Save Our Souls

I graduated from the Teach For India fellowship last week. With these lofty ideas that somehow I had helped mould the future for some children. And that these children will be the leaders a few years hence and their strength, courage and wisdom will be a deterrent to the darkness and monsters that run rampant now. I must admit, I was so preoccupied with the graduation ceremony, my part in it, what I’d have worn to it that for the days preceding it, I did not care what was happening in the country that I had so proudly helped (in my opinion) to shape.

Serves me right for living in a bubble.

The news incidents of the last couple of weeks have been the biggest antidote to my complacency of thinking that (attempts to) teaching children values like respect, empathy, friendship, grit, awareness is going to bring even the tiniest deviation in where we are headed as a people. For anybody to have a future, there is a precursor of surviving the present. Which is what seems most bleak now.

One of the things that we had learnt as a part of the fellowship was that to truly guide children to a better future, it was important to understand their truth. Only then would we be able to contextualize the hope that we could provide to them. Take out the truth and the hope might be false or not make sense. Take out the hope and the truth would suffocate them.

Cut to the present – in the last week itself, there have been numerous distressing, disgusting and depraved news incidents coming from all over the country; of people conspiring towards, committing or condoning violations like no other. And these were just reported cases. Who knows how many never got reported? Amidst news of people supporting, justifying and pardoning acts of rapes, murders, riots and massacres, I’ve been struggling to give myself even a sliver of hope.

And that reminded me of the balance between truth and hope.

Before I try to find that elusive bit of hope, I probably need to understand the truth behind these acts.

Now I’m asking this question to whoever can give me an answer with substance – What kind of human does one have to be to dehumanize an entire class of people based on their religion, social status, skin colour or gender? Forget a class, how does one dehumanize even one person? Is it something circumstantial? Psychological? Pathological? Genetic? Would something have gone wrong in their childhood? Or in their education?

I am trying to look for trends. Gender doesn’t classify – there are males and females alike. (Maybe the third gender will be our saviour. Who knows?) Maybe belonging to a particular Faith or Spirituality? Again, it doesn’t help. These perpetrators have included various spiritual leaders themselves (regardless of faith or being self-proclaimed or appointed). Educational background doesn’t seem to help either – we’ve had doctors, lawyers, police officers complicit in this. The only clause in educational background is that we don’t have set standards in or even a proper definition of education.

At this point, I don’t have any other clues. Hence the question – what does it take for one human being to look at another human being but not see them as humans? Until we understand, I doubt we will be able to devise deterrents or punishments. And until we understand this truth, any hope that we give ourselves will be as shallow as these threats to humanity masquerading as humans themselves.  

Someone had better start talking. And soon.

~K.

In the name of God

Or whatever else you may believe in - Country.. Religion.. Race.. Stop this nonsense. It is uncalled for. There's nothing... Absolutely NOTHING that can justify these acts of callous, barbaric, merciless acts of terrorism.

In the last five days I experienced shock, despair, frustration, disgust, anger, horror, shame, hurt, helplessness and sadness. All in extremes. So much that more than once it made me cry out of all these emotions that, until now, I never experienced together in a span of a week, let alone a day.
I heard myself thinking what's wrong with our eyes that a group of men can boldly walk into our streets and stations and cinemas and hotels loaded with ammunition and start firing bullets recklessly at innocent people around them and we come to know only when the gunshots continue for longer than 5 minutes. Is it that easy to conceal ammunition? Or do we suffer from the delusion that we are indestructible? Or is it simply a side effect of the "tolerance" that we, as a country, as so famous for?
I heard myself and my friends blaming the government. At their inefficiency in preventing the situation as well as in controlling it. At their incapability to provide security to the people they are elected to rule. At the lack of brains that they display with such insensitivity that it doesn't pinch them before making comments like "such things happen". At the lack of guts and spine that they display by submitting their resignations as their only way of accepting their failure. Does it not occur to them to stay and fight back and make sure that they bring the guilty to task and that their country and people don't have to face such terror again?
I heard myself cursing and damning the terrorists. I heard myself wishing the worst on people who masterminded and executed the attacks. The one in Mumbai as well as all others that India has gone through in recent times. What do these people want? When will they stop? Can't they see how wrong and futile this is? Aren't they humans too? Can't we do anything to stop them once and for all?
I heard myself muttering a "Thank God" after hearing that everyone I know in Mumbai is safe. And that their friends and families are safe too. (Thank God) As if it will somehow make the blow that we just received a little better. It still makes me feel like a hypocrite. This is not how I am.

I used to believe that what we need to do is to educate people. Once they realize there's more to life than fighting for petty differences like whose God is better, maybe we'll see the end of such wars. Maybe if people realize that there is so much more to channel their energies and ideas towards, we'll see more nations progressing - not just scientifically and economically but also morally. I used to believe that education and work would gradually replace religions and Gods all over the world.
Apparently I was wrong.

Suddenly I don't know what to believe, whom to trust anymore. Any face - young or old, could be carrying weapons that could put people like you and me in danger anytime, anywhere.

But somehow, somewhere inside my heart I don't want to think me or my loved ones could be at the mercy of any such inhuman souls. Borrowing from Godfather - it insults my intelligence. And hence, I keep believing in the strength that we derive from our ability to think straight. From our capacity to tell the right from wrong. But most importantly, from our desire to live with the respect and dignity that we deserve. And hence, I also believe that there IS something that we can do. All systems and societies that we talk about are made of people like us. The people who are trying to rip us apart also come from similar systems. They are not any stronger or more advanced or more capable than we are. It's time for us to get together and shout back - ENOUGH!


~K.

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I wish media would stop talking about "The Mumbai spirit". The spirit is undeniable. It's real. Mumbai will be back up on it's feet again. As it always has. But is that the point?

All Indians who are reading this and will be in India during the elections, please make sure you cast your vote. Register yourselves at Jaagore.com. It's a wonderful site that will give all registered users alerts about the election dates and polling venues based on the constituencies that they are in. It also gives extensive information about our election process, our government structure, the responsibilities of the elected representatives at various levels and a lot of other useful stuff that we might have read about in our Civics classes in school, but didn't care enough to understand then. Now is the time to revise it all.

Everyone, and I mean Everyone - please be a little more alert and aware about your surroundings. If there are security restrictions set up in your area of residence or work or recreation - please comply with them. Make their jobs and your lives a little easier. The underground subways in New York city have these posters in the stations and in the trains - "If you see something, say something." Let's follow that ourselves. Between paranoid and dead, what do you think is the better option?

To the innocent victims of those attacks - I'm sorry this had to happen to you. It was not fair. There's nothing that I can say or do that'll make things easier for your families. But I pray for them and you as I do for my own and me. God bless us all. Amen.

~K.

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What can we do? Here's what some people say -

Parul- She's linked to a few sites and posts herself... Do check those out too.

Mumbaihelps- Some links in this blog as well... Check this for example.

Stop Terrorism- Please! And don't forget to register.

Stay safe!

I quote ...

Mark Twain's works. Excerpts from his travelogue 'Following the Equator' —

"This is indeed India; the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence...the country of a thousand nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition... the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined...Its marvels are its own; the patents cannot be infringed; imitations are not possible."

India is my country. I love my country. And I am proud of it.

Jai Hind!


~K.