We live in times when reason, everyone says, is what guides intuition… but we know the sort of outcome a high degree of objectivity can result in. ‘Let the heart decide what it wants,’ I say, ‘the heart knows much more than the brain can ever conclude.’
I hear a lot of readers saying, ‘I don’t believe this. We live in an age of reason. Reason is what gives us a reason for every decision.’ All I can say is tell you the story of LAXMAN RAO, to start with… the seller of tea in Delhi. No, he doesn’t do this with the aim of leading some political party at some time in the future. Laxman Rao is a novelist too. He came from Maharashtra, settled in Delhi and made tea-making his livelihood. Sometime in the seventies he wrote his first novel and got it published: Nayi Duniya Ki Nayi Kahani. And since then he has penned twenty novels. Another facet in his story that defies reason is that Hindi is not his mother-tongue and yet he chose to write in this language.
Reason, therefore, is NOT what takes us boldly into the future. It is a will of steel and an intuitive reaching out for a talent that you just know you have. Most of us live our lives in mundane bubbles and die without having found our inner core. It is people like Laxman Rao who have found this core intuitively and then made everything else a reason to support their decision. He is one of those individuals with a #WillOfSteel who need to be recognised. I have voted for him… so must you.
I have voted for a few others too… for reasons similar to those that propelled me to vote for Laxman Rao. Take the case of RISHU MITTAL, nominated by Gopi Sisodiya. Poverty was the reason Rishu and her brother had to work as domestic helps… but the recognition of an intuitive will of steel transformed Rishu into a boxing sensation, a Gold medallist. Even though her boxing exploits haven’t really pulled her out of the vortex of poverty, she is plodding on. She knows she has stumbled upon the reason for her existence and, therefore, washing utensils and cleaning the floors as a domestic help do not deter her from raising money for her education and training! She is one of those individuals with a #WillOfSteel who need to be recognised. I have voted for her… so must you.
Madeleine L’Engle wrote, ’Don’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.’ I agree with her… and so would KRISHNADAS because this man doggedly stands at Juhu Circle in Mumbai every day with a placard that says: ‘Apne dharm pe chalo, sabse pyar karo (follow your religion, love everyone.’ He knows intuitively that this is what the world needs. A world that is helplessly and hopelessly enmeshed in the reasons of material greed and is slowly but surely drifting from the real reason, the sublime reason! Krishnadas has left his career and family to insist on his persistence… and he believes that this is what will bring about a desired change. He is one of those individuals with a #WillOfSteel who need to be recognised. I have voted for him… so must you.
My choices from the long list of intuitively persistent personalities who have a #WillOfSteel are made with great deliberation. It is to ensure that there is a bit of religion, a bit of nature, a bit of literature, and a bit of sports that I have chosen them.
I’m sure you will not be surprised at my next choice where PAMELA & ANIL MALHOTRA worked hard to bring nature closer to us by transforming 55 acres of barren land into a wildlife sanctuary. Now this is what India really needs… not just wild and whirling words about preserving our eco-system but firmly grounded action plans that make ecology as real as it should be. How do you think this became possible? Did reason had a part to play? Reason must have tried to scare them and shoo them away from their task… it was an intuitive dedication that made them bring about this magical transformation. They are one of those individuals with a #WillOfSteel who need to be recognised. I have voted for them… so must you.
I must also admit that these dedicated people are not the sort who will stop working towards their aim if we do not come out to support them… no, they will go on despite our silence. They will go on irrespective of whether we support them or not. They are the sort who are guided by God himself. But we too need to have a bit of sanity in our insane lives… and one moment of such sanity is when we stop, click and vote for them. I’m voting for the people I have mentioned above for their #WillOfSteel and blogging on BlogAdda to help him/her get felicitated and eventually enabled by JSW.
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Arvind Passey
23 April 2015
