Husain Journal

I gripped the glossy parapet and climbed up to hang on the other side which opened into a fear-provoking gorge – running hundreds of feet deep. Down on the slanting grass-carpeted hills, trees crookedly grew from different places as if telling that they’re stubborn and can grow up from anywhere. Had I slipped from such a blood-tingling height, my bones would have scattered in 40 different places. Whew! I was in the beautiful Nainital, at a mountain peak inside a shade where other tourists too were making picnic in the pure mountain air. Chatting with each other, they crushed fuming coffee and munched snacks, while some took pictures and played all around. And birds, white and red and green, some big and some small, flew and chirped beneath the sheets of clouds in the wide blue sky. Anyway, back to my foolishness: I was in my teenage then. I kept myself on the cliff of death because I fancied myself a Bollywood hero – a risk-lover. I wanted to signa

“When you feel afraid or nervous of doing a thing then do it because the real harm you may thus receive is less poignant than its expectation and fear.” Imam Ali As the train engine whistled and the screeching wheals rolled forward, my heart pounded violently against my chest. The carriages swung side to side – making me feel giddy. I said to Brijesh, my travelling companion, that I don’t want to go further, that I want to step off the speeding train. It was a humid night of July. I was leaving Lucknow to pursue a 1-year computer course in Delhi. I felt horrified to leave my home because my fears, provoked by my blindness, had imprisoned me in the company of my family and friends. I’m embarrassed to confess that so nervous I felt then that venturing out even from my home chilled my soul. Yet I decided, with the help of my encouraging friends, that I’ll have to make a leap and so I haired off to the Delhi course. I heard the thudding and slamming sounds with the shaking ca

The Government feels threatened and has to bring a hair-raising law to crush the astounding success of these people. Natal, South Africa It’s 1860s. The British government wants revenue from sugarcane farming in South Africa, and it's not possible without an outside support. So it tempts the poor, caste-crippled people of India by offering them the South African citizenship and full ownership of their farmland provided that they work there for 5 years. Poor Indians, far from their homeland and deprived of basic facilities, can’t pose a threat to the powerful, right? So the British Government thought. “But the Indians gave more than had been expected…” Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his autobiography. “They grew large quantities of vegetables. They introduced a number of Indian varieties and made it possible to grow the local varieties cheaper.” And, according to the conditions of the agreement, after 5 years these farmers became wealthy landowners. Alarmed, the British Gove

Even in prison Nelson Mandela stuck to his physical exercise as he revealed in many interviews. We, on the other hand, spin up excuses to skip exercising: There’re no tools The environment is unsuitable Stress already fills our hours And you know you can add. But if we compare our circumstances with that which stood against Mandela in that prison? Our excuses aren't even flimsy. Turns out, all our excuses for not exercising are due mainly to our laziness, our lack of commitment. Yeah, I know it hits you on your face. But nothing can be truer than this statement: 9 times out of 10, we forge unreal excuses to run away from physical workouts. You might say that Mandela took to exercise because in the prison one hardly has a hectic to-do list to go about. Even if this was true for Mandela, then the emotional trauma heaped upon him quite outweighed the ease of free time. If we know that exercise is of prime consequence, then we have to make space for it. This m