State Of The Nation

Le sang versé ne sèche jamais (Shedded blood never dries).
I

1947. Kashmir.

On a night like this, everything looks disquieting than it is. The hawks and doves on both sides of the border are resting but this tranquil haven belies the fact that sleeping communities of homo sapiens abound on either side of the valley are darkly overshadowed by a fear of being torn apart from their land in the face of constant strife.

If Paris is the only city in the world where starving to death is still considered an art, Kashmir remains an image full of light and hope, rich with promise that only exists in the eyes of those removed from it. Those who still say the land laughs in flowers. Egg colors dot the countryside with vibrant hues. Yellows, pinks, reds, greens, whites that cause one to stop and absorb its beauty. Those, who turned insurgents, not by choice but necessity.

Nations throughout history have had different reasons for taking up arms. Some for revenge, some for land, some for religion, or someone just doesn’t like the way the other guy looks. But these are more or less expressions of one thing. Some guy doesn’t want another guy to tell him what to do. So, he adopts a path so dangerous that it explains away your sins in a way that doesn't challenge your faith but makes you masochistic to dream of going down in flames while angels sing.

2010. Kashmir. The Valley.

II

The evil ones do the things they do because they have a total lack of empathy. Good people do good things because they feel the pain of others. Evil is a lack of empathy. Indeed, goodness and decency is an abundance of empathy. He who chooses to ‘beggar thy neighbour’ and abides by skullduggery politics, must be told nothing infuriates evil as much as being seen for what it is. And he who gets pleasure from the misfortune of others get the comeuppance he deserves for the bones of injustice always find a way of rising from the tombs to plague and mock the iniquitous…


III

Babri Masjid.

War, said Clausewitz, is politics by other means and in politics, you run with the hares while you hunt with the hounds. The muslim leadership gave the rabid hindu ideologues enough reason to perpetuate fear into the masses. Whether the political muslim leadership truly represented the views of average muslim is doubtful. The elite leadership was a class by itself and neither responsible to nor caring for the welfare of those they purported to champion, something sadly, the hindu leadership did not fail to notice and in turn violated a sacred trust.

The hands that tore down the disputed structure and thoughtlessly shredded the very fabric of society on that fateful day belonged to the common man. He had no reason to fear or despise the stone structure or his neighbor with whom his family had lived in peace till the moment his better sense was drowned in the cry of religious righteousness and zealot’s rhetoric. Mobs by nature are incapable of discerning right from wrong. Even as calmness and sanity return after a mad holiday, the shadow of remorse that will accompany them for rest of their lives will be their highest punishment.

If one does not learn from history, one is condemned to repeat it as in the long run, the truth does come out. That lesson being not to tear down anything unless you are prepared to build something better in its place.


IV

Anna Hazare. India's Captain America.

That character is a throwback to the times when well, character mattered- where the hero is an ordinary individual, but a good man to the bone who finds the strength to persevere and endure in the face of overwhelming conditions. Think of someone whose life has stirred you. Your sister who chose to take the road less traveled because of unknown possibilities. That special teacher who encouraged your brother to reach for his dreams. Or, maybe your parents, who believed you could do anything.

I imagine at the end of Indo Pak War, a bedraggled soldier came back to his village and said, “All I is seek is a meal-ticket and a place to sleep.” They must have looked at him and wondered, now that his glory days were over what work he could possibly do. Diminutive as he was, he was trained only to follow orders all his life. Little they realized he’d soon become a hero by defying them.

Oh, and my heroes are my mother, wife and sister. You got me there, gal and that's another story, long overdue!