Splitting Matchsticks

[Sabu Francis]

It is ten minutes after the day crossed over into 16th of August:

 

Are we still celebrating our Independence day? 

 

Do we celebrate our independence just once a year and remain dependent the rest of the time? Why can't we be the independent Indian all the time and maybe spend just one day in a year being dependent on other ideas? I agree it is important that we depend on others too once in a while so that we weave ourselves into the larger fabric of mankind. But the need of the day is to look inwards and see what our contribution is to our context.

 

I don't mean independence in a "nationalist" manner. Ian Anderson, the main musician behind the long standing music group Jethro Tull said in one interview that most people don't understand the difference between being patriotic and being nationalistic.

To me, being patriotic means carrying the awareness of your origins with you all the time, irrespective of boundaries. And being nationalistic means using external boundaries to say that you can be differentiated from others.

 

For what is India? Where does one draw that line? It surely can't come from outside. It has to be within us. Over centuries, we have had some unique thinking capabilities that I feel has no parallel elsewhere.

 

When most foreign philosophies lean towards an analytical way of solving problems, the Indian thinking method strongly favors the synthesis based approach.

 

When I buy western clothes, I have to slot myself analytically into size 34 or size 35, or whatever. But when I buy a lungi, it wraps itself around me whatever my size is. 

 

There are more examples on how Indians think. When I leave someone's house and I am in my "western" mode; I bid him goodbye in English. Cleanly. Analytically.

 

But when I am aware of me as an Indian, I always remember to say that "I am coming" when I exit my friends house. Never will I say "I am going". That statement is a mark of unity.

 

Connections are never separated. The holistic is never destroyed.

 

To me it is a message that conveys to my friend that even if I am physically going from his house, I am still present. In fact in most Indian languages, it is considered very impolite to say "I am going" when leaving a house: It would be an indication that the person is never going to return.

 

There is a story which is told of my great grandfather. Though his family was poor, he was a very self-respecting and resourceful person. He could integrate (synthesise) many things into his life.

 

I have heard that as he would be talking in the verandah of the house with some villagers in the evening; as that was the custom those days in Kerala, his hands would also be busy at work.

 

He would either take up his old fishing net and keep mending it. Or he would work on the matchsticks. Those days matchsticks were clumsy fat sticks ... not the slender ones we get nowadays. He used to take a blade and carefully slice each match vertically into two; thus doubling the capacity of the matchbox.

 

Thus igniting more fires.

I've been working on a design software for architects which is based on some original work. This has been going on for quite some years. From 1990 onwards. I often get people telling me "Why are you trying to compete with xyz American/British/German/Whatever CAD company?" ... When actually I am not. My work simply can't be compared to those software. Because I address a different set of issues; typically faced in an Indian context.

When people talk like that, I get reminded of my great grandfather's matchsticks. Strangely enough, the Germans and the British have given me more recognition that many of my colleagues here in India.

 

I always advocate my students to take their own matchboxes. Split matchsticks. Be resourceful. Synthesize issues keeping the holistic in mind. Ignite minds. That is the mark of a true Indian.

Sabu Francis