Ten men walk into our lives nd destroy it in all possible ways. We kill nine & capture one! He is young, educated & quite presentable to be honest. Different stories surface via various news channels (All claiming it to be EXCLUSIVE & through a very reliable source); Few are worth reading while the rest seem to be a mere gimmick by the channels to increase the respective TRP ratings.
What happens next? ‘Indians’ around the country or for that matter around the globe start offering ‘THE SOLUTION’. Some say bomb Pakistan, some suggest a subtle action within the boundaries of UN nd then we have those who just don’t even give a fuck – not ‘cuz they dun care for the country but ‘cuz they have become immune to such attacks!
Our mobile phone is flooded with texts about the next ‘peace walk’ or some message to be forwarded to all Indians so that ‘WE’ can take things in our hands & solve things the ‘right’ way. Millions of emails are been pushed out by the second, so much so that the automatic system designed by email providers are identifying such emails as SPAM mail!! Do we have any solution?? Umm… NO!
Today all the newspapers are having a field day with the ‘one-month-anniversary’ of the gruesome attack. It provides for quite an interesting read simply ‘cuz we (Matured & Responsible Citizen of India) are still provided with different versions of the event. To be honest, if you were to read all ‘stories’ minus the headlines & character names; I am sure you would have mistaken it for various bollywood movies - Full of suspense, horror, action etc. It’s like the numerous versions of Bhagat Singh movies which were dished out in the last couple of years... Different directors, Different actors, Different budget, Different storyline – Just Different!!!!
Am I one of those who don’t give a fuck about his country? Those who have given up hope? Those who want a change but have no clue what it actually means? Those who know how to complain but are too fucking lazy to make anything happen? Maybe I am … Maybe I am not … Maybe you & I share the same feeling of anger, frustration, defeat, helplessness, hate … Maybe not.
Here is how I spent the last one month.
§ I watched the ‘Live & Exclusive’ coverage of the incident on about six channels!
§ Discussed the issue with my friend’s nd family for the next 3 days.
§ Chose not to be an easy target for another attack & opted out of the peace walk
§ Discussed the issue with a new bunch of friends
§ Zoomed off to attend my brothers wedding
§ Discussed the issue with my relatives from other state & shared there reactions from the Jaipur bombing (Do we have any answers for that?? Umm... NO! )
§ Laughed at the blame game played between our ever fascinating ‘leaders’
§ Got busy with the wedding & thoroughly enjoyed every moment
§ Discussed the wedding and the terror attack with few foreigners on my way back to Bombay & noticed that they cared more about the wedding!
§ Found no change in the security at the airport or police in general
§ Ignored the discussions carried out through emails & text messages
§ Conveniently forgot what happened at Taj, Oberoi, Trident, Leopold & CST
You will receive 903, 000 results in 0.07 seconds if you type Kasab on google search. Who the fuck is this man? Correction – Who the fuck is this boy? Pakistan has refused to recognize him even though it’s ex president has gone on national television commenting about Kasab’s family & village in Pakistan! If you view his photo’s, video’s & confessions (questionable), your brain is bound to work double time in order to figure out the most horrific death for him – knowing that it’s perfectly alright thinking about it ‘cuz its bout a guy who blindly shot a million rounds & wanted to kill everyone in sight. To make things even worse he even goes on record nd says ‘No regrets’. I’m no different from you; I have a list of ten possible ways of getting rid of this boy – Our ‘united’ government can choose one or decide to use all at once! Either ways it’ll send out a specific & strong signal to all those who plan to execute similar ‘duty’ in the future... BUT will it guarantee peace in our country? Umm... NO!
I wanna hold my neck out & pose few more questions. Maybe you have thought bout it …but then maybe not!
§ Has anyone tried to find out what made this teenager take liking to such high end guns & actually believe in the slogan ‘Kill till the last breath’?
§ What could possibly make a human sacrifice his/her own life – be it for another person, religion or any other cause?
§ How is he different from a child who might have seen his father getting slaughtered while his mother & sister were getting gang raped?
§ Does he deserve to live?
§ Is he actually alive?
I don’t have any of the answer & most probably will never have but I do know that I am a changed person. I no longer question the system or point finger at the corrupt leader. Not ‘cuz I don’t give a fuck about what happens us ‘Indians’ BUT ‘cuz I have realized that I cant keep pushing the problem on someone else & take the easy way out. I have been irresponsible & ignorant towards MY country & I am paying for it today. I am paying for it not through the taxes but through the loss of the secure feeling that I once roamed around in the city, through the lack of trust in the person sitting next to me in a train/bus/restaurant, through the lost hope for a better future for me & my loved ones.
I am paying very dearly & yet I am trying to find some new and easy way out! But is running away from such issues in life an option? Umm… NO!
Pardon me for not saluting the “Spirit of Bombay” … Its does not exist! The only thing that’s keeping an average individual going despite the traffic, corruption, pollution, diplomacy, floods & terror attacks is the NEED to earn money to satisfy the everyday necessity of his family. Which sane person would want to live in this city? But do we want to contemplate that choice? Umm… NO!
I come in Peace
Vish
10 comments:
Hope its a good read for you Pragati :)
It will begin to matter once it seemingly stops mattering.
Time will pass on and the 'healing; will chase time as it passes on!
A few things -
1) Kasab is extremely uneducated. He is a dropout. Get your facts right my friend.
2) He was chosen because he had no affiliations to the seven sins. Hand picked walking grenade. You talk to any Indian soldier at Siachen he will be no different trust me. Patriotism comes with a madness and that needs a lot of space in ones brain.
3) About what we can do? Isnt that we are all asking these days. Sometimes talking about a problem often gives us a solution unthought of. Whats stopping us from encouraging our teens to join the army, navy and air force? Whats stopping us from being a police man? We are selfish humans. And no harm there to be honest, but are we fair in what we are currently doing? No. That sucks isnt it?
3) About how militants are made. Dude how was MNS made? How were those north indians beaten in their own land? Fanatics! Thats the word. Brain wash. Hunger, food, water, family's well being. Can we ever stop this conversion? This falling down of weak people around us. No? All we can do is everytime someone like this crops up, we cut. Cut like a butcher. But are we strong enough to know who to cut? May be not.
4) Bombay. This reminds me of what they said in the movie A Wednesday. We are resiliant by force and not by choice. We cant afford cowardice. We simply cant afford. You and I cant travel from Kharghar every day in a cab can we? So whats the option? Train! There is no better way.
5) Options to India. Sometime back for my management studies I used to read Peter Drucker. One thing that stands out is something called a Gurrilla war. This is marketing technique. But in today's world of terror may be this is the option. Whats stopping us from declaring peace? Hear me out. Declare peace and keep quite for a year. Liberalise rules in Kashmir (yes, invite them). When they step their foot into kashmir, aim and shoot on their forehead. Foil 10 such attacks in India. They are going to get super frustrated. Thats being a piped pier of Hamlin. Bring them out. Thats enough evidence.
Creation of NIA (National Intelligence Agency). Who do they report to? Whats stopping us from making an internal security council that will directly report to the PM? Is our spy network strong enough to give us information well in advance? Whats our infrastructure to act on such information? We need money to set this right. Why isnt Infosys coming in the front and offering a hi tech software to navigate our seas? Why isnt satyam offering its networking paradigm to locate fake PAN cards or identification. Whats the hurdle? We are too self centred.
At the end, we need a very strong international lobby to help us move further with our claims. If there isnt anyone backing us, we can all rest at home wait for another attack and dance like marionettes to hear the next symphony of destruction!!!!!!!!
Good luck!
Appreciate your comments my dear friend & frankly I agree with all but one .. What is education? Isnt it teaching children & young people about something specific? Would you say that Dhirubhai Ambani, Bill Gates & Sachin Tendulkar are uneducated because they do not have any college degree like You & Me? I guess not :)
Vish,
I am glad you wrote it butyour views are very narrow.
First of all,you should really see that the media is trying to let people not forget what happened for those 59 hours in Mumbai, that's its not like another attack that can be forgotten.
It's more like we dont want it to be any other terror attack coz next time it could be you and me.
-Since 26/11, I haven't done any other story on my show for a month.
Kasab was hand picked because he had recieved no education,coz he hasnt spoken to his parents in years, coz he was single.
He was handpicked and brainwashed by people like Lakhvi to be turned into fidayeens and militants.Look up Lakhvi, he's caused a whole lotta mayhem in Punjab and J&K.
Lakhvi has gone to the extent of sacrificing his own son.
Despite putting such stories on air,I have no sympathy for people like Kasab.
Like him,everybody has their own messed up lives, own perceptions to what is right and what is wrong.
But tearing a whole city down,by killing 203 people,that is wrong.
And there are no two ways about it.
You come in peace Vish...
I'm sure if you asked Kasab and company before that fateful day, they'd say the same...In a broader sense they too came in peace-but for someone else...
Peace is a perception game nay? In a day and age when nations have drawn boundaries and people live stifled within them...
Anyway, point being, this morning I read that corporates came together to provide relief funds to families of all those who lost someone in the attacks. The stipulated sum was 25k, these families ended up getting 33k...and will do so every month over the next 5 years...I'd say that's a start for corporate initiative...
And for a solution, maybe you should Wikipedia Mossad...It'll probably run a chill down your spine, but I really think it's very close to what we should be doing to rid ourselves of this evil...
Let's chat about this once you're done reading :)
Wether it was bombay or any other place in this world the point here is to identify and understand the key elements and fight back the root instead of superficially treating things the way they hit everyone...
people (citizens) need to be accountable towards their own behaviour and it is for an individual to realise ones responsibilites instead of targeting or questioning the authority and the people around...The peace march a week after the attack brought a wave of hope and light but as u rightly said WHAT NEXT WHERE NEXT
it is cynical to experience such horrific situations and yet manage to be unaware and unbothered after few weeks...this is Mumbai Spirit!!! hard, cruel and political....
Kasab is uneducated,bt u and i are not!! What have v done for OUR country? 4gt the country what r v doing for OUR own city except for venting our frustrations like this or pointing fingers at sum1 else...
How much were we affected when the blasts happened in the rest of the country?? did any1 bother to write about that? y r v all awake today? wasn't it our country then or is it just about MY CITY!!
Inspite of all this are v ready to let go of our comfortable cushy jobs, go out there and become politicians & atleast TRY to change things?
Lets face it v r just a bunch of self centered individuals who can't and WONT think anything beyond our OWN comfortable lives..
will i ever change?? will i ever do anything for my country,,my city?? Mayb.. mayb nt..
Other than tht...however crazed out our media might be. Please remember the fire has been kept alive due to constant coverage. Lets not blame,for a change!
We forget v easily...we remember cuz we are shown those same visuals again n again...
We talk about it.
We are sad.
We are angry.
We wanna do something about it.
A friend of mine has offered a solution and wants to work on this path..
http://subiragrawal.blogspot.com/
chauhan...well written..but there is a lot more than meets the eye..u have written abt not wanting to play the blame game..thats ok...terrorist ke baare mein baad mein baat karte hain..pehle tell me. what do u have to say abt our commandoes - after almost 70 hrs of risking their lives for people like u and me ...so tht we can live in peace ..for people who were suffering trapped inside..and for their relatives who were suffering even more outside...all they got in the end was a drop backin the fucking public transport...thats for our "real heroes" , but when our men in blue won the fucking world cup...they were treated like they just won the fucking WAR...who is to be blamed for all this...? yes to a certain extent people like me...who followed the men in blue all the way to get a glimpse of them...what did I as a responsible citizen of India do when the real heroes were being treated like trash? if i can answer this ..only then will i think am capable of answering bigger questions which u have asked in ur blog..every1..from the citizens ..to the ministers ...are to be blamed for whetever has happened..we all say steps need to be taken to get rid of terrorism..but as u rightly asked...who wil take the first fucking step...??
lets start wid the citizens...u and me...do u ever vote ? do u have ur voting card...so tht u can choose the right person for the right task...i voted just once...and i realise thats gonna be my first step to eradicate terrorism...
Our ministers :) tell me 1 guy who u think looks responsible...for a martyr ..they say no dog wud visit his house...well...I see a bright India...
the police guys at CST..unbelievable but TRUE...didnt know how to fucking fire a gun...who's responsible for tht ...our cops still use their lathi's ...facing a AK47...who is to be blamed to have chosen such guards...??? and whose responsibility is it to make sure that these guards are well trained...?? Def not u and me ....
am sure u've heard abt the bombings in GAZA...thats the way to end terrorism....U attack us once...we bombard Ur fucking country...But we .."Indians" r still trying to figure out..who was kasab and where does he belong..? who made him a terrorist...? dont we all know the answers ...what r we doing abt it ?? Nothing....writibg blogs...commenting on it...watching some more breaking news...where Pak refuses to accept kasab as a national..and watch some more training camps ..and ....FORGET ABT IT..
i spoke abt a lot of things related to this the initial few days...attended the peace rally..what happened...? HOw did i help...?
the fact is that u and me...as citizens of our country...cant do a shit abt terrorism...we know nothing abt it...we see and believe what we are shown on TV...how much of it holds true...fuck knows !!
U spoke abt kasab being educated...u r right...he is educated...but what has been taught to them...r u even aware ? Didnt u see the "breaking news" a few days ago...where they showed text books of schools in Pak? sure if thats the kind of education they get there..terrorists will be born...
people like us will be a target..and crib abt it for a few days...then forget abt it ...in hope for a better living..peaceful living ..a safe country...!!!
I know people who were trapped inside for almost 13-14 hrs...and they will have a different story to tell than u and me...
lets hope for the best yaar...lets hope we can sumday figure out the root cause ..!!!
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