I am a student of XI class. Our class-room has beautiful pictures of great men of the world. They exercise a silent and imperceptible influence on our life and character. I feel inspired when I look at these pictures. There are pictures of Gandhi, the Apostle of non-violence, Nehru-the Statesman, Bhagat Singh, the Great Martyr, Karl Marx-the Father of Socialism and Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi-the Indian Joan of Arc.
These pictures are an open book for me. When I look at them, I feel a strong desire to walk in their footsteps and make my life sublime.
Gandhi is my idol. His sacrifices in the cause of India’s freedom have been indeed very great. He, like Jesus Christ, voluntarily and happily embraced every pain, torture, calamity and misfortune for the benefit of his people and the independence of his country.
He suffered imprisonment thirteen times. He believed in the ultimate victory of nonviolence over violence. He was more than a man. He was an angel. He was a source of inspiration to the whole world. He stood for the entire humanity-tortured and down-trodden humanity.
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When I look at Nehru who is no more with us, I am full of pride. He won for India an honourable place in the comity of nations. He left an imprint on our life and gave a new outlook to it. He strove to build a new future for India and gave to us a purpose in national life.
He gave us the ideals of parliamentary democracy, a non-communal state, planned development, sobriety in international affairs and friendship among nations.
Bhagat Singh, the Great Martyr, has made himself immortal by dying a hero’s death for the freedom of his country. He was a revolutionary of a very high order.
His aim was not to kill or murder, nor to terrorize the Britishers, but to make them realize the fact that their imperialistic rule was disliked by the Indians and that they should quit India or else the Indians would think of some other means to turn them out of their country.
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His death became a dynamo of inspiration that generated a strong current of national and patriotic awakening throughout the country. He lived as a true patriot, died as a patriot and after his death, became a symbol of patriotism.
The picture of Karl Marx, the father of socialism, is also a great source of inspiration. He was a born revolutionary. He strove all his life to end economic inequality that had created an unholy barrier between men. He believed in a classless society. He preached that there should be one and only one class-the working or ‘the toiling class’.
The picture of Rani of Jhansi does not fail to produce strong feelings of patriotism in the hearts of the young onlookers. She was one of those heroic daughters of India who have left a heritage of undying, glory.
She was one of the great leaders and inspirers of India’s first War of Independence waged in 1857. She did not lead the rebellion simply for the reason that her husband’s State was taken over by the British authorities; she was mainly inspired by a fervour of nationalism.
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She was drunk deep in the wine of patriotism. She thought it to be a moral duty to fight for the independence of her imprisoned Mother Country. She was then only twenty three and a widow. She was fighting against heavy odds.
The British General asked her to surrender but she pooh-poohed the idea. She died fighting heroically and fell down in a pool of blood. Her death was gloriously heroic. A girl, so young and so innocent-so pure and chaste-lying dead in a pool of blood, beside her dying horse. The inspiring story of Rani Laxmi Bai’s patriotically heroic death will continue to inspire the coming generations for hundreds of years to come.
In a word, these class room pictures inspire and teach us more than we learn from our teachers and books. They are so many beacons of light for us.