Power of Change

Every single time we have hope in humanity, something always tests us.
The abuse of prisoners in the US. The hostage situation in Sydney. And now, the children who were killed in Peshawar.
132 of them. 9 staff. 
These were the children of the future. The children that with the education that they had, would have changed the world that we lived in, making it better. They would have been doctors, teachers, lawyers, business owners. 
It was the reason they got up in the morning. And now, they can't.
That's what the they were afraid of. Of what these children could do. Of the power that they had. The potential that they had.
Let's make sure that these children didn't die in vain. That we can make the world a better place. For the future. So that children can go to school without worrying about being shot or bombed. That they can be successful business owners, doctors, teachers, lawyers. That they do have the power.
The power of change.

The Basics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjGL6YY6oMs

The interview above with Malala Yousafzai has been making it's round on the internet. It brings about one topic that has been debated on countless time and that is education.

I don't know if this was subconsciously in my head, but this happened to be the theme of today as I watched Aarakshan by Prakash Jha.

Both bring about the same points about education, that it brings about equality and no one should have it taken away from them. Of course it looks at it from different points of view, for Aarakshan, it was education for the lower caste and the reservation system while for Malala, it was education for women.

We come from a society where education empowers people. Education shouldn't have to be for selective people, but for everyone. When people say that someone doesn't deserve education, the answer should be that everyone does. Everyone is a human being. Education should be given freely to empower the future generation. If a women is educated, she is able to study for a degree and help her family by earning money. She doesn't have to sit at home and take care of the house if she doesn't want to. If she does, then great, but she should have the choice.

In the movie Aarakshan, the reservation system was brought into question. Whether people in lower castes should be allocated a certain percentage in colleges. Why should we live in a society in which such conditions exist? Shouldn't we live in a place where everyone starts off in the same platform? Shouldn't we able to provide at least basic education to our children so that everyone has the same chance for life and strive for a better future.

Every country talks about the future generation and how they will bring about a change in the world, but if a large percentage of the doesn't even get basic education for cleanliness, forget proper classes, then what hope do we have?

Free education should be given to everyone. No matter their caste, gender, religion, etc. We are all here to make the world a better place, so let's start from the basics.

S

The Palace of Illusions

I finished reading The Palace of Illusions a couple of days ago and I absolutely loved it! Chitra Banerjee has taken the Mahabharat from an all male centered epic and shown it to us from the eyes of Draupadi.

If you do not know the Mahabharat story, it is the epic story of the Kauravas and the Pandavas (who are cousins) which leads to one of the most well known battles of all time - The Battle at Kurukshetra. When you read the Mahabharat, you read about all the men and their roles towards this battle. You don't hear much about the women. When I read this book, it gave insights to everything Draupadi went through her entire life from childhood, to her marriage of the five Pandavas brothers to the battle.

The way she has written this book makes you really lose yourself into the character. Draupadi is a powerful woman and is really stubborn in the way she thinks which, after reading this book made me realise that maybe I shouldn't be as stubborn as I am.

With this book and looking at it from her side of the story, I want to read the Mahabharat because this book doesn't delve so much into the past, before she was born. There are only bits and pieces of some stories and I want to know more about it.

Like I mentioned above, the one thing that I did learn from this is that sometimes it's not good to be stubborn. If Draupadi had let go of her anger and not been so stubborn, then maybe she wouldn't have influenced her husbands and the battle wouldn't have happened in the first place.

So yes, sometimes letting go of your anger and being less stubborn will help you in the long run. If the consequences of Draupadi's actions won't make you realise it, I don't think anything will.

S