sajith | കരള്‍ പിളരും കാലം

Expecting to stay impervious to all this by staying away from newspapers, television, and blog noise as I usually do has turned out to be quite ineffective. Now that the weekend is here, I wondered if I could perhaps contemplate at my slow pace how we are all taking ourselves too seriously, how the murderers had taken themselves too seriously, and how all this could have been avoided had we all agreed upon our own insignificance and insignificantly short lifespans and the silliness of religions and national borders. Or dig out the significant news bits and factoids. Or dig out thoughtful analysis pieces and be able to think further.

How wrong I was. Clearly it does not work that way. I did worry about friends in Mumbai, and about those who deserved none of this. I however did expect myself to be able to give a nonchalant look, and avoid the standard emotion-led response. I am after all this guy who could stand by my own uncle's body and perform his last rites with complete detachment and could find humour in the rituals -- hey, he would look great at f/2.8 on Provia 400RXP in the glow of all these flames, and such.

How wrong I was. As I'm poring over the news, I find it hard to hold tears and fury and anger. Not breaking down is hard, close to impossible. Clear thinking is the last thing I can do now. I'm writing this down with hopes of revisiting this from another time, to gladly find out how wrong and uninformed I was again. That faith-foolish thing again.

***

Even in the recent history, India had this immense capacity to absorb everything, and set itself straight in its course -- the Delhi mass murder of Sikhs took place only two decades back, and look who we've for a Prime Minister now, for example. Or how a largely illiterate population set Indira Gandhi straight when she showed her fangs. Despite the numerous mutinies, we still manage to hold ourself together.

My intuition however says things will never be the same this time around. Pretty soon, quietude and normalcy will return on the surface, but only on the surface. Resentment and vengeful fury will seethe underneath, and eruptions are going to be far more frequent. What could be a more perfect recruitment chance for right wing militancy now? Aren't chances of living under further state control greater now? And greater amount of surveillance, and numerous associated inconveniences to be faced by ordinary citizens like us? To that extent, aren't we allowing the murderers to achieve their target? I'm afraid these are wounds time cannot heal, now that the rhetoric around deficiencies of Hindu tolerance will find greater voice and more takers.

I remember wondering at the somewhat self-inflicted ghettoising of communities around Delhi's Jama Masjid, Hyderabad's Makka Masjid, and the shrine of Hasrat Baal in Srinagar; and wondering why it has to be so. There's so much common to them. I remember how different my Muslim friends' lives are from what I'd seen there. I worry about them, as much as I worry about what future holds us for all. If subjugation was the problem as claimed by one of the murderers, every single community -- dalits, adivasis, Brahmins, north Indians, south Indians, north-east Indians, majorities, minorities, everyone -- in this country could take up arms.

My country, we did not deserve any of this. We never did.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

give me a hug brother. thank you for writing this.

Had to get that out.. and at least try to comprehend why things are the way they are.

many of us believe in Darwin's theory..some believe life began by some chemical reactions billions of years ago.. some believe in big bang.. and majority believe in God and religions and physical boundaries and what not.. and we have emotions

I'm not contesting any of this.

I get it totally. I have been so detached in the past and this time around, I couldn't control myself from breaking down... it all seems like such a monumental waste. Of lives, of money, of time, of existence... imagine the state of your mind if you spend all your life hatching up plans to kill others. Imagine all this meaningless trauma and chaos... all I can say now is, we have to move on. Take responsibility, take action, do whatever is needed. No blaming, no name-calling, no finger pointing. Just move ahead - educate, bring awareness, keep things in perspective.

Agree, but "whatever is needed" is actually quite hazy. :-)

That this thing has been on the rise, and strikes happen at the most unexpected places and occasions; and that apart from seasonal rhetoric and finger pointing, we seem to have no handle on knowing and solving the problem; and many of the proposed solutions are likely to worsen the problem -- this is worrying, to say the least. Old timers might say that we've seen worse (insurgency in Punjab, Nagaland, Assam, Tripura) and moved on, but that is hardly reassuring.

Maybe I am being naive about this. I dunno what steps the government can take to prevent strikes like these. But from the POV of the citizens, I think we could do with higher civic participation, demanding greater accountability from our officials and media agencies, educating our youth and inculcating human values (which, I am so happy to say, I am already part of, thanks to Art of Living), encouraging independent media agencies... in short, building our awareness, knowledge, capability and readiness to be a part of this mechanism of change.

I have no right to judge if this is naiveté or not.

I think all conflicts essentially trace down to absence of empathy, but I have no idea if this is a solvable problem. How can anyone ever know what's truly driving and what conditioned men that are willing to attack innocent people going about their daily lives? Other than that we're wired to be cruel to each other? My own anger and rage and sorrow are the result of that very wiring..

Sorry about pontificating. :-)

I kinda differ or maybe I can extend your thought to say - even absence of empathy, I feel, is due to lack of essential human values, misguded beliefs and ignorance. I certainly don't believe that we are wired to be cruel to each other.

I just hope a war doesn't occur...

Scary prospect eh? Since we and "they" have nuclear bombs, let's hope that chances of this happening are not great. I hate to admit it, but suddenly it appears that dealing with indirect war such as this is far less painful -- by sheer numbers, road accidents kill more people.

May be I am being a prick but wasnt this to be expected? I am not blaming the govt or anything...but if they could fly planes into the twin towers why not this in India? Why should they have not? I guess I am still detached, apart from the momentary shock and anger. But, "thinking clearly" it was just waiting to happen. There will be talk of a new agency being setup which may or may not see the light of day, a lot of muscle flexing and chest beating. But eventually, its still the same world. There is simply no going back. And while we are at it, nobody anywhere deserves any of this.

I know you know better than to blame the govt. The only course for them to take as you said was to go the "enhanced security" and snoop-around-everything way, which will inevitably curb individual rights. In India, that is still a long way off. But in the mean time, there will be a lot more of these "incidents". There is no one or nothing to blame. Religion is an obvious candidate, but we will always find reasons to hate one another. Religion just happens to be a helluva one. Candidate i mean.

Like he said, what I wouldnt give to see the world 50 years from now. I just hope, I can stay aloof all along. And my loved ones are not the people in the line of fire. Or me.

Honestly, something like this was to be expected. These incidents are on the raise; it is only a question of timing and location. For a motivated attacker, just about anything is possible here. Avoiding further incidents is a matter of chance.

I could argue that India has never been an aggressor abroad the way United States is, so we did not deserve any of this, but I can also sort of see the counterarguments. And counterarguments to counterarguments. I don't see why ordinary citizens should be subjected to this violence, and that doesn't imply anyone else anywhere deserves violence.

What worries me most is the certainty of this being capitalised. It's worked in one state, and I don't see why it is not going to be extended throughout the country. Well-meaning folks admire and defend Modi, and being as insular I am from the rest of the world, I imagine perhaps this is even a popular sentiment. I'm worried that the next parliament election and results are already predictable, and what follows could take us into another vicious cycle. Why worry about fifty years now?

Not you, but this "he" you've linked to has come across as one smug cynical prick, going by the most recent posts. Has he always been like that? Have you been influenced by that line of thinking?

Yup. Its a can do-will do situation. And there is no way you or me are going to counter argue using logic here. Dont we already know the whole thing is devoid of any logic and brainless.

Yes again. But what they fail to see is things are only going to get worse if they go the way of counter-strike. Whats the use? Theres no way any one can stub out this disease. Its spread way too much. Things are going to get worse my boy. I dont see a rash of brotherly love breaking out any time soon. We should have been born on the 60s i tell ya.

Oh yes I totally agree with you, he is a one BIG smug cynical prick. But I dont know if he's always been like that. And you accuse me of being like that? Innocent me? *blink blink*

I can be cynical. But never smug. Not enough confidence you see.

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