Hello all,
I finally was able to persuade a politician to allow me to spend time with them and oversee there daily activities. My first politician or mentor of politics to be was a very intelligent and shrewd lady politician from Congress. I had to actually meet her up 3 times which includes waiting for around 6 hours in toto before she finally agreed. I would begin straight-away with my experience of staying with her.
On day 1,
Madam had a very busy schedule today filled up with private meetings with other congress leaders of the nearby areas. As i was a newbie in her group, she didn’t as yet trust me enough to take me into these meetings. However, i was lucky to capitalize the time i got to spend with her while she was waiting for another congressman. I had a real candid talk with her and soon realized that she was one with a clear conscience and amazing thoughts. She was also highly educated(we have always heard of politicians being not even graduates, however mam was a Phd holder). She completed her Phd in political sciences from Lucknow University all the way back in 1961 and had been engaged in politics ever since.
She having talked to me immediately told me that you are a very idealistic person and such levels of theoretical idealism doesn’t really work in today’s practical world. She told me about herself and the fact that even she was full of idealism when she had newly joined politics and as to how slowly that had all changed. She explained to me the nuances of the difference between being theoretical and practical and how practicing true idealism is so difficult in today’s world.
She actually introduced a notion of Practical Idealism which actually really affected my thoughts a lot and has lead to their healthy evolution. Practical idealism according to her is the perfect mixture of idealism along with being practical so as to ensure that your thoughts do get implemented and see the light of the day rather than just remaining thoughts. This she explained with a really apt example: she told me that, Son, today you wouldn’t even get a platform to speak if you don’t have money. Most people join you or support you if they see their financial gains somewhere and you have to learn to adjust such that in the long run your ideals don’t get compromised. I could also see this thing into actual action in the recently highly successful India against Corruption movement, wherein the leaders had adopted to similar measures and had their long term goals in mind. She also explained to me the need of actually getting involved in the system and knowing it inside out before you actually even think of changing it. This was followed by a talk on the importance of money which i shall explain in the later posts.
This small interaction with madam was very refreshing and gave me a head-on feel about the state of politics in India. Will be sharing my day 2’s experience tomorrow
Hope you all liked the post, do leave your remarks.
Nakul Arora
🙂
Just A Crazy Dreamer 
Good one!
The most amazing thing is you are learning politics rather just dreaming politics, which most of our generation do.
I would like to suggest something besides this. (excuse me if you have already done that). Try to analyse progress of some truely great political leaders. Read ‘Experiment with Truth’, read ‘Mein Kampf’, read about Roosevelt etc. Analyse them not in hom much correct they were in their ideologies, but what factors in their personality or what efforts took them to such height.
Nakul, I understand what you have said and how the lady politician you are talking about is emphasising on having practical ideology. But, at the same time you must also not forget that when Gandhi started preaching Non-Violence, it was heavily criticized as being Non-practical and some people even called it derailing the movement. Yet he succeeded in embibing in people passion for it so that he is still recognized as the greatest leader of world on the basis of largest number of followers and the faith they had in their leader.
Not much different is the case with Adolf Hitler, when he satrted with the idea that Germany is poor because of Jews. He was called stupid and insane. His ideas were categorised much below ‘practical’. But with his efforts he filled this hatred into his people and almost hypotenised people and led to the unimaginable inhumanity!
I am not saying that the lady is thoroughly incorrect in what she experienced or what she suggested. I am only showing you a broader picture.
Besides that I would like to quote what Hitler had very interestingly shared in his autobiography about rising in politics. He says that one should start active politics only after 30 years, (unless he is born talented or he is having family background). He says that anyone who wants to bring som real change should extensively study till 30, because it’s what you learn between 20 and 30, will form the foundation of your entire political career. Whatever you do or campaign in your later life, shall have roots somewhere before 30 age.
I am glad that you have decided to join politics. India needs bold and dedicated people like you to lead it.
Hope my lengthy post didn’t bore you..
thanks and regards,
Chandan Kumar