A New Resolution

One of my all-time favorite movie is Gandhi. In some ways, I am more of a fan of the movie than the Mahatma himself. Everytime I watch the movie there is something new that I learn. Given that the movie is shown every year on TV in India I have watched it many times over.

There are many things to learn for self improvement in the movie, but one thing that has stuck with me is about social responsibility. How does one bring about a change? How does one influence the masses? What really makes a difference? The answer as I found out from the movie is writing.

There are many important events from India's struggle for Independence depicted in the movie. One common thread in all of them is , someone was writing about it and shaping the opinion of the readers. When a group of students asks Gandhi about how they can help with the famine crisis in Champaran, Gandhi asks them to document the plight of the people and report it sincerely. During the Dandi march, there is an American reporter, reporting all the events in detail. These and writings by others helped raise awareness about the atrocities by the British. In a way, they were instrumental in  creating a momentum that led to the India winning its Independence from the British.

If you look closely, history is shaped by people who write.
If you take it a step further, writing is a form of communication.
Effectively, history is shaped by people who communicate.

If you want to make a change start communicating. Whatever ideas you have, they will only grow if you communicate them. If you keep those ideas to yourself, they will die with you.

Looking back, I can clearly see, many opportunities where I could have made a difference by just communicating. Unfortunately I never felt confident enough to communicate and those opportunities are lost forever.

This blog itself has been years in making. A decade almost. I just have never found the will to write.

Those who know me closely, know that I have opinions on just about everything. I have never put them down in a form that can be shared with a wider audience.

I resolve to write more often on this blog henceforth. If nothing else, this should be an interesting collection of random opinions and useless thought experiments.