Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Remembering 26/11……

Hmmm…. Its been quite a long time since I last blogged…. Too bad I can’t seem to sustain it. What with all the madness that comes across at college and class that I am left with very little time to do anything else. But, there should be no excuses at all I guess…. As Indians we all tend to EXCUSE ourselves out of any of the commitments that we might make. Not only that we also tend to FORGIVE and FORGET.
As is the case with most of the court trials, this one too seems to drag on like a 70’s hindi movie. There seems to be no relevance as the story is spinning way outta track….. BAD DIRECTION! Though at first we were all enraged, shocked (you can include all the adjectives that u might have experienced)…. when we saw the audacious gunmen creating a virtual hell in the financial capital of India. We lost lots of people, people from all walks of life…. This was one place no bribery or corruption worked, there was just one place to go and the wild gunmen decided which way it was supposed to be. The sadness of it was magnified when we lost brave police officers and a brilliant, gallant and young commando. It is horrifying for me to sit in front of my terminal and recount what I saw on tv…. Imagine how the people who went through, experienced or met gruesome fates at the helm of the happenings would have felt? The media converted the incident into a Bollywood movie…. I feel enraged and ashamed even today that I sat and watched through the news listening to words like “The Drama unfolded…” or “The story so far…” and things like that. How can they call it a story or a drama? I mean it really is sad and outrageous that when people are going through hell the media call it a drama. A drama or a story is unreal; it is only stating things in a visually attractive way… But going by the visuals of the 26/11 attacks, I can hardly believe anybody could fancy them to be attractive.
I wouldn’t want to go into the details of the horrific turmoil that shook the very foundation of humanity and which also opened the deadly face of terrorism. Even after a year, we are sending dossier after dossier to Pakistan which in itself must make it clear that they have their hands full at the moment- what with all the internal disturbances which itself is facing; terrorism is not sparing even its own parent, it’s a shame… Perhaps this is how old parents feel when their ungrateful children drive them out; after they are fed, watered and cared for! Now what? How many of us even remember the faces of Omble, Sandeep and Karkare? It is sad that out of the few who really did their duties properly aren’t even remembered. It is even sadder that we not only forgot the martyrs but also the incident itself. We have now seen the country where a man was caught on camera along with hundreds of witnesses testifying that it was the same who with a gun in his hand wreaked havoc on the streets of Mumbai, and where is he now? He is now as I understand having the best food in his life, demanding luxuries like a Tv set for watching India-Pakistan play and throwing tantrums which even celebs do not! How much more complacent can we get?
It is time we stopped ADJUSTING! We adjusted ourselves to the British, we are adjusting ourselves to corruption and all the lawlessness that happens right in front of our eyes and we will adjust to all situations that endanger us as long as we are not the victims. And when we become victims we start BLAMING! We are not bloody politicians to do the blame game. Whichever news channel u surf, u can see people clad in kurtas and other traditional attire, speaking in idiotic accents with crazy language usages that would only put us to shame and make us wonder – “Did I really vote for this clown to sit there and talk nonsense?”
In no other country is there such a huge tolerance level. The US still remembers 9/11. Its still hunting for the people responsible. They don’t really care they are hurting religious sentiments – All they are concerned is about the safety of their people. Now isn’t it really the primary concern of any government? They didn’t care if the person was a president to a certain country and they didn’t care if he was a celebrated icon world over. All they cared was about the religion of the person since it is known world over and has been proved time and again that it is only people from that religion who are causing havoc. I do have friends hailing from the same religion and I do feel sorry for them since it is really sad that they’re subjected to this indecent inequality but as my friends themselves put it “We have to suffer what a few of the unfit people who call themselves to be the workers of God do. But actually, our God only says what your God does – love life and life shall love you!”
A famous poet once wrote “let me be by the side of the road and be a friend to man!”, we have embraced that to the last literal and have become what we are today. At least, let us make a simple start by taking some time out and remembering those who gave their lives away not just as an honor to their memory but also to remind ourselves that we should not forgive and should not forget those that held us and our country to ransom!