DISCLAIMER: This is not exactly a Review, as one would expect it to be. It’s neither about creativity, or ‘original thought’. It is just some ‘intro’ (and ‘extro’) –spection, in times of disgusting, shameful and callous national tragedy. It is about US (as in Hum, not the US of A, which the word US first leads us to believe these days!).
BACKGROUND: Bombay has witnessed one of its worst days of terror attacks. This piece would not provide much that you already do not know, by way of News –value, unless the past 3 days you have neither had a TV-byte, heard a Radio-byte or discussed anything but work. I am presently outside India, at a place where NDTV and Aajtak do not invade lives like Omnipresent God-the-Almighty! Still, what I saw over the past 3 days does not permit me to, as usual, see it all and go back to my normal life, waiting for the next crisis.
VIDEO: I am embedding a video footage which I found PERTINENT at this point of time, from a Times News Interview. Sohail Seth speaks out, to Arnob, of his reactions, emotions and sentiments, after his having been a near-witness to the happenings at Mumbai's Taj.
Many have spoken, some qualified, others ‘qualified by media’. Hot words, pointed fingers and live tongues have been dime a dozen on TV the past few days, for once forgetting borders, colour and accent.
But this one, I found hard-hitting, in the hardest sense of the phrase. If you can hear this out, without your blood boiling or your fist clenching once at the way the maggots that we call ‘politicians’ manipulate us and our conscience (whatever is left of it), then BRAVO! You are the most resilient and Commandoe-sque of them all! Pray, do not switch off your connect to reality as you hear the words of Sohail, instead, realize, you may have been right there at the receiving end of the mess. Then try to evaluate your current position today as a human being in the Great Democracy!
CRUX: Terrorists sail in by boats, some check-in into hotels a few days before and like in the movies, they come out, guns blazing, mowing down as many as they find. Hijack a police van and use THAT to reduce humans to a mess of blood, soil and ammunition. Set monumental buildings on fire, detonate a hundred grenades, hold a score of civilians hostage, toss some more grenades into the bystanders for added colour and, the setting is made.
The Police Headquarters being right next door is no help. The police wakes, slumbers to the scenes with lathis and government-issue guns made to shoot pigeons and get mowed down themselves. The better-equipped Anti-Terrorism Squad steps in, but unfortunately, these terrorists are no Dawood-cousins. Casualities at the highest levels of the ATS ensues.
As usual, India remembers that they have someone who they can rely on, though they arenever remembered otherwise, excet as 'numbers dead'! The 3 services and the NSG are called in. They do what they can, in an environment they were never in nor meant to be – 5 star hotels! Amidst smoke, raging fires and strewn bodies of those dead and those not-yet, they slowly take ‘control’ of the arenas of terror. More than a hundred have died, half a thousand are injured and the entire nation is one, in pointing a billion fingers at Pakistan, expressing awe at the incidents, providing the TV Channels 24-hour eyeballs, paying tributes to the ‘valiant Military and the Commandoes’ and shrugging in disbelief that ‘all this could happen right next to us’. Not too far to when and where the word '"next to" would get deleted. Slowly, painfully and dutifully, everything returns to ‘normal’, and the nation forgets everything until the next crisis! Truly, a nation of more than a billion, resilient, brave and living it, from crisis to the next crisis!
SO?: The country, I am given to understand from my high school classes, is governed by some folks who are elected by Adult Franchise, by those among us who are free on Election Day. They are, by law, supposed to do stuff for us which makes us happy and delighted at being Indians, provide good roads, schools, hospitals and food for us at affordable rates, employ a lot of people and in general, ensure, by the Police and the Armed Forces placed ‘under’ them that we, the people, can live free and fair, with no fear for life, property and faith.
But Brutus is indeed an honourable man! It has just been 61 years since they have seated themselves in seats of formidable power, and we give them just 5 years. Ere they live in those plush bungalows and save up some money for their ‘after-service’ years, and there, we, the people change them for someone else. How much can a politician do? True!
And how much can WE do, right? We are JUST the common man, the aam aadmi, as my friend Paulose calls himself here on Mouthshut! What can wedo? We can only elect (office and personal life permitting) folks who talk well to us about “Future is Bright, Future is Orange”. We can only listen to miserable speeches from Red Fort, TV studios, a helicopter or from a tour onboard, generally before an election, or after a crisis. What more can we do?
POST MORTEM: We have become numb. We have made ourselves out to be handicapped, helpless and infant. We have failed, as human beings. We may have succeeded in securing 6-digit salaries and 2-digit GDPs, but we have failed to realize that none of these mean a thing to someone wrapped in white, with a few flowers placed on them and a few cries of despair around them. We need to be Alive, to be able to Live and Enjoy what we earn, with our near and dear. And, if the people who govern us don’t do a thing to make sure we CAN LIVE and Live in Peace, it’s time to ‘Kick As’, as the heroes say! If you are still asking “Whose?”, then it may as well be yours, or, mine!
You look at the mirror every month and realize that the mop is unruly and you are not at best, and head to the saloon to do ‘something about it’. But remember, you may look very bad indeed, if you don't have THAT HEAD OVER YOUR SHOULDERS, some day! And if things at present are anything to go by, we may as well start a Club called “Kal Ho Na Ho” and start living it up every day, if only to avoid grunting once dead!
ADD-ONs: What do the folks of the Armed Forces get in return? No, not just non-recognition! When a COBRA Battalion asks for better helmets, the babus issue helmets to only ‘team leaders’! Does that mean the others of the team are as metal-headed as the policy makers in Parliament that they need no helmets?
THINK n ACT: Can the Politicians ever get better? Can our wives and children ever live without fearing for their lives or our ours? Can we do better, at the next crisis, for its sure that we are not in a position to avert the next crisis which is just round the corner… NOT JUST YET, FRIENDS!
Do you have any ideas on what WE can do, or what is ahead of us, if we do or if we don’t? Please use the comments sections for those, not for remarks of ‘good review’ et al…. we have just had a wee bit too much of platitudes. Let us now think what we can do, for ourselves, if not for the Country!
And, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU, Sohail, for saying What was in My Heart, the Way I Never Could Have!
