imagine no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one I hope someday

you’ll join us

And the world will be as one

Those are perhaps the most inspiring lines for me. Every time i hear those lines, a sigh of despair goes up in the air.

Not on Pangea day. For me, Pangea Day is the day when the ground beneath shifted a little. The feeling that it is possible to hold hands permeates across. Overriding distances and differences. I haven’t attended an event like this ever before. More details on the event are here

24 films from around the world. In four hours ( from 6.00 PM GMT). Well, yes that meant 11.30 PM – 3.30 AM India time. But these perhaps have been the most wakeful four hours that I have spent sitting at one place.

Kipling had written in “ A friend of the family”

All good people agree,
All good people say,
All nice people, like us, are We
And every one else is They.

And I thought, what a thought. On Pangea Day I realized, that is how I thought !

Movie after movie moved. They were stories of human emotion. Each letting us know that ‘them’ is after all ‘us’ ! Each giving a perspective of how unique we are. And how by being more unique we actually are less so with the rest of the world. You can view them here

The themes that revolved around love, anger, fear, hope showed glimpses of life across the world!! Just knowing that a simple thing like growing a good tomato can lead to joy in some part of the world is so comforting a thought that it is not necessarily money or seeking of ‘cheap’ thrills by splurging money that drives all of the world.

The seeming ordinariness of the world had so much beauty that ‘exotic’ was ingrained in this ‘ordinary’! This is the exotic!

As I walked away at around 4.00 AM from the fantastic NCPA atmosphere in Colaba, there seemed a strange energy which stretched across through the Arabian Sea right nex door. And the world was suddenly not limited to my family or my home or my city, or my organization or my nation. Or for that matter the vast sea just next door. Even though a good beginning encompasses all of that.

Carl Sagan spoke of the earth as the ‘pale blue dot suspended on a sun beam’. A photograph of Saturn eclipsing the sun showed earth as a pale blue dot! That set the perspective. We are just a tiny figment in the scheme of the universe. A tiny figment.

How grandiose are the images of power that man has created for himself !

Some films are a must watch. I can think of few off hand. The Ball. Chinese Whispers. Laughter. A thousand words. But these are just top of the mind. Each film was enjoyable & thoroughly so !

With connectivity provided by Intelsat, we jived, laughed, tapped our feet at the same time in different cities. Rio, Los Angeles, Cairo, London..! That feeling of togetherness with the world was so immensely moving and powerful.

And as I looked up into the night sky, well Carl Sagan’s words resonated in my mind about our home…’a pale blue dot suspended on a sunbeam!’

A dot on a sunbeam. Whats all the other noise about ? Thats the question ! What a day !

PS: You can find some images here