Jago Mohan Pyare

This morning I thought of one of Raj Kapoor’s films, Jagte Raho. We move through life much like the wanderer in that film: not seeking a destination, but seeking a justification for our movement. What we desire is rarely clear; what pushes us forward is often only the discomfort of standing still.

From one door to the next, from one promise to another, we hope that the next encounter will validate our existence, that someone will recognise us without suspicion. Yet every threshold reminds us how deeply society distrusts the unfamiliar. It takes time to learn that a stranger is not always a threat. We flee from doubt to hope, and from hope back to doubt.

Jagte Raho is about a human being searching for a place where he is not questioned for merely existing.

We run not because we know what we are seeking, but because we cannot bear the weight of being unseen.

When the night seems endless, the wanderer finally meets a gaze that does not interrogate him. Raj Kapoor meeting Nargis offers not romance, but recognition. It suggests that redemption lies not in arrival, but in being acknowledged as human.

“Jago Mohan Pyare” becomes a call to awaken that dormant capacity within us. The wanderer’s night is our own. The awakening it demands is also our own.