Remembering the Mahatma

Today is Sarvodaya Day aka Martyrs' day. This is the day when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, truly a black day in our history. It is a pity that we really dont remember this great man today and we hardly even observe a couple of minutes of silence for the Father of our Nation.

Some weeks back I read a biography of Mahatma Gandhi by Taya Zinkin, one of the many biographies about this amazing person. It was a very well written biography, a westerner's perspective of Gandhi. The author had pointed out some of the greatest strengths of this man was the "passive resistance", treading the unflinching path of truth and hence Satyagraha. Actually, this book has been lying around for nearly a couple of decades now in my house. It was one of the prizes I received in my primary school for a debate competition I think. I am surprised I never read it all these days.

I still remember one of the small snippets on National Television back in late 80s and 90s which showed a simple 2 stroke sketch of Gandhi (his bald head and his spectacles) with the narration "The Greatness of this man was his simplicity". It was an amazingly strong message through a 10 sec clip. I searched around the web (You Tube, Google, Yahoo Videos) in vain.

I was impressed by one of the ads for Telecom Italia which portrays the Mahatma. Very innovative.

The Remote Instinct

One of the greatest inventions in the era of communication is the Television. There was an era when we used to have Doordarshan the only channel. The TVs were equipped with only a rotary switch which could switch the channels, not that we had more channels to switch to. We had to watch what would be played on the one and only channel. I used to wonder how everybody has to see what a group of people would decide as the most popular show, especially when there were live sports events and if more than one these clashes at the same time. I always use to think how this decision was made, would a board of people vote which is the most popular. Imagine, they have the power of deciding the entertainment of a whole country for that evening.

Later with the skies opening up over India, more channels got added. Now this was a new problem. The TVs we had still had the rotary switches. One had to walk to the TV everytime a channel had to be switched. Then the greatest invention in TV Accessories, "The Remote", was summoned. Now we could just flip channels right from our sofas. Now the power of controlling what we watch moved from the bunch of people at the TV Station to some body in our living room, the one with "The Remote".


I think it is an instinct of the person who has "The Remote", to never stay with one channel. The channel which is playing is never interesting. The next channel would always look more interesting. But then lets talk about the others in the room watching. For them, the channel which is playing is the most interesting and they are upset as soon as the channel is changed. But little do they realise, that they would do the same thing when they have the remote.

I think we are ruled by the "Remote Instinct" when we watch television.