Friday, December 5, 2008

An old gossiping women that we are

A semester came and a semester went by, and amid the cruise I comfortably ignored the torpid existence of my blog. Such things never happen for the first time with me, and especially if we are talking negligence and unaccountability. You can say, I have a history. But all things apart, I no longer fancy stretching this post with inconsequential fables of my life. I would have wanted that a few days back, but not now. I'll reserve that luxury for the subsequent posts. Right now like everyone else in the country, my thoughts are predominated by the terror attacks in Mumbai and our own inability to protect ourselves from such intrusions.

About 10 days ago, terror shed it's shadow on our beloved city Mumbai. Dark chapters are registered everyday in this country's history, whether they are communal riots, wars, discrimination, bigotry, corruption, shameful political dramas or terrorist attacks. This year we had seen it all. 64 bomb blasts in last 6 months. But this time it was far too much adventure, far too much destruction. A boat walks right from Pakistan, straight into the heart of our city creating havoc, leaving hundreds dead and a nation mourning.It wasn't just a terror attack, it was a proper foreign invasion. I don't know what to feel; feel sad, feel anguish, frustrated, stupid, dumb or what.

I no longer feel secure going out shopping now.My parents forced me to call off the Goa trip we were so excited about. England team withdrew it's tour midway, fleeing back to the safety of their nation. No champions trophy this time. No tourist outburst for the Incredible India. It's a financial loss running down in billions, and it's loss of faith and security. Maybe that's what these terrorists wanted to achieve. And maybe I could safely claim, they have not disappointed their masters. But yet again preserving our wonderful record, we easily let things happen. Where was the security ? Where was the intelligence? And why do we turn diligent or start contemplating only after adversity dints it's way into our lives? This time we have been rendered naked and everyone can see how just unprepared we are. It's not about a security lapse. It is about our thinking and our mentality.

The reaction of the government, those wonderful statements that government issue right after such a disaster, sometimes they so make me feel if I could just evaporate into thin ether. It is at these times I feel so disgraceful being an Indian. Look at Israel, these fanatics kill their 2 citizens and they strike them right into their heart. These terrorists won't dare spell Jihad against America again. And see what we Indians do. We condemn these attacks. A few years back, Bangladesh killed our 16 soldiers in an erratic aggression on eastern borders. Now a country like Bangladesh which can't stand a chance against our might, dares to kill our soldiers in a fight born out of our sheer passiveness. And still what we do, we condemn the attacks and we pass a proposal in parliament 6 months later denouncing the attacks and promising to take action by building diplomatic pressure on the neighbor. Can't you sense this is what old fearful women do. Men strike back, once and for all and the enemy conceives a 1000 times before daring such a feat again. Old fearful gossiping women lay quite enduring all the pains while men rule the world. America never needed the consent of world before evading Iraq. No protests around the world or even in it's own territory ever mattered. While we, we Indians, after all such attacks try to prove America and the world that our Neighbors have been involved in fostering terrorism. We seek permission from the world to take actions. We are so feeble in taking decisions ourselves that at virtually every point we affirm that we are still slaves. We will take lots more time to break the thousand year tradition of slavery. Why don't we just accept it ; we are just too soft to live in this world.

Of course, we live in a nation that has served under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and likes. They taught us non violence and peace, the universal values that remain valid even to this date. But surrendering over to these values while terrorists roam fearlessly in our country and ripping apart bodies of our people is not practicing non-violence. If somebody threats your existence without any sane reason to do that, you have full authority to wipe them out of their roots. I don't think we need any permission from anywhere around the world to hunt down these terrorists if we are sure of their hide-outs. We need a strong leadership, one that can use all the diplomatic weaponry to choke the finances these terrorists are thriving upon and which can summon the defenses for an invasion right into their centers if the need ever arise. We are in paucity of good leaders and our corrupt and impotent political system is incapable of fulfilling that demand. If you look at the core, the solution lies in the change of mentality, change the way we think and all the changes will trickle down to other factors consequently.

The only positive this entire episode has brought with it is a sense of awakening. People are getting united to fight terror, and not just terror, they are raising their voice against the crooked and fraudulent political system. People from all walks of the life belonging to all factions of the society are gathering to express how annoyed they are. The politicians of our country, the dirtiest creatures ever to assume life, they have finally started to hear our cries of belligerence. I can't infer that this incidence can spark a revolution. But slowly things will change, as they are changing now. Democracy is the last revolution in a democratic setup, rest all other changes take their time to happen. Change is bound to ensue, as our society is undergoing transition and as our youth is becoming more responsible and expressive. But I fear, there will be still many more attacks that'll follow before we can break the mind barriers that has enslaved us for centuries. Many more soldiers, many more brave officers will lay down their lives for our protection. This nation can never forget their sacrifices. They died by the bullets of terrorists, which pierced their brave souls as a consequence of decades of treachery by our politicians. They are no less than terrorists, even more foul. And we have our own contribution in their making. This is a moment of shame for all of us. It's time to regret and cry, but more than that to learn a lesson, so that we can undo the mistakes that has brought us here. This nation is like our mother, a diseased one, but still she do everything to nurture us. It's time to pay her back.

The only concrete solution to this problem, I'll stress once again, a change of mentality. Once we promise ourselves that we'll not tolerate anyone exploiting us, whether they are politicians or terrorists, all problems will meet their solutions in the aftermath. Good leaders will come out from good people and they'll serve the wants of this nation through democratic channels. All we requires is to break that barrier that has been binding us for long. We need to believe that we can invoke a change. It is tough, but unless we believe in ourselves, there is no progress we can make.

An entire semester came and an entire semester went by, as everyday I saw a quote on my notes register


"The Person who cannot believe in himself, cannot believe in anything else"

I saw this entire story and then I remembered this quote by Roy L. Smith. Suddenly Everything started making sense.


P.S : I request the people of this nation to live like men, but I nowhere want them to perceive that I am a male chauvinist.

P.S.S : That was a DJ !! ( Dang Joke, a step below PJs)

P.S.S.S: Jokes apart, I'm very serious about this post.

6 comments:

  1. @Amit Kumar
    You know dang we are NOT an old gossiping women and you know what I mean by this. May be the time is bad. But our reaction or rather response to such incidences can't be better than this.
    We have a bright future ahead...

    @Dang
    beta itne dinoan ke baad..
    sahi hai..
    ab mat chhodna
    some people WAIT 4 ur posts..

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  2. @ Rahul

    Thanks for ur compliments. But if you can muster all the history in your mind, you'll realize how long we have taken to respond to such attacks. The repeated attacks by the terrorists are only due to the our own weakness and ignorance. The times are changing and I couldn't have agreed more that future is bright for us.

    But it will still take a lot of time. One incident can't change centuries old mentality.
    It can just catalyze the transition

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  3. Very rightly put. Especially the title. I think it really symbolizes us.
    Good to see that you touched this sensitive topic. No one on the blogosphere did. Little depressing.

    Waiting for more.

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  4. thanks for that...

    I was a little too upset with all that has happened, as all of you must have been. And the fact that I was badly searching for something for my next blog post connected well with my recent sentiments. The fact that there were too few comments was a bit discouraging, but I'll owe it to negligible activity in blogosphere.

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  5. Oh so ur back... Good Dang good...
    These attacks are indeed shocking. They did manage to hit my city and country badly enough. But atleast the common junta has woken up to an extent. Politicians however squabble over relocation of cabinets post attacks...
    And yes they indeed are taking SOLID ACTIONS and PUTTING PRESSURE and FORMULATING FUTURE STRATEGIES blah blah blah...
    I wish the attack was on parliament house or on some state assembly with a session ongoing...

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  6. I don't know how far will our diplomatic efforts will take us, but we surely need to be more aggressive. I just hope that like any other thing, short term public memory may not spoil or slow down our efforts

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