Mornings 23032024 - Martys' Day

Today is Martyrs' Day in India, commemorating the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru by the British Empire 93 years ago. Bhagat Singh was a charismatic socialist freedom fighter who became a hero of the independence movement. He fought against the British Empire and was executed at the age of 23. We can learn from Bhagat Singh to be our own person, find a purpose in life, follow our passions, and struggle for success. Procreation isn't the only purpose in life, reading is important, and taking up social causes can make a difference. Bhagat Singh's experiences as a child shaped his beliefs, and he channeled his anger in the right direction. We can make a difference in today's world through technology and by participating in democracy. Namaskar, hello and welcome to this very special edition of Reaching India Mornings whereby we bring you euphorisms in self-care, fulfillment, mindfulness, motivation and most importantly the commemorations of the day. Today is a very solemn occasion as the entire Indian nation is commemorating the Martyrs' Day the very day on to which the three gems of India's freedom struggle Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru they were executed by the British Empire 93 years ago in 1931. The hero of this entire triumvirate happens to be Shaheed A. Azam Bhagat Singh who was born on 27th of September 1907 in the village called Banga in Faisalabad district in Pakistan's Punjab province and so he was the three of them were hanged at the Lahore Central Jail in the year 1931 on this very day. Bhagat Singh was the charismatic socialist freedom fighter. His two acts of violence against the British Empire and subsequent execution at a very very young age of 23 made him a full hero of the Indian independence movement. Bhagat Singh became actively involved in India's freedom movement at a very early age after quitting formal education. At the age of 13 he left his home for Kanpur after his parents tried to get him married. In December 1928, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru they plotted the assassination of the superintendent of police James Scott in Lahore to avenge the death of Sheri Punjab Lala Lajpat Rai the nationalist leader of the famous Lal Bal Pal Trio. In a case of mistaken identity, assistant superintendent of police John Saunders was instead shot dead. To avoid arrest, Singh escaped to Calcutta after shaving his beard and cutting his hair. In April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Bhattkeshwar Dutt they hurled bombs in the Central Assembly Hall in Delhi the old Parliament building which is now being converted into the Samvidhan Sadan and they raised the slogan of Inquilab Zindabad. They were later arrested, Bhagat Singh and his revolutionary comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev they were hanged to death on March 23rd 1931 in the Lahore conspiracy case. So this is a short history of the legend of Bhagat Singh a lot of popular movies have come to explain his larger life and times and there are some nine learnings which we felt like sharing with our young audience of all genre which we can learn from the life and legend of Bhagat Singh and the first one is to be your own person being your own person don't follow the crowd just because they believe they are going in the right direction Bhagat Singh could have well taken the beaten path but he didn't that is one of the reasons why we are even talking about him 93 years after his death just in seven years in 2031 we would all be commemorating the martyrs day the hundred years of the death of execution of Bhagat Singh at a very young age of 23 the second learning which we can have from the life of Bhagat Singh is to have is to find a purpose in life we can see the cringe in your seat we are not asking you to join the army or become a social servant remember the time you were asked in that job interview or a prospective one about where you will see yourself in the next five years so that is the interviewer who is wanting to know if you have a purpose in your life so ask yourself today on this very martyrs day this question what's the purpose in your life for his age Bhagat Singh knew precisely what he wanted out of his life and he got it and not too much to ask oneself either so finding a purpose in life that is something which we can really instigate our own self on this martyrs day and once you are fine from the purpose follow that purpose with passion now to what extent can you go to achieve your goal, your passion can you go hungry for days or stay asleep sleep deprived for hours to meet your aim how persistent are you following up on the targets you have set for yourself they could be as simple as losing weight or getting to a certain point in your career all successful people will tell you that they didn't get to where they are without struggle and we are also speaking about people like Ratan Tata who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth so without struggle there is no success for that matter so learn to go to the whole hog, struggle and fight because there is pretty much no other way to be successful so the fourth learning from the life and legend of Bhagat Singh procreation isn't the only thing you are born to do it might sound a bit striking but Bhagat Singh never got married in fact he left his home when his parents thought of marrying him such was his ideal at that point in time he never had children either as difficult as it might be to believe there is much more in life than to getting married and birthing children that's fine, that's a part of life, integral part of it but that's the sole purpose and again we don't mean that you should be a broom and sweep the streets put the time and money you conserve to better use adopt a child rather than have one of your own perhaps we are a country of a heck of a lot of children adding any other one to the population isn't helping anyone so this might be an extreme view but that's what a kind of a striking factor we just felt like sharing with you and the fifth learning which is very very critical for us at a student age whether in school or in university is reading it can teach and help us a lot now some estimates are to be believed Bhagat Singh is said to have read about 300 books while he was imprisoned from April 8, 1929 to the day of his execution March 23, 1931 and popular accounts also tell us that up until moments before he was to be executed he was reading Lenin and asked the executioners to wait till he finished the book as cliched as it might sound books open far more doors than you can really imagine so go beyond the 140 or 280 characters what we are putting out in the social media space and read, be aware politically and socially these are the issues which really confront our lives technology, management, all those disciplines are also fine with that so this is something which we can surely run learn from the life and legend of Bhagat Singh and Bhagat Singh tried to make the voice of Indians to the British but what about those who do not want to listen people who do not listen need a smack to capture their attention and Bhagat Singh developed a low-impact bomb that would not cause much harm and threw it in a crowded British assembly in an empty area he would have got away but rather he got handcuffed for a purpose so that was he said that if the deaf are to hear the sound has to be very loud so that great idealism which he had over there and the sixth lesson which we can learn from Bhagat Singh is take up a social cause giving back is the new black so jump on the bandwagon and do something for the country that has done so much for you little things matter much adopt a stray dog, visit a children's home visit your aging neighbors you can even take up a cause in environment, climate change today being the world meteorological day as well so yesterday was March 22nd was the world water day so it's not very difficult to pick up a cause and give your life towards it so being your own person, finding a purpose in life following what that purpose with passion the extent to which Bhagat Singh went you don't have to pursue that but yes going to a greater extent and procreation isn't the only thing you are born to do reading can teach and help us a lot and taking up a social cause and from Bhagat Singh's life we can say that that experiences as a child can make you or break you and Bhagat Singh was born in a well-to-do family his family had wealth and land it seems like he had everything to remain happy but still he was perhaps not happy with them in 1919 when he was just 11 years Bhagat Singh witnessed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre we will all be commemorating that just in a few days on 13th of April Paro Kahega Vaisakhi Ka when Jallianwala Bagh massacre was orchestrated by the Dyers so Bhagat Singh realized that no one can be truly happy until the British do not leave India he gathered some of the blood-soaked mud from Jallianwala Bagh and took it to his home and started worshipping that mud daily he understood the meaning of sacrifice and Bhagat Singh kept an open mind and channelized his anger in the right direction he found his life's purpose through his trauma and he did not retort to arms or weapons at that point in time so those were the early days of India's freedom struggle from imperial power and today whatever passion or purpose we choose in our life we have so many avenues to make a difference we can file a grievance, a public grievance something is not happening good in our locales we can directly contact the central government using the CP grams, the PG portal we can go to the state CM portal whatever state you are there like in Uttarakhand there is the 1905 CM portal every state has those kind of platforms we can go, we can file an RTI just a 10 rupees postal order which is required to bring the attention of the authorities to something so that is something which we can invoke upon so the terror of the yesterday can be replaced by technology of today a kind of a creative resistance a solution-centric transformation bringing the attention of the authorities the way Bhagat Singh threw a bomb, hurled a bomb in the central assembly perhaps a letter of yours can do in today's sovereign democratic republic of the country and most importantly we are having the largest festival of democracy like the country is going to polls starting 19th of April so make sure that you go to vote select the right candidate, the right philosophy and make your own judgment make your own assessment of it rather than getting swayed by some very lazy considerations of that matter the other learning which we can have from Bhagat Singh is break the shackles of mental slavery when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi called for the non-cooperation movement he proactively participated in that movement and went wherever the protests were being organized and through this movement Gandhi wanted to assure that if every Indian joined forces to fight the British the British Raj will vanish within a year unfortunately in Chari Chora the police fired at the peaceful protesters and in retaliation the protesters, they set a police station on fire and the entire country had to endure the consequences of this incident and Gandhiji believed that the movement must remain peaceful in all senses no matter how much the British got violent on them the protesters had to follow non-violence as such a great nationwide movement was thereby called for Bhagat Singh got rattled with the course of events and he realized that some problems could not be fixed through dialogues only a revolution was the order of the day but what sort of revolution at that point in time he said a revolution of thoughts this is the spirit of Bhagat Singh that okay you are following a very great figure but then you should have the internal courage to even differ and find out a differential solution to a larger problem out there so that is breaking the shackles of a mental slavery and the other learning which we can have from the life and legend of Bhagat Singh is your response to the situation matters more than the situation itself had Bhagat Singh run he would have been labelled as an anarchist but he was a messenger trying to convey the people's message to the British by unfurling a low capacity bomb in the central assembly when he said that the deaf are to hear the sound has to be very loud he was a ground breaker who was free even in prison free to fight the British from the inside and as we all know that when his trial was going on he used that platform at that point in time to to put forth his revolution of thoughts out there so in those prisons Indian prisoners were cut off from the outside world no newspapers, no books nothing moreover they were treated worse by the British stinking toilets, rotting food inhuman conditions how did Bhagat Singh fight it? by fasting for 160 days which is a record so those kind of response Bhagat Singh gave at a very young idealistic age over there and last but not the least the real change begins from the inside Bhagat Singh was a revolutionary he requested the British to not hang them because hanging them would be their insult rather he requested the British to shoot them to death yes he did not beg for mercy for forgiveness he died like a revolutionary dedicating his entire life vision and purpose to India is not a cake walk forget about doing today we cannot even think about what we can do for our nation today we especially youth we need a role model like Bhagat Singh not because he picked up a gun but because he picked up a book his idealistic spirit for the service of the nation for the cause he chose so revolution is not achieved with a gun it is achieved with a book with thoughts with transformational thoughts revolution is achieved through our thoughts even though the British have left us there are so many areas where we feel there are lacunas there are gaps in public service delivery in the way the country is being run but then what is the solution out there we all can become a part of it all and that's what the life and legend of Bhagat Singh shows us yes the instruments should change violence of any sorts can never be accepted in a sovereign democratic republic we have got constitutional means and mechanisms to bring about a revolution in our governance in the direction of our development so and so forth so these were some of the 10 lessons which we wanted to share as a part of reading in your mornings on Matias Day 23rd of March 2024 we hope it inspires and instigates us to some extent and lead to a fulfilling life of ours and through us a better life, a better country and a better humanity thank you so much