The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Wednesday 9 November 2016

WOULD THIS BE A DIFFERENT AMERICA? LET'S SEE.

Hillary Clinton just said that the US is more divided than they previously had thought. Well, she just lost the poll of her life because, in all probability, she is not going to stand in the presidential race again. She has had close calls – first in 2008 and now, in 2016. Then it was Barack Obama – a highly competent person who mesmerized not only America but the whole world.

Now it is Donald Trump – whom not only most in America but even most in the world were writing off.

So it hurts.

But like has been the US tradition, like Trump was graceful in his victory speech (even if we cannot give him any benefit of doubt because he was not ‘fully’ graceful), Hillary, though admitting the deep fissures in the US society, has gracefully extended him ‘an open mind and the chance to lead’.

Donald Trump was also graceful till this part – recognizing Hillary’s efforts, her career and her service to the nation. He began his speech with this point. But beyond that, though it was a balanced victory speech sans all the campaign rhetoric, it fell short of expectations.

Trump did not mention Barack Obama even once during his speech – someone who is going to succeed – someone who has been a popular president. Now we cannot say if it fits some pattern but logic cannot accept it.

So far Donald Trump has been known as wearing a reckless business attitude – a ‘profiteering from everything’ motto defines his existence – a life that has nothing credible to inspire people – a lifestyle that has been undoubtedly playboyish – a thinking process that reeks of sexism, class discrimination and racial domination.

So far, Donald Trump has been a character – he has been an actor – let’s see if he can now be the person that a US President needs to be.

We all know election campaign rhetoric and official rhetoric are entirely different. ‘Politics is nasty stuff’ – even Donald Trump accepted it in his victory speech.

If he realizes it and is going to follow it in his governance style, it will be good for America and the world.

For America, his election has deeply divided the US society. Clashes broke at many place, in many states after his victory became clear. Students organized protest rallies. There were incidents of arson and vandalism. Many US parents are worried that what they would tell to their children. Women are fearful of a president with a long history of anti-woman statements.

The world, too, has not taken it kindly. From world leaders to media outfits, they have shown displeasure and scepticism. It can be summed up in two expressesions – of the French President Francois Hollande who reacted on Trump’s election saying it has ‘opened a period of uncertainty’ – and of the UK daily The Telegraph’s report on the global reaction headlined ‘dear God, America what have you done?’.

Donald Trump has to change that if he has to have successful four years first. Second term or eight years, as he mentioned in his speech comes only after that.

©SantoshChaubey