Silence and its ubiquitous influence, often envelops beings with nothingness, solitude and the fear of being singled out for an often misjudged and unguided persecution.

Silence has often been described by those with wisdom to be ephemeral, possessing a life cycle that is short, though their prescriptions do educate quite the other. Its golden qualities exhibiting a strange possessiveness.

Silence admits guilt and several unexplained dividends, which at times chase past you in restrained maturity.

Silence builds character in proportions many seem unnecessary.

Silence is devoid of argument and response and is therefore unique in its one sided overbearing presence.

Silence is the impregnable fortress that defends and protects the purity of innocence, the moat, whose waters, purified by the inhabitants of truthful on one, deflate the unjustified attacks of the untruthful adversary on the other.

Silence is the glass contained vacuum that provides visibility of the perpetrator, but diminishes his presence and act, in gravity free weightless, random, unconnected movement.

Silence is the voice of illiteracy ; when you possess no knowledge or language or voice, when you possess no mind or thought or opinion. When you quite simply, just do not know. And are not educated nor qualified with the guiles of response.

Silence speaks within ; all else without.

Silence could well be provocative. At times disarming the provocateur - an agent provocateur !

Silence endorses conservation - it clamps the doors that would open to the release of human energy.

Eleven is in order. Eleven is auspicious. Eleven references. Eleven aspects.

Eleven silences above. I counted them after I had stopped .. and they were eleven ! Strange that I should say this, but I did. Strange that I should write about it or think or contemplate, but I did. Strange that I should construct eleven of them, but I did. Strange that I should share them with you, but I do.

I was born in 1942. A time in the life of my country that was in the throes of a struggle that would write history. A history of defiance and right, of freedom and independence, of democratic norms and equality, of getting rid of dependence of foreign rule, of being liberal and self expressive and having the authority to be able to express it. I wish at times to have been born earlier. To have been matured in the time of our struggle, to have had the honor and the pride in being a part of this fight. Somewhere also has been the hidden desire to have been born at the time of the world war II, to have partaken in the resolute fight against the fascist terror, to have seen first hand its defeat and the ultimate victory against it.

Many thinkers and analysts, people with the ability to see and foresee have often decried the state of the nation. Of all that has been wrong, of all that needs to be done, of expectation and dreams, of a democracy that was built to be an example for the world, of our failures and obstacles that keep recurring again and again. And many that come out with solutions or semblances for solutions lament the fact that the nation has lost the one factor so prominent at the time of its search for independence - a goal to fight for.

They say in many different ways, the need for us to have a goal to aspire for. The predominant spirit of leveraging our struggle to reach a destination has now vanished. There is nothing they say that can be even remotely construed as an effort to be somewhere. And so in this condition the ‘fight’ and ’spirit’ is missing. What is it really that we must do to get that fight back. To build that spirit back.

And the silence that prevails after this is questioned is deafening.

For there is no one to take the initiative. No one to spell out the plan. No one to motivate us into action. No one to look upon collective gain.

There is desire. There is motivation. There is a plan. But all of it is directed towards the individual. What is in it for me. Where do I come in. When do I get it.

Its never us or we or ours. Its always I me myself and mine.

Yet the irony or shall we say the sad dichotomy of all such philosophy gets defeated, when we go down in history and assemble case studies of some of the most historic events that changed geography and times.

And you shall find that the initiator of all such moments was …

…an individual !!

Whether a Gandhi or a Hitler !!

Many observations were made by some enlightened respondents on the blog on the issue of ‘removing the demons within’. Good and evil coexist within us. You needn’t go out searching for them. Look within and we shall find them. Deal with them first before delivering that first sermon. Overcome that before you get overcome d.

This state of being oblivious to the world, to life, to all around us may seem a most selfish desire. But do we not conduct ourselves often with similar trait.

What’s in it for me ?? Yaa … what’s in it for me as write this DAY … a record breaking 900 responses ??

Keep dreaming brother B … remain within yourself … and within your own estimation …

My love … without any estimation whatsoever

Amitabh Bachchan