18th December, 2011
Unknown place, chilly morning. Its not that I have never seen poverty. All through the 23 years of my life, what I have seen is widespread poverty, ignorance, hunger, brazen apathy on part of those who were chosen to do something but who in turn chose to do nothing, misery, injustice. But there are some pictures which just get fixed in your mind. Amputated limbs, cement bag to sleep on, devoid of any hope for a future, and yet refusing to beg, a section of modern man tries to survive, somehow. The elation of Vijay Diwas, which endured for two full days, vanished suddenly.
Sometimes I wonder. Almost every revolution in the modern era have been brought about by the middle class. The middle class defines principles to fight for. They decide whom to fight against. They decide how to fight and ultimately they only decide what next be done after the outcome of the fight. But in their zeal to uphold freedom whose freedom do they end up upholding? In their endeavor to create a new world which they dreamt of, are they not forgetting those, who did not even get the chance to dream once? There was once a dream of a nation. Now we stand as a state with many nations. Where did we falter?
I feel every country has to pass through this phase. When some live in high rise buildings, some live on the footpath of the flyover just in front of them. In this era of ebbing morality, one is justifying every type of inequality. The logic is pervasive. We worked, we labored and we succeeded. Those who didn’t, are lying in the dust. The fact that we were born in an environment which gave us the opportunity to sweat in peace is beyond our control. It can happen to anyone. But what is important is that we did what we were supposed to do, rise. And the unfortunate rest are doing what they are supposed to do, survive.
Resposibilities come after rights. It is rights which guarantee you a life to discharge responsibilities. But sadly our mental faculty is in a state of discord over the choice to make resposibilities second to or secondary to rights.
The mind is in a state of chaos. It is dark, and yet, its not the darkest hour. Answers seem impossible to come by and yet, the only way towards light is to get them. The question whether my soil will survive this cruel world or not fills the vision with haze. After so much of struggle, what we inevitably end up asking ourselves is, did we do our bit? And yet, we choose to ignore it throughout our lives.
Signing off…
- Sarkar
kya ho gaya aap ke mood ko bhaiya?