Thursday, April 22, 2010
i feel for both the soldiers...
Some days back, the Hindu reported the 'celebration' of the slaying of 76 CRPF soldiers in JNU. I read the piece and sat back staring at the ceiling for at least 15 minutes. i wondered, what is wrong with us? Us... not the JNU community, not the student community, not the men or the women... us, as in the human beings. why have we divided the world and shoved each of the halves forcefully behind a dividing line whose foundations run deeper in the psyche than in reality- the state and the people. where one wins, the other has to lose, there is no other way out... no peace for those who see this dividing line and want to bring it down. such people are termed 'neutral', 'devil's advocate' and sometimes even 'dead'. in these 15 minutes, i wondered- when did we evolve so much? so much that the thought of 'celebrating' the death of men on duty or even accusing someone of such an act became less hideous even in imagination than in reality? why do we forget that each man on duty has a family. and so does each of the naxalites, maoists or any of the insurgents fighting. are't they men on duty too? don't they have a cause too? why is their cause any lesser? or why is their death not 'shahadat'? aren't they both soldiers? am i wrong if i feel for both of them? when did we make our own personal Berlin's wall so high and mighty that we couldn't see or hear the pain of the thousands fighting everyday for something that is rightfully theirs- their land, their home, their wages, their families, the basic human right of security, tolerance and love, against people not very different from themselves? when and how did the barriers around our comfortable couches become so proof of the pain of the wife who's husband promised to come back for Bihu, only to be accompanied by his coffin? why have we become so numb that when we see her pain we refuse to see the one of the many in villages all over Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar where such stories happen every day? why is it so that we have to choose sides? why has human life so lost its meaning that it now belongs either to the 'state' or the 'people'? why can't i cry for the jawan who wrote in his diary about his undying love for his beloved and died the next day in a maoist attack and for the look in the eyes of the 14 year old girl who picks up the AK 47 to avenge her rape, murder of her father and the snatching of her family's land? why am i termed 'neutral' when i feel so strongly for both? doesn't life have any meaning? a meaning that transcends the barriers, the wall, the boundaries that us humans have created around it? and pray, tell me... when did death become a matter of celebration?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Madri... wonderfully and powerfully expressed... I loooove it!!! It makes me "feel"... yes, you are right,of course, I need no words to say that, you said it all :)
when did this happen?? killing of maoist soldiers in jnu?? fuck!! I am so illiterate!! knowing jnu, I thought JNU would have stood up for the maoist cause!!!! nahi?? do increame my literacy pls!!!
... the soldiers were CRPF soldiers killed in Dantewada, no maoist soldiers were killed here... there were some students showing a movie on the maoist cause when it was interrupted by the right wing forces here, accusing them of 'celebrating' the death of these soldiers... i hope it is clear now.. i m glad u liked it..
While you were writing this someone in Beijing was laughing his ass off, he probably got a promotion too!! where do you think this maoist facade gets funded and armed from? The investment seems to be coming good now.
There is absolutely no need for such brutal violence towards ones' own countrymen, if the so called maoist leaders are so passionate about their causes, they ought to raise them at the center. If the use of weapons is unavoidable, then why not use them toward contesting (un)fair elections and getting elected, just like everybody else. God knows you cant win anything in the interiors without adequate display of power!
But that seems to be the hard way. The investors will refuse to further fund the cause/vices of the leaders. And what about the romance, oh yes, there is something terribly sexy about leading such a revolution!!consider the perks: you get laid occasionally with the intellectually promiscuous types, you get famous, the dailies talk of your exploits daily and if you do really really well you get the grand prize!!! A high-contrast monochrome graphic of your face on millions of t-shirts!!!
Post a Comment