I am rarely nostalgic or melancholy or in mourning over things which, though they affect me and/or other people, are in the past. All the same, that does not mean that I put things behind me with considerable ease. Forgetting things and getting over things are NOT the same, which many people fail to realise.
I am not picking bones, but a year ago, Mumbai was the focus of a concerted terrorist activity which left the citizens of the entire country thoroughly shaken and tragically affected the lives of many people in one way or the other. Commiserations to each and every person who has been affected in any single way are more than due. Today on the first anniversary (not sure why we say anniversary. But then, I have seen our country’s leading daily use the word, which in fact is defined as a yearly observance/celebration.) I see all around me people saying they are yet to get over it, that they can’t forget the terror, or the incidents and so on and so forth.
Humbly, I feel that we rush to voice our opinions on the day. First and foremost, this is not an anniversary. Such days rather than being remembered year after year and glamorized though in a manner that echoes the public mood (though I tend to think that the public mood is set by the newspapers and news channels rather than the other way around). Though we need to learn lessons from it and make improvements on a large scale, romanticising the entire fiasco and remembering it year after year hardly helps us achieve our ends. Apart from that, what hurts me most is when I see people (people who I’m sure have not been personally affected in any way by this apart from the horror of watching the city held to ransom by a group of Kalashnikov wielding bastards, in short, people like me) say that they’re finding it hard to “get over” the incidents. This when we’ve all (in honesty) led our lives exactly as they were before, over the last year, when most of us haven’t remembered any of this when we were too bored to vote, too cool to wear helmets, too well connected to abstain from drunk driving. You get what I mean.
What happened last year wasn’t a blot on the administration in our country, it was a finger held in OUR face by the terrorists. All of us, who last year blamed everyone from the local corporator to the President for the attack, who lauded the National Security Guard for their work yet forgot the fact that they existed, 3 months down the line, who were “pained and scarred for life”, yet a week later, a month later, partied at the same Cafe Leopold’s without sparing a thought for any of the deceased or the injured.
We’ve always heard that India is the world’s largest Democracy. Well, news people, it is also the world’s largest Hypocrisy. And by that , I do not malign my country (which I love in all sincerity), but simply state the obvious about myself(honesty) and my fellow citizens. Let’s be brutally honest, and have some conscience, and not say that we’re hurt or pained or having difficulty getting over it, when you spent best part of a year not giving a fuck. Because if you do give a fuck, we wouldn’t have to remember the day, or have a yearly observance(it isn’t an anniversary).
I will not sermonize and ask you all to wake up. Though I really feel you shouldn’t be so dramatic either. Trouble getting over it? Seriously? Let’s be pragmatic and rational. Rather than crying from the rooftops once every year, make our opinions known day by day, little by little. And next time you’re pulled over, think about how you felt when you watched it all on TV, before bribing that policeman. The police are only as corrupt as the people they police.
P.S: Don’t fight with me over this. If you want to fight, alright, I agree with you, you’re right, I’m wrong. Now fuck off.
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