Be the change!

A normal routine each day. Take the train from my home and go North and then, by the time you have got comfortable and are moving to the inner zone of your morning meditation (read 'snooze'); at Kennington, forced you indeed are to switch over to the platform beside and wait for the Charing Cross branch. (I always end up taking the Bank branch, call it co-incidence or conspiracy.)

It was one such un-impressive journeys, a few days back, and the train halted at Oval. In came a lady with a dog. She came in and was helped with the heavy dog by a co-passenger. Once she got in, the person sitting on the corner seat, gave her a place, the gentleman he proved to be. The lady made the huge black dog sit down near her feet. She made sure that the dog wasnt blocking the way or touching the by-sitter's legs.

By this time, the train had started moving and I was standing across this lady, standing near the pathway door, between the coaches. I was looking at her with quiet intent, not because she was beautiful, not because she had a good dog, but because she was smiling with what seemed 'inner happiness'. A pleasant smile, it was indeed. She seemed to know something which was different, something which was so reflective of pure satisfaction. Probably she was enjoying her train ride or she was going to meet someone important and was happy - I will never know. As I kept looking at her, she wasnt looking back at me. She simply couldnt. She was blind.

There are moments which freeze in your life, moments which you really dont understand much from, but still know 'just about enough' to realize its teaching you something significant. This was one of them.

In the land of America, Obama was having a tough time with the media on his pastor and his blunt comments, pro-racist and anti-american. And the noose was getting tighter by the day. News channels were scanning the pastor and his speeches 10 times per hour. It seemed like this was more important than anything else to the American news editor. Sitting on my sofa couch, I was following this story keenly and was disappointed Obama was getting the rough end of the stick. It obviously wasnt fair.

The tide turns. Obama marks the time and the hour to make his 'retaliatory' speech. Its aptly called the 'race and unity' speech. I had come back from work, that day, and was trying to scan how the speech went, and finally got a youtube link and was seeing him deliver it. Surely, it wasnt an ordinary speech - political or american. There was a much more significant and 'basic' message in the words he uttered. The chronology of events were all coined up in the best possible way, so were his body language and the way he orated, going about, from 200 years back to this day.

Aptly, this speech, is suggested, as being 'the speech of our generation'. It has evoked a response far too significant, and far too historical. Stunning was the reaction to see it live - I felt like he was just 'too good' to be a human. He truly had his MOMENT of RECKONING.

The two contrasting episodes, only made my brain cells work overtime. Here was one lady, who could have easily fallen into the vaccuum of the 'unseen' world but was living life as normal and still managing the 'most' pleasant of smiles one can ever see. Here was a man, who delivers a speech, which comes out not just addressing the current problem, he is faced with, but has all the right words and meanings to be placed in 'history's place of honour'.

Both of them are fighting their own challenges. As is typical with every human, we always think our problems are the worst. But the beauty of it all is that they dont think they will lose and they hence wont. They know they have to change the world, but to initiate that, they become the medium for change.

'Be the change' is their motto, inked in the unspoken smile here and emphasised by the uttered speech there. But its only all the same. When it comes to action, both have won their wars hands down. Both are equal heroes in my 'hall of fame'.

By their actions, both have changed their lives, their immediate environment and inspired many people in their generation like me. A simple step, taken in the right direction, never sounded light. Its always heavy and has helped guide others towards it too.