For you
Vandalized streets, with bodies
littered all over, houses burnt, broken bones lying in hospital , apparatus
assisted souls lying nervously breathing on their death beds, animals afraid to
stray after dark, eating habits being questioned, chants and call for prayers
subdued, cowering behind false facades of expression, that’s what life has
become in my beautiful country.
A country I called the best-“East
or West home was best”. Uncle Rahman no
longer cooks meat lest Dev uncle and his stupidly religiously exuberant kids
smell a’ cow’. Rakesh Sharma would dare not repeat what he said from space long
ago “Sare Jahan Se Aacha Hindustan Humara”. Where are we going where is the
friendship, where is the bonhomie between cultures, friends, religions, leaders
and followers?
What has education done to us,
has it eroded our social values, has it been failing in its calling? Education
that once helped the mind to think beyond now seems to help in thinking
inwards. The educated said “sabash” when the Babri Masjid was demolished. They
call him the iron man but he was unrepentant when the Liberhan Commission
convicted him in the Babri demolition case. A leader of national stature, tends
to be philosophical when the end is in sight, but clamouring to be seen with
the rest during his heydays?
Expression begs freedom- Creative
artists hounded to the extent that some have left the country and lie buried in
foreign land others threaten to quit the country. Where is freedom of expression as envisaged
in the constitution? Do weI have to
clamour to the needs and sentiments of the majority or do I have freedom of
expression?
Repercussions and retributions
follow, trains are blow apart, blasts triggered to avenge, the trusting ways of
a neighbour, the good and the bad identified by the clothes they wear. Sides argue
on national television each proving the other wrong when what has been lost is
the innocence of a friend, the trust of a neighbour, the continuity of a great
civilization that we take time off to praise and market across the shores. A time to introspect, do I keep silent, am I
afraid to commit, do I make myself a target?
Who wins, which side turns the
winner I do not know all I know is that humanity has lost. The bonds of
friendship, trust and continuity have been snapped by the avoidable voices of
insanity. Blood splattered on the walls, cries that extend into the night,
wailing and soul searching hand in hand travel into the night to meet the
morning rays of the sun.
My God deeply anguished asked me-
Who do you do this for my son? Why let blood into the streets, why are you
supressing your neighbour, why do you trample on freedom, why would you want to
chain your culture and country to the insatiable thirst for one man ship? What
do your gain by breaking bones why are there numerous injured, why do mothers
flee with their new born, why do dogs bark in the lonely eerie streets of silence
and darkness? Who do you do this for?
I smiled and reply “for you”
Robin Varghese
