Mumbai blasts - A deep disgust and vociferous anger

As I my heart grieves on the loss of my fellow countrymen in a tide of uninhibited terror and yet another blast soiling our soul, I switched off the tv channels with their extensive coverage and rhetoric. All they had to offer was kind of clichéd and I had seriously no desire to hear the lame ramblings and unfaithfully stern resolve of those sitting at the helm. It was barely a day after the cabinet reshuffle where people like Jayaram Ramesh who I feel to be more sincere in his cause had been shown the boot while Chidambaram was hailed and swung in his plush chair deciding on the questions ensuring our next breath. But after all there was no alternative to him and we as forgetful and responsible citizens were comfortable with the arrangement.

After making a quick call to take heed of the dear ones in the unfortunate city of Mumbai, I logged on to my facebook account inundated with status updates of the gruesome tragedy and an appeal to rally and buy new spectacles for the government. I was disgusted a little more. After all it was a déjà-vu I have come across a lot many times in past years. We write powerful slogans, take out marches, distribute pamphlets, light candles and after that walk back to our pads with a sense of smugness and content with playing the role which we believe is not our right but some obligatory peer pressure. I am sorry for being callous and cynic but am deeply hurt and very angry with all of us at this point of time. I hate the idea of forgetting and getting on with our lives as though nothing has happened, choosing to ward off the bad dream and exhibiting our cultivated anger only when we are poked with a pointy stick.

I don’t want to be a cynic here and I have no right to doubt the veritable emotions that surge when tragedy befalls. But strangely it all appears to be hypocritical for I know that just after a couple of days we shall be sharing videos on youtube and liking pictures of some exotic holiday on the very page where we plead for the cause of the country. It seems as though reality is shifted behind a thin veil of our own misery and thankfulness that we weren’t the victims, that we were safe (period) and life moves on with its sultry screeching pace.

As I logged on to NDTV website to check more on the catastrophe, my eyes shift to a near 3 min. video clip saying that Aishwarya Rai’s French award cancelled in wake of Mumbai tragedies. I seriously don’t give a fuck to what honour she was to be bestowed but I give a damn to how this news is important at such a ruminating hour. There were also posts on what Big B and other Bollywood celebs. had to speak on the blasts and my disgust spiraled higher. After all it’s another piece of news and such cheap gimmicks do sell.

Insanely furious and dejected over our sense of belonging and responsibility, I realize that I’ve no right to criticize the government and intelligence, when we as citizens are as callous and fake as could be. After all our blood boils only with the sound of the tragedy. We are pretty sedate otherwise. I don’t feel like giving any gyan and telling people that It is we who need to change. After all it is more convenient to believe in top down approach, waiting for the benefits to come within reach whence we could crawl and grab them not as our right but a favour done to us for being such responsible, proud and content citizens of the idea called India.