I am alive.
So are you, my beloved reader….
Isn’t that a coincidence?
Cheers to our being alive.
Hopefully we will stay alive.
Mumbai (26/11/2008) has been covered extensively by all the news magazines possible… it gave birth to a whole generation of first time bloggers; it caused a stir strong enough to shuffle the ministry in the Maharashtra state as well as the center and it caused a cricket series to be called off midway. It made people cry and then wipe out tears in a patriotic gesture. It made a point blank statement…. “Who the fuck makes you think that you are safe?”
Neither am I safe nor are you… before this post is completed I could be blown off. Before you finish reading the post - bullets could shatter you! The team that would be appointed to investigate our death could be buried alive. And this chain of deaths would go on till not a single unprotected being existed. Who would remain? Ministers? Law makers? The white haired beings who organize conferences, frame resolutions and fail who adopt them?
I am sorry. I don’t intend to start a blame game all over again. It’s of no conducive utility at the moment. Right now, the situation is urgent enough to start ‘giving a damn’ about all that is going wrong. The SOS is loud and clear: “we got to live… and live like a true living being… enough of passive existence … we got to smash a few worthless faces... before we are worthlessly cold and dead!”
Mumbai (26/11/2008) has proved a point. Staying away from the battlefield will not ensure that bullets will not be fired aiming your heart. You may be leading a conventionally white life but black ashes could mar your face even before you realize. Standing face to face with our own degeneration what are we expected to do? Plan retirement solutions or communicate what we actually feel to the concerned authorities? Too many questions are there for offer but the enlightened beings can serve very few answers. Yet we stake our lives for the sake of these enlightened beings. We somehow fancy that the concerned authorities will chalk out something foolproof, forgetting the very crux that these authorities are Fools! Dangerous fools. Fools who strive to be feared. Fools like Raj Thakre, Narendra Modi and Anbumani Ramadoss.
When Mumbai lay bleeding ... where was that manus (human (!)) whose heart bleeds for the well being of Mumbai? Yes, I am talking about Mr. Thakre. What was he up to on 26/11/2008? Was he hiding under the bed, sobbing or was he reassured by some prior personal promise by the terrorists that foreigners were the primary targets? I was surprised when Thakre’s men did not prevent the north Indian NSG commandoes from entering the city. Yes, it was a pleasant surprise. But at the end of the day we cannot blame Thakre. He was just role playing as Satre would put it. Like a true politician he stayed away from the mess... he reserved his life for more insatiable causes.
Coming back to the discussion of white life and black ashes, isn’t it high time we develop an attitude that would add some more colors to our character? Long ago Gandhi said that an eye for an eye would make the whole world blind. When the world is already deaf, dumb and blind is Gandhi relevant? We can’t apply an irrelevant principle to the present scenario that demands urgency. An age old proverb could perhaps fit the bill: UNITED WE STAND. By unity I do not call for the utopianism preached by the redundant United Nations. The unity that could save us is something more... unity of anger, unity of anguish and unity of anxiety. If and only if we allow ourselves to be angry for a common cause can we actually make the white haired, the bald, the turbaned and the saree clad authoritarian heads realize that everything’s not okay. Doctors should be angry because the state lacks infrastructure to deal with emergencies, policemen should be angry because the weapons they are supposed to use are outdated, clergy should be angry because religion is being continually misinterpreted, the students should be angry because the state has no leaders, parents should be angry because so many children have died and god should be angry because if he is not he is an eternal paradox.
Once the anger waves unite and accumulate the nation is ready for a change. A change for the better. A change that would drive us beyond the clasp of myopic outlook and narrow minded combats. A change that would make the authorities realize for once that we cannot be governed that easily.
Violence for no rhyme or reason is unadvisable. But if we allow our mentally challenged enemies to slap us twice will we prove ourselves to be sane?
