The ocean has often attracted Man. It has captured Man’s imagination. It has dared Man’s courage, stimulated Man’s urge to take the plunge and swim, to test self. Old literature describes the ocean -- the sea -- as a cloth that Mother Earth drapes herself with. The ocean has inspired much prose and poetry and research in sciences. The ocean also is respected as a limit that the humans must dare. Meditating deeply at dawn on the Mamllapuram beach, it seemed most natural for Narendra Modi to bow to the ocean in reverence ...
He ... sagar!!!
Tumhe mera pranam!
Narendra Modi found himself inclined to emote so precisely -- despite the tight and tense humdrum of diplomacy -- and learn a lesson in greatness ...
... Tum na hote vichalit
Na ashankit, na bhaybheet
Kyonki tum-me hai gaharaee
Depth!
Such a fascinating virtue. It helps one to endure storm, to stay undisturbed, to maintain grace in trauma -- or triumph. It is depth that helps one to hold within all the bitterness, all the sourness, all the poison -- and also all the potion -- Amrut! In these eight stanzas, the poet returns time and again to the ocean’s ability to hold everything, absorb everything and anything and yet stay calm, no matter the chaos outside, no matter the storms inside. All these virtues make us sense what greatness should be like, how it should be defined -- and understood ... ... Har pal badappan ka bodh dilate ... In Narendra Modi’s case, as he grapples with moments that truly test his mettle, the analogy of the ocean must be really fascinating -- and revealing the quintessence of life, secret of good living. It is difficult to separate Modi the statesman from Modi the poet. This poem -- and many other ones he has written from time to time -- demonstrates how the man is a poet at heart, no matter the calling of his high-stake profession. But what matters most is his awareness of how strength exhibits itself through restraint ...