Yesterday, I got an opportunity to watch Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s new movie “12th Fail” based on the novel of the same name. This movie is based on a biography of IPS officer Manoj Kumar Sharma. Since he is very good friend of my brother-in-law, we decided to watch it. Manoj Kumar is from humble village in Chambal basin in Madhya Pradesh and was living in poverty. He was impressed by honesty of one police officer, got an inspiration and decided to become an honest police officer. His quest for becoming a police officer forced him to go to Gwalior and finally landed in New Delhi. His struggle for becoming an IPS officer has been depicted in this movie excellently. Since the movie has been produced and directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the story is nicely narrated and shoot. A story telling is of very high quality and keeps one engaged continuously. The movie made me emotional multiple times. It has strong message, “Cheating छोड़ना पड़ेगा” (give up cheating), “Restart your life”, “hard work pays” and many more. In short, everyone MUST watch this movie and ensure that your children watch it. All schools must show this movie to their students. It will definitely motivate them. They will realized that nothing is impossible in life, if one put hard work like Manoj Kumar Sharma!
But what motivated me to write this blog? It is not merely to encourage you to watch this movie. But we see many Manoj Kumar around us. What amazed me the most is that we have very weak academic infrastructure, huge poverty, weak governance, institutional corruption, high unemployment. कुछ गिनती की जगह के लिये भीड़ बकरी समान लोग आ जाते हैं| But still Bharat continues to produce people like Manoj Kumar! His grand mother and mother were illiterate, but they wanted to see Manoj Kumar to become a successful man in his life. We see Manoj Kumar in all walks of life. We have many examples who spent their childhood in extreme poverty but then hugely successful in politics, spirituality, sports, civil services, industry, entertainment, science and technology. There are many such great examples. Our honorable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi is tall example in politics. MS Dhoni, Munaf Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh in cricket. The gold medalist Sheetal Devi in paralympic. Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the film industry. Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and K. Sivan in space technology. Ramdev Baba in Spirituality. There is a long list in industry. However, we don’t have to really see such famous names for our role models. But there are multiple such role models in our personal sphere. I spent my childhood in Pauni in Bhandara District of Maharashtra which is very small and layback town. It has produced such role models who had very limited or less resources in their childhood. My classmate in school and friend Manohar Ramteke, world renowned ICMR scientist Dr. Rahul Gajbhiye, Pallavi Mohadikar, founder of Karagiri Sarees had very humble and impoverish childhood. Their achievements are no less than that of Manoj Kumar! What is this unique quality in Bharat? How can Bharat continue to produce such people in such chaotic and imperfect conditions?
You may differ or disagree with me or you may have some different opinion, perspective. But I think Bharat is unique in this. Each Bharatiya has four DNA viz. mathematics (intelligence), Warrior (brave, hard work), music (creativity) and business (enterprising). Each individual has these four DNAs without any exception of religion, race, caste, region, sex, language, economic condition, urban or rural. Whosoever is successful in activating all these four DNAs, will set an example in Bharat. 1200 years of constant brutal invasion and foreign rules had a huge impact on Bharatiya. They forgot their genuine DNAs. Bharatiya are now settling down in last 75 years of independence and slowly regaining, reclaiming, remembering their true identity. We started seeing such Bharatiya stalwarts all over the globe. This is just beginning!
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had repeatedly given one advice to all Bharatiya during his speeches. “Get Up, Get Educated, Become Prosperous” (“उठा, शिका अणि मोठे व्हा”). His prophetic advice has started showing its effect and Manoj Kumar Sharma is just one example of it!
Satish Gundawar
09-Nov-2023
