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Happy New Year - Sunanda Vashisht Sunanda Vashisht was born in the beautiful valley of Kashmir, India when Kashmir was known for its unparalleled natural beauty and not as a cauldron of fear and terror. She did most of her schooling in Delhi and dabbled with several professions before moving to U.S last year. she is currently pursuing higher studies here. she likes to introduce herself as an explorer because she wants to spend all her time in this world exploring unknown. Writing for her is a cathartic experience. She can't remember when she began writing first but she does know that writing has always helped her to be at peace with herself and with the world around her.

We are on the verge of end of another year. As we welcome the new year and hope that it brings with it peace and prosperity, I am reminded of incidents of 2002 that will make this a year to remember or let us say a year to learn from.

In India, this year will always be remembered as rise of increased communal tension. This year also saw rise of new form of Hindutva, little different and more vocal than the wave of Hindutva that was seen in 1992. The demolition of Babri Masjid and Rath yatra of Mr. L.K Advani were the highlights at that time. The phrase is the same but the players have changed faces. The prominent new face is that of Mr. Praveen Togadia and of course other prominent leaders of VHP. This year will also be remembered all over the world as the spread of Islamic terrorism or should I say terrorism in the name of religion all over the world. War on Terror is on every one’s agenda and right now Islamic fanaticism seems to be the topmost enemy everywhere.

Godhra incident will always be etched in the minds of people and also will be the aftermath of Godhra. As we make progress in every imaginable field, it is sad to know that we are losing the basic human trait of treating every one like we would like to be treated ourselves. This year will be remembered as the year of intolerance and mutual hatred between different religious groups. Everyone is angry and everyone has his or her own story of intolerance to narrate. Increasingly we are learning to live for ourselves and disregard the person next to us and this is where the problem arises. It seems that instead of progressing we are regressing to dark ages where everyone will be thirsty for someone else’s blood. Everyone is willing to die for their religion or faith. I wonder if anyone is ready to live for their faith or rather live by the teachings of their religion. If they did so, we probably would be living in a much peaceful world.

This year will be remembered as the year of fear and hatred. One is forced to think that this is not what we had dreamt for 21st century. This is not the world which Tagore had dreamt of when he said ‘where the head is held high and mind is without fear” nor is this the world which Gandhi or Martin Luther King had dreamt of. I move into the next year with a heavy heart and prayer on my lips that we can make this earth more peaceful and free of war for our coming generations. As the war clouds gather over the world let us pray that better sense prevails and we learn to live with each other and for each other. This reminds me of the ancient Vedic saying “Vasudev Kutambh bakam” or the entire world is a family.
Shanti Shanti Shanti
Peace Peace Peace.

Wishing all our readers a happy and peaceful new year.

Till we connect again...

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