent dollars, but still find ourselves starving, we may choose to take the direction of spirituality, religion. Freedom throws us open into an infinitude of possiblilities. But where lies the other end to this freedom?