Friday, September 19, 2008

Free India

If you think that India is a nice peaceful safe place to live in then you are unbelievably dumb and misinformed. From terrorism to inflation, we have pretty much every single problem known to mankind. Most of the population is either stupid or doesn’t really care. I don’t mind these people, I have nothing against the mentally challenged or the apathetic. The people I really hate are the ones who know about these problems but still delude themselves and others into thinking that this dump is a great place to live in... I remember the pledge that we were to utter everyday in our school assembly... India is my country...all Indians are my brothers and sisters...I love my country and am proud of it's rich and varied heritage...

As kids, we were fooled...

You may argue that other countries have such problems too. The difference is, in India none of these problems are recognised, discussed or worked upon. Only a few major scandals even make it into the limelight and then the media covers it for days until the next celebrity comes along to be interviewed. However things that happen in daily life are ignored or accepted as part of life.

Ordinary citizens cannot highlight problems either. No one wants a visit from the thugs of a local politician. That’s what happens if you complain. Call the cops? What a joke. We all know the cops are corrupt scum who are only interested in how much money they can get out you.

You think we have freedom?

Welcome to India.

Only the other day the Indian Mujra-hideen sent a terror email from an insecure wireless network, an act the press respectfully informed us ” as hacking into a wireless account”. Bombs went off. People died. Which city was it that day?

Jaipur, Varanasi, Bangalore, Surat, Delhi, Mumbai or somewhere else ?

Does it matter to you or me as long as our loved ones are safe (for the time being)?

Does the significance of the fact that terrorists need only a few months to organize another high-profile attack, even after a few of them get arrested, sink into the national psyche?

Do we, as a nation, understand that the whole “spirit of the city” feel-good is nothing but an euphemism for people becoming so inured to flying ball-bearings and bloody corpses that they accept terrorist violence as a fact of life, like traffic jams and power cuts ?

Do people realize that when Shivraj Patil warns of “stringent punishment” to the perpetrators of the blast that he isn’t just re-reading the statement he prepared a few months ago for the last blast? Do the citizens know that once he has done with his “I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee” message of future retribution , that he vanishes into a dark corner, away from the national eye, where he puts on a Batman costume and personally hunts down the terrified evil doe-rs while riding his Bat bicycle?

Do I realise, that after every bomb blast or terrorist attack, I criticse my country and its honorable leaders more or less the same way, because I, like the nation, have nothing new to say or do?

Welcome to India. Welcome to our world.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

some of it is nice some generalization. there are good people and bad ones. in all spheres of life. shouldnt we also celebrate the good ones?

Shopno said...

we should, and we do - we celebrated when India performed well in Olympics.

But terrorism is something, we have been greatly unsuccessful in fighting - lets face it.

Anonymous said...

If everyone thinks like this, India will definitely do well in all sphere. Our biggest strength is our biggest weakness. Yes I am talking about 'Unity in diversity'. The diverse environment never allowed us to feel ownership towards our country, rather we always think about ourselves and our town, district, at the most state. We can not even go beyond state while SMSing in reality shows. Other unfortunate thing is, the statesmen do not think about country, and most of common people are escapist. They usually do not want to go into 'trouble'. Offcourse the infrastructure made them so. But somehow I have a feeling that had our 25 states been like EU countries or independent states like US, it might have been better. Anyways...nice thought and nice representation also.

Shopno said...

it depends - i still would like to believe in "the more the better" theory - so am not very fond of dividing any country... people and their thinking need to change. whats the guarantee that in a particular state which is homogeneous, everyone will have unity? If Bengal is one independent state today - will have Mamatas and Buddhadebs fighting forever!