We the People

It was a very peaceful serene night in Goa when I just came out of a restaurant enjoying my dinner when my friend informed me about the Mumbai terror attacks. I just smiled and casually asked kitne mare? (how many died?) Being a Mumbaikar bomb blasts, terrorist, RDX, AK-47 are some words which are taught like ABCD to children due to emerging media. They are part and parcel of our lives so much so that, I really feel uncomfortable if there are no terror attacks for some time. It is an inner fear that if others have not died I will be next to die, but 26/11 was a different night it had a bit of uneasiness which was never felt before and then the mobile rang it was my father he had called up to say that he was fine and I should stay indoors. I casually joked with him as it was very rare of him to instruct me something as he always believed in giving me independence, but then I felt the uneasiness as if I could sense his feelings through phone. I rushed to my room to switch on the T.V. The uneasiness was very much true I could see the horrific pictures of Mumbai attacks. I felt numb, I was totally normal from outside but inside my fear had aggravated.

These attacks were not like other attacks which I had grown used to, this was going to last for a long time. These attacks didn’t have people dying in split seconds through a RDX, crude bomb or even a plane crashing onto them. These had humans torturing other humans every second. These attacks didn’t have relatives crying for dead victims but relatives dying, seeing those horrifying images on T.V. I had lived with the horror of seeing several dead bodies in Matunga train blasts a few years ago but it had lasted only for few minutes but this horror lasted for three days. These three days didn’t seem to end; every day when I went to sleep I prayed that next morning this trauma will get over but the prayer were heard only after three days when nine terrorist were killed, one caught for interrogation and all the sites cleared by NSG (National Security Guard).

Then started the Great Indian Blame Game, who was responsible for these attacks the list was huge from intelligence bureau who didn’t have enough information; to navy and coast guard which had flaws in co-ordination from Mumbai Police who had some tip off ;to our good old neighbor Pakistan which was responsible for all the bad deeds in India. It was blamed on Jehadi muslims to Pathans from Punjab province and then came the final nominee - Politicians. Yes, these are the same people who say ‘’aisse bade bade sehron main choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain’’ (such small things happen in big cities), these are the people who take film makers along with them to make a movie on this trauma, Oh yes these are the same people who comment that “even dogs will not ask you if you were not Major’s father” on a shaheed commandos father, this is also the same breed of animals that was after Hemant Karkare’s (shaheed ATS chief) life when he was alive and offered one crore rupees to his family when he died, these are also the people who roam with security guards worth total budget of Rs.250 crores, while Rs.180 crores is the budget kept for NSG to fight terror and protect the population of one billion. These are the people who ask for votes in these times of grief. Finally these are the people for whom WE the people of INDIA vote for. We make them our leaders to let them mooch on our lives. So the winner of great Indian Blame Game is an ordinary Indian or in simple word ‘we’.

I was shocked when this thought occurred to my mind but then I realized there was the culprit of all the problems of India as if an Eureka moment in this very sentence, it was a small one letter word known as ‘I’. This letter was responsible for all our problems, Yes it is our selfish nature that bribes the havaldar (police constable) when we break a rule. It is this letter that is responsible for giving respect and money to politicians to get our work done. This letter represents the selfish attitude that does not speak out when a woman like Jessica Lal is murdered in front of hundreds still it takes years to give justice to her soul. This individualistic mindset says “India main sab kuch chalta hai, apna kya jaata hai” (everthing is possible in India, how does it matter to us) .It’s high time that we realize the potential of ‘we’ in our lives and throw away the letter ‘I’. It is in our hands to make India a better place to live. If we stand united not only in these difficult times but also in happier times, it will make the terrorist think twice before stepping on our land.