The Gangrene in US
An SI guarding a ministerial convoy was hacked down by a bunch of gangsters. He lay writhing on the road, pleading for help, bleeding and dying and no one dared touch him or go near him. They walked past the man looking at him suffer, sympathizing with him, but “helpless” themselves. Helpless… what a word! This word absolves an Indian of all his guilt, responsibility and cowardice. The keeper of our morality, the media, kicks in. Breaking news… Ministers in the convoy watch and do nothing for the dying SI. The death is the ministers' fault. SMS’s start pouring in criticizing, lambasting and ridiculing the politicians, the police men near the dying sub inspector… But are they the real culprits???
What about the pathetic public who stood there watching a man die? What about the countless men who thronged the scene waiting and watching “helplessly”? They could not have possibly done anything, could they?
“How can I talk when so many people around me are standing and saying nothing? How could I spoil my new shirt? That man over there, he does not have a new shirt, why can’t he help the SI? Hell… somebody do something… Can’t they see that the man is dying? Shit, this society is so rotten…”
Is this the gang’s fault? The ministers'? The policemen who were the SI’s colleagues?
Or is it mine? Your’s? OUR’s?
Where do these politicians and the policemen come from? Us… What sense of morality do they share? Ours… Who are the gangsters? Us… Us… Us…
What would the dying SI have done if someone else was hacked and he was one of the spectators? It is politically incorrect to say this, but chances are he would have done NOTHING!!!
In the coming few days, we will see candle light vigils, group discussions on tv news channels. Streams of anguish and anger will pour in from all sides. But how angry are we? As angry as were we when we were fighting the British? Would we have got independence by lighting candles in front of the British.
And then there are marches which are a melas for all the Goondas in town and they have a field day burning and looting the cities and towns. There are issues where candle light vigils are acceptable, but genuine anger is NOT always satiated by some candle light marches. Where are the passionate and angry men and women who roared and fought against the British? Dead… Literally and Figuratively... The Bal Gangadhar Tilaks, Ambedkar’s, Bhagat Singh’s… These men had their flaws. Everyone does. But they stuck to what they believed in. They didn’t let up a few days after their protests went out of fashion. Where are genuine leaders and protests which do not die or back off till the issue is dealt with??
They don’t exist in today’s society.
Tee shirts, websites, candlelight vigils get this participation because there is no chance that the participants will be involved in any kind of “problems”. It is cowardice that draws in the crowds and not genuine sense of anguish. Yes, this makes everyone angry. How angry? As angry as when a boy breaks a vase at home. Momentary... Useless...
As for the goonda marches, I do not even want to write about it
I know I can do something. I could at the least try… I know the reader can too.. But will I? No I wont… Will You? Mostly not... I find it more comfortable to cocoon myself in the alternate reality of Role Playing Games where the good and the bad are clearly defined and I am the champion of the weak and I always do right things and I will partly assuage my nearly non-existent pride… What about you? How do you live with the reality that is India today?
What about the pathetic public who stood there watching a man die? What about the countless men who thronged the scene waiting and watching “helplessly”? They could not have possibly done anything, could they?
“How can I talk when so many people around me are standing and saying nothing? How could I spoil my new shirt? That man over there, he does not have a new shirt, why can’t he help the SI? Hell… somebody do something… Can’t they see that the man is dying? Shit, this society is so rotten…”
Is this the gang’s fault? The ministers'? The policemen who were the SI’s colleagues?
Or is it mine? Your’s? OUR’s?
Where do these politicians and the policemen come from? Us… What sense of morality do they share? Ours… Who are the gangsters? Us… Us… Us…
What would the dying SI have done if someone else was hacked and he was one of the spectators? It is politically incorrect to say this, but chances are he would have done NOTHING!!!
In the coming few days, we will see candle light vigils, group discussions on tv news channels. Streams of anguish and anger will pour in from all sides. But how angry are we? As angry as were we when we were fighting the British? Would we have got independence by lighting candles in front of the British.
And then there are marches which are a melas for all the Goondas in town and they have a field day burning and looting the cities and towns. There are issues where candle light vigils are acceptable, but genuine anger is NOT always satiated by some candle light marches. Where are the passionate and angry men and women who roared and fought against the British? Dead… Literally and Figuratively... The Bal Gangadhar Tilaks, Ambedkar’s, Bhagat Singh’s… These men had their flaws. Everyone does. But they stuck to what they believed in. They didn’t let up a few days after their protests went out of fashion. Where are genuine leaders and protests which do not die or back off till the issue is dealt with??
They don’t exist in today’s society.
Tee shirts, websites, candlelight vigils get this participation because there is no chance that the participants will be involved in any kind of “problems”. It is cowardice that draws in the crowds and not genuine sense of anguish. Yes, this makes everyone angry. How angry? As angry as when a boy breaks a vase at home. Momentary... Useless...
As for the goonda marches, I do not even want to write about it
I know I can do something. I could at the least try… I know the reader can too.. But will I? No I wont… Will You? Mostly not... I find it more comfortable to cocoon myself in the alternate reality of Role Playing Games where the good and the bad are clearly defined and I am the champion of the weak and I always do right things and I will partly assuage my nearly non-existent pride… What about you? How do you live with the reality that is India today?
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