A Day that will Live in Infamy |26/11

It was like any other day for most of us. I personally was working when my boss came and told me that he was glued to the TV and found it impossible to leave. It was the first I heard of it. I finally reached home at night and my granny  and aunt too were glued to the TV. The horror of the incident sank it and it was overwhelming. 

This was unprecedented and utterly shocking. To add to the horror was my astonishment due to the fact that the various news channels had used the footage they had, added some music to it and splashed some text to emphasise their own message. There was yet another channel where the interviewer 'X' asked 'Y', a lady, as to how she felt knowing that her husband was trapped inside the Taj. I was infuriated and wondered why these people were so insensitive and how they would respond if they were in the same position.

I'm not the impulsive sort, I wish I was, because I had actually, honestly wanted to book a ticket and rush to Mumbai and be there as it happened so that I could 'feel' the pain. The whole country watched those three tumultuous days on the TV but to be there at that point in time was an entirely different thing. Otherwise, I felt this would be like reading any other headline in a paper and forgetting about it. I had also wanted to write an article to a newspaper, which I ultimately didn't, hence this blog. 

The next few days after the attack, reminded me, of a book by William Shirer, who was a war correspondent posted in Berlin before and during the first few years of World War II. He describes painstakingly the atmosphere in the months, weeks, days before WWII began. Part of it had an eery resemblance to conditions at home and the other side of the border. Was this it, I wondered? Endgame? 

Among an early barrage of rebuttals by our neighbour, came an allegation that India herself had been involved in the attack. It reminded me of the Nazi Fall Weiss (Case White) Directive whereby they faked a Polish invasion into Germany to justify their invasion of Poland in 1939. India's Case White apparently. Obviously we all knew that a long, endless game of ping-pong had begun in the subcontinent. In the course of the last few weeks, interesting theories such as Kasab's death, Bangladesh's involvement etc. surfaced and the only direction left for fingers to be pointed, was up.

Obviously the Nations involved know what even a slight slip up could result in, that being said, no real action has been taken and bombs still surface in various cities across the country. Security in majorly populately areas is still in a pathetic condition and there are still opportunities waiting for these terrorists to strike again. When will we learn? Will we ever learn? Diplomacy is necessiated at times but to use it at the wrong time is a tragic blunder. 

Unfortunately, we all know the state of affairs and the light at the end of the tunnel is nowhere in sight, in the end, everyone loses and by the time any action is taken, all those poor souls that lost their lives that day, civilians and heroes would have faded away into obscurity.

-Nikhil

Idle Ramblings

The thing is, its really quite upsetting when it actually sinks in that we as Indians have still not forsaken the 'adjust kar le yaar' attitude. On the contrary, we've embraced it with a death grip and just refuse to let go. We're far more worried about being diplomatic and politically correct to even try and attempt doing the right thing. I don't intend for the above to sound out of  context but just to add some clarity, look around you, what I say will surely ring true. 

We have the world's longest Constitution, a plethora of brilliant laws and a system of governance which we inherited from the English, the greatest administrators of the world, the lifespan of their empire would justify this statement. The problem, however is that at the helm of affairs is 'the Indian'. The corrupt, conniving Indian who after making an illustrious, enthusiastic entry into the 'House of the People' changes drastically. Power corrupts and absolute power does indeed corrupt absolutely. 

Unfortunately, the underlying motive of the English in educating the Indians of the Raj was to employ them in the lower strata of Governance as subservient, obedient civil servants. The mentality of us Indians till date, seems not to have changed and we simply refuse to think out of the box. We still haven't come to terms with the fact that we are our own rulers. Or have we?

A few days back, we celebrated the glorious Indian Republic. Many people, I noticed in the papers and TV seemed to confuse Republic Day with Independence Day. How many of us actually know, to put it in as simple a manner as I possibly can, that our Republic Day is the birthday of the Constitution of India?

Everything in this country seems to still be about issues like caste, religion, linguistic differences. When will we learn? Indians are Indians. By repeating our 'social segregations', little do we realise that we are the ones who are in fact validating our social brackets and making other conscious of it. If you step into any means of public transport, you usually would be unable to look at a person and ascertain his 'social bracket'. Thats simply because we are all Indians. Only when we really forsake these man made distinctions can we truly unite and advance.

What is the purpose of this blog, you might ask yourself? Well, these are just a few of my random thoughts I wanted up on the net. The idle ramblings of an educated Indian. This is not my idea of an ideal debut online but then again, is there any such thing?

And who am I? I am just another Indian who knows a little bit about the law and  who wants to see India in her rightful place.

This is just the beginning and I promise, my future blogs will be more structured.

- Nikhil