farishtey se behtar hai insaan ban na
magar isme lagti hai mehnat zyaada
(tr: It is better to be a human being than it is to be a saint/nevertheless it takes more doing.)
In the wake of Jessica Lal's Murdercase, Kuldeep's suicide and the actress shot in the head last night, it leaves one puzzled. Can one ever hope that the worst is over?
Denial has been our forte for generations. But it seems as if debauchery has taken on a human face. As if that was not enough, please read on for the latest to realise that perhaps the Devil is more real than we know and closer to us than we can imagine. For it is atrocious to believe that even in this day and age, humans can continue to be as insensitive and barbaric.
Two events telecast on television news literally left one choked for breath. The first was the rape of a 52 year old widow, by the 27 year old son of a leading mill owner of Mumbai, in his own Mercedes, in the vicinity of his mill compound, last night.
The Manu Sharmas of our societies are sprouting up at an alarming rate. What are we leaving our children as a legacy? An unsafe, devious world, where human life is the cheapest commodity? Where a woman is viewed as an object to be mauled, molested and abused at the first given opportunity? Imagine the reality of their ages - they could have been son/mother!
The paucity of values seems to be in reverse proportion to family wealth. It is a shame that pursuit of education is limited to enrollment in an elitist institution while upbringing and evolution relegated to the background.
Just last night I wrote an article Barefoot in the park. It seems as if it was Utopia I was envisaging: a place where people looked for the simple pleasures in life and embraced everyone in love and acceptance. It is truly difficult to be simple, therefore difficult to be happy.
I was wrong in even attempting to prove it otherwise. There are no takers for that kind of a world anymore, nor for those sentiments. There is no place for foolish romanticism. It is juvenile and naive to believe that some day there can be a world without tears, fears and grief and only an expansive sky of love above.
Paradise lost is not a myth, after all.
The harsh reality of the world we live in is difficult to swallow at times like this. We are all terribly guilty and are paying the price for not realising that we are nurturing a generation of misled and misguided children. We have failed miserably as parents. Either we drive our children to suicide or murder.
The second incident was the dual murder of a mother and daughter, both lawyers, in Delhi. The dastardly act was discovered only hours later.
Immersed in our selves, we are polarizing the society through money power or muscle power.
New laws are being formulated to prevent justice from being abused. Public disapproval on the scale witnessed recently has spurred action from the right directions. Promises from Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Abdul Kalam and their weight behind these issues will hopefully bring the desired results in eradicating the loopholes responsible for encouraging crime.
Perhaps this is the catalyst for change. Criminals fear of the common man's awakened conscience alongside active media participation has to prove to be a real deterrent, not just a paper tiger. One is seeing encouraging signs. Public gaze has to be fixed on the issue, no matter the clever manipulations for the opposite.
Will the interested Conspirators succeed? Will the proverbial 'short memory 'of the public bury the cry for justice? One does not know all the answers at this stage.
The least one can do is create awareness and hope it will create a ripple effect which will transform into a wave of change. One has to condemn without reservation, react as if it was one of our own that has been victimized. Or feel unworthy of being called humans.
Cross posted at Desicritics
This article appeared In The Times Of India-Westside Plus
2 comments:
the fight will be long and wearing down.. i have seen it at project why where the local politicos did everything they could - even threaten my daughter - to push me out..
but in the end they tire in the face of a spirit that refuses to say give up..
the only thing is to remain stedfast and not use shortcuts..
when the threats were made, i simply went to the police station and lodged a complaint which i have refused to withdraw..
today i am considered an oddity and the powers that be hope that the ripple i create will be insignificant and on the other hand the support one has got from the community after 6 long years of work is a force to contend with..
whatever fight we take on, one must be prepared for a long battle and few visible results..
but the first step has to be taken.. therein lies success
When it is a battle which does not have to do with personal grit, determination and gain, the rules and playing field are different.
Here what one was referring to was re-defining womanhood, not only in terms of self image, but primarily the males erroneous perception. When it has to do with basic nature and mind set of males, the ones in power, the decision makers, the givers of justice and the perpetrators, one is talking of war on a larger scale, than personal.
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