Yesterday was my birthday, and it was one of my first in Kolkata in many years. My friends had planned for a big celebration, a party and lots of fun. But it was a unanimous decision to cancel the celebration by all of us. Simply we didn’t feel like having fun. We didn’t feel like celebrating.
It’s not about me alone or my friends. It’s not about Kolkata also. I got a feeling talking to people around the country how shocked, angry, sympathetic, and lost they are now feeling. In fact for some people, who since long time stopped thinking but only living their lives, they have taken a break too, to think. And that’s the silver lining I saw. It’s an unprecedented event that brought the entire nation together irrespective of their religion, region, caste or creed. And it has brought them together against one big fat enemy – the power sucking politicians. (I was aghast to see Narindra Modi visiting the Trident and making that speech!)
Terrorism is a day to day affair now. It can happen anywhere, at any time. It can affect any one of us now. We are scared. We are skeptical. We are horrified. But we are united too – in pain, in courage, in support, in emotion. We, however, know that terrorism is something that we can fight staying united. We, however, don’t know if we can fight irresponsible and selfish men at power (or seeking to be at power) or trust them with our lives anymore. But it gives me a strange feeling in the corner of my heart, that today, when 1 Billion people stand together as Mumbaikars, tomorrow we can all stand tall as Indians – against terrorism and people who showed they never cared.
Leaving emotions aside, it has now become important that we, as common citizens of India, be more responsible for ourselves and other people around us. We need to be alert, helpful and cooperative. Let’s not wait until the gun is fired at my family, let’s jump when it is aimed at my neighbor too.
Suheil Seth, on a TV Channel, had said something important – “We want to be first world country, but we are third world in mentality”. I am sure he said that out of sheer exasperation. And I share his emotion. However, somehow as I said earlier, I get a feeling, that we have, over the last 61 hours reached our “Chakde India” state. And that’s all first world…
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Mr. Raj Thakrey, Welcome Home!
This time Diwali bought some mixed feelings to me. Of course, I was at Kolkata for Diwali after a long long time, and managed to light some diyas and burst some crackers at Kolkata, but a few incidents here and there put me in a rather thought full mode.
No. 1 was of course the killing of Rahul Raj and the shameless face of Raj Thakrey. I wouldn’t consider Raj Thakrey to be any kind of a political leader or any body for that matter, and I know he and his party is up to some mindless trick with the local people on issues that are non existent. However, given the fact, it has managed to trigger reactions from otherwise quite studious young men like Rahul Raj, who unnecessarily gave his life in the whole drama.
I have a few questions bothering me on this. Why did the Mumbai Police deploy such a big force against a “threatening” “criminal” who was scaring people with a country made pistol? The same police has so far, watched mutely, the beatings inflicted upon the poor “bhaiyas” by the MNS goons. Yes, of course there is more to this than meets the eye.
I was coming back to my home from my parent’s house the day after the diwali. Near my house, in a very modest neighborhood, there were these young slum dwellers who had organized a Kali Puja in their locality. Being lived in Chennai for 4 years, I was absolutely taken aback, when I heard the song “Appri pode” being played in the loudspeaker. “That’s a Tamil song!” I pointed out to my mother who was also with me. “So what?” she looked surprised…
I thought hard on this. For my mother who comes from an educated, liberal Bengali family, thinking like this was not surprising - we have grown up in such environment where every one is accepted at their own merit. But, for those who seem to have never gone to school, playing a Tamil song for one of their most important festivals, was surely something to think about.
In one of my earlier posts I had expressed my desire to import Mr. Raj Thakrey to Cuba. This time I think, I would like to invite him home.
No. 1 was of course the killing of Rahul Raj and the shameless face of Raj Thakrey. I wouldn’t consider Raj Thakrey to be any kind of a political leader or any body for that matter, and I know he and his party is up to some mindless trick with the local people on issues that are non existent. However, given the fact, it has managed to trigger reactions from otherwise quite studious young men like Rahul Raj, who unnecessarily gave his life in the whole drama.
I have a few questions bothering me on this. Why did the Mumbai Police deploy such a big force against a “threatening” “criminal” who was scaring people with a country made pistol? The same police has so far, watched mutely, the beatings inflicted upon the poor “bhaiyas” by the MNS goons. Yes, of course there is more to this than meets the eye.
I was coming back to my home from my parent’s house the day after the diwali. Near my house, in a very modest neighborhood, there were these young slum dwellers who had organized a Kali Puja in their locality. Being lived in Chennai for 4 years, I was absolutely taken aback, when I heard the song “Appri pode” being played in the loudspeaker. “That’s a Tamil song!” I pointed out to my mother who was also with me. “So what?” she looked surprised…
I thought hard on this. For my mother who comes from an educated, liberal Bengali family, thinking like this was not surprising - we have grown up in such environment where every one is accepted at their own merit. But, for those who seem to have never gone to school, playing a Tamil song for one of their most important festivals, was surely something to think about.
In one of my earlier posts I had expressed my desire to import Mr. Raj Thakrey to Cuba. This time I think, I would like to invite him home.
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