The Reason

In lieu of the recent events that transpired in Delhi where a girl, only in her school, was found dead, murdered or otherwise, on her way back from a school outing, has brought to light the need for an understanding of what the young ones today are looking for. There is speculation that there was a lewd MMS that was made of her and the trend of these MMS clips being uploaded is shocking. There is the matter of choice but at that age is choice merely a word that the dictionary professes exists. Is there then a black and white or is there a murky Grey that covers all that occurs with the young and the restless today.

It is the age of exploration, and anyone who tries to convince them otherwise, is what literature terms a quixotic tilt at the windmills. Truth be told, I have to date, not really sympathized with the metaphor I used for the turmoil that every individual undergoes in their late teens, but it is a gargantuan waste of time for any individual to counsel a child at that stage of their lives about companionship, sex, right and wrong! However, can we influence the choices that they make? Can society play it’s part in ensuring such incidents do not reoccur? My take. Yes! Though whether it will occur is as one turbaned individual who professes his love for cricket as Brad did for Jen a second before Jolie called on the secret BradJolie phone would say, umm … Sorry Sidhuisms were never my forte! It would be fair to say that in the year 3020, if earth still exists, and if Humans have not become extinct due to the lack of oxygen, or the ozone or commodes that can wash themselves clean, India would still be governed by a aged set of ethics that are as two faced as Two Face himself. Batman unfortunately is a comic book character and though I have at times looked upon him as a career option, there are specific economical requirements that I do not fulfill for the application.

As a society, India thinks that people under the age of 20 are not going to explore possibilities of companionship. Whether this is India’s version of, literally put, the Bulls Fecal matter, or whether it has forgotten how to metamorphose with the sands of time, is something yet to be studied and acknowledged. Along with a catastrophic lack of education there is, for the woman in India, a surprising lack of freedom. This in a country where the ‘Devi’ is worshipped and the woman is looked upon as a symbol of power and love all rolled into one. The lack of freedom coupled with a patriarchal society that scrutinizes every move of the virgin woman, rapping her on her fingers when she makes a move outside of the box now drawn for them and admonishing their needs into a locker we now call ‘Feminism’. Freedom is a point of view, something that emerges as the second’s hand moves slowly from the 10^th to the 11^th second. And when freedom strikes, the uninformed, suppressed woman of today takes a dive into the acid pool of either erroneous companionship or fallacious carnal fulfillment. If the Indian woman is capable of coming to terms with her disappointments, the situation would have been under control. But alas! Society re-intervenes, making certain she is neither at rest nor is given the respect that is due to her kind! This, of course, by a society that hides from their children and watches debasing clips through the revolution that is internet or switches on to their local channels to watch voluptuous incarnations of their sullied minds. What does that uninformed, suppressed woman do then? She finds refuge in the unwashed tracks of the Indian Railway System or finds a way of earning a life with her final benefactor, the non-existent lord of the nether worlds!

Who do we blame then? The non-existent lord of the nether worlds? The Society that has a chameleon fabric? Rather than pass the baton, look in the mirror! That’s the reason for it all. Now go and find abode in the non-existent lord of the Nether worlds!

The Last Fight

Of retirements plans and time crawling, of soppy forwards and the number 40, of forwarded trips and the spelling of kemmengundi, my thought for the day.

Last evening, while I was having an altercation with my girl friend, I decided it was time for news. What the connection is with news and violence (verbal though it may be), I have no idea (a colloquial sentence for the purist)! Yet, I happened to stumble upon an argument that individuals were having on a show which is probably as doctored as Oprah’s tears, Dr’Phil’s ‘tough love’, Judge Judy’s fake hair and The Jerry Springer show all rolled into one, called “The Big Fight”. The topic for discussion was the Gujrat violence and how some individuals had been punished. Was it justice served late? Was it too little because 29 others accused had been acquitted? Was it that those who burnt Gujarat should burn because they were forming a divide in the otherwise ostensibly secular country, separating people on the basis of the way they cut meat whether human or God?

Scene 2: A few months back: Some time of the day: Some hospital: A colleague had been admitted to the center because some dumper truck thought his bike looked like tar with stripes on it and decided to take a hike on his bike, the only problem being, he was in the truck when he did. During the many nights that I spent in the medical center, I was accompanied by one Mr. Kashif Baig and Mr. Romesh Kostka. Kashif is one of those people who the whole of IBM looks up to, a leader in the true sense of the word; One of those paradigms that can be followed because though he walked the path less tread, the path was always right. Romesh is a brother from another mother (borrowing the now very oft repeated African American term). I notice though that at no point did we in our conversations have any qualms about discussing religion. It was a debate of religions so to speak; Kashif; the surprisingly devout Muslim, Romesh; the understandably lethargic Christian and me, the vocally impious Hindu.

Cut Back: Scene 1: Last night: The show: Gujarat burns. NDTV dramatically puts in filmed clippings from a movie to make sure the viewer sympathizes and empathizes with every victim, as if the stories were not enough. And people on a podium argue about whether Narendra Modi is making the right moves politically and whether the Tehelka tehelka would be politically a strong hold and a USP for Narendra Modi’s government.

The disparate and the opposite poles are the flavor of a secular nation, but how can these co-exist. How can Me and Narendra Modi be the part of the same constitution? Is it criminal then on my part to be disillusioned by the political set up of our religion or the religious underlines in our politics.

Fact: Gujarat was a shame to every Indian alive, whether Hindu or Muslim, where resident or non-resident. Fact: We are a part of corporate India where GDP and Turn-over rules the grey cells. Fact: We are a secular country where individuals can co-exist without thought to religion or caste. Fact: Last night I was ashamed to be Indian!