If you are wondering what I am trying to say with the title, well:
The first is our reaction when we see children begging on streets, when we see news about farmers committing suicide, when we see people die of hunger...etc etc ...blah blah...Callous eh !! well I am being callous in my writing cause we are being callous with our sympathies and using them to do away with our guilt.(At least thats what I hope!) A guilt that comes from not doing anything about the condition of these poor bastards..and reasons for not doing anything...well they are many!!...from not having time --> to 'what can I alone do!!'
The second part of the title is again our reaction...when we see our soldiers, and other innocent civilians brutally murdered by the MAOISTS!! Pick up the newspaper in the morning and there will most probably be a news that will make your blood boil. '7 dead as NAXALS strike again'. 'Carnage leaves 74 dead'. It does make the blood boil doesn't it.
But for some reason us intelligent, well to do, sons of the blood soiled soil are unable to connect the two reactions. Are we not as smart as we make ourselves believe, or is it that the comfort of the slick cars, towering new skyscrapers, AC Malls, massive over bridges, and who could forget the 9% growth, made us ignorant (yet all we do is complain!! :D)
Don't know what it is but we just are not connecting the dots here.
So here is a humble attempt to connect the dots.
An economy that is growing at 7-9% a year. But that is growing only for a privileged few. At the risk of sounding incredibly clichéd - The rich in this country are getting richer, the richer are getting filthy rich.
The middle class -- well we have our special ways of living don't we. We save money, we complain about taxes and we complain about toiling hard. We try to buy homes with ever increasing prices, we save yet more, we complain yet more, we get angry at the gate keeper, the "bai", the road side vegetable vendor for selling things at high prices yet we buy label clothing at bullshit prices. We toil further, we save yet more and then one day we die, leaving the next generation with much of the same. Occasionally one of us moves into a class above, yep..I'll give us that victory.
The poor are getting poorer. Terribly hit by price rise. They cant get a decent meal, forget education, a roof on their heads and all such perks. (yes education is a perk in their current situation). And yet they can see us complaining about bad governance, risen fuel prices, pollution etc when they don't even get the basic necessities of life. It must be frustrating!! Damn frustrating. To fight for every morsel, to fight for your very existence when others around seem to be doing not too badly!
Living in the cities we are scared of Bush's terrorist!! And we think of the NAXALS as some distant threats in places like Dantewada, Naxalbari, Gadchiroli. But they are among us are the NAXALS.
The NAXALS in the making!! HOW?
Well imagine if the current state of things continues and gets worse. We will earn; we will eat; we will buy new homes; we will earn yet more; we will complain !! We will turn a blind eye towards the problems of the poor and blame it on governance. We will see beggars at the signal and we will blabber sympathetic words for them to one another.
A day will come when some poor bastard will be driven to madness. And then at the same signal he will stab you or your kid brutally to death for a few bucks. We will be taken aback by such inhumane nature and we will think...God Damn!! And then we will support another large government operation!! A hunt for the poor.
Violent revolutions begin with small acts. Perhaps such an act will lead to one such revolution. What we see today of the NAXALS has been brought about by 40 years of oppression. Today that we may have to put down the NAXALS, cause the situation seems beyond repair. But NAXAL is just a name given to the poor. We have poor all across India. If we don't step up and help them, tomorrow we will have poor all across picking up a weapon and aiming at you, me and our future generations.
We need to help. We need to intervene. If not out of generosity at least as a selfish act of self preservation. And helping is easy: giving away old clothes, left over food, used equipment, helping educate children of the poor. Thats all there is to it. We don't see grand results with these small things because we don't help in large numbers. If we do we will see great results. So please help a poor next time instead of sympathizing. There are a lot of things that you don't use anymore lying around in your house. Give these away. Help educate children by means of donations or taking out time for teaching. All we need to give is an hour a day to stop and think about those around us who need a helping hand.
Time for depending on the government is over. A revolution is upon us. Whether we choose to ignore the early signs or act upon them will decide how brutal the scrolls of Indian History will be.
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One of your best posts !! very touching !!
ReplyDeletethough-provoking!!
ReplyDeleteSid,
ReplyDeleteNicely put. You have a good line of thought.. A very systematic way to depict things. You started with the core issue in question, gave reasons for it , substituted them with ample examples & then gave solutions for dealing with the problem. Very organized.
Now,
i'd like to point out some certain things that you may have missed.
We do not sympathize with these so called poor bastards because at some point of time in our experience of helping these ppl they have cheated us. They have depicted symptoms to show lethargy. As mentioned by you, we work, we make money, we buy a house. They can also work their way up. I know this is a very over rated statement but true. A lot of beggars these days, beg because they are just used to begging. Seriously, i do not sympathize with 80% of the beggars. In fact i sympathize or prefer to help those ppl who are genuinely poor & are seen working their way up. If i am born n a family which is just about well to do n i can take it up from there i will do it. They have been born in a much lower class n they have 3 steps more to go before they reach me.
To think practically, even if you do your bit by helping by way of giving clothes or by giving litle coins here n there still wont solve the problem. I still agree to the solutions given by you but they are good enough to cut the branches, not the roots of the tree.
So, now comes the question, How can i really contribute my way to make a difference?
Maybe i can educate children.. join an NGO or just start teaching kids in some bast behind my house. This would be an initiatve. This would make some lives better...
May be the government can take an initiative 7 provide destitute women & people with jobs enough to be above the poverty line.
Now NAXALITE is something which is an extreme case. These are people whose interests have been ignored completely for a long long period of time which forced them to do what they do. Trust me with proper action taken, the NAXALITES problem can be easily solved. All they need is just somebody to listen to them & take action. The government in this case.
I may or may not choose to give clothes or a few coins. This way i will not be contributing my bit.. I'll be subconsciously be contributing to the problem which already exists.
No offence meant... these are just my opinions. you may choose to differ.
But m glad the topic you wrote on instigates a discussion. a 2-WAY DIALOGUE. Great going!!
Cheers,
Sne!!!!
Thanks Sne (i hope tis ok to call you that). Difference of opinion brings out more options. So always welcome.
ReplyDeleteexcellent.
ReplyDelete