We have to find our pride and speak up

A small group of monsters sneak into the heart of India , kill and maim in the ratio 1:50, shatter our landmarks, our national pride and our morale and we are left to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately the politicians again are protected by their Master, Satan, and are spared. What are we going to do? Many of us burn with indignation and fear and helplessness. This time, we are confronted with our mortality and realize that but for the grace of God, the face of the dead could have been us and our dear ones.

Welcome to global terrorism…this is what lies in our future, unexpected attacks where we are easy pickings in front of a trained, bloodthirsty predator. Guts ripped apart and no place to hide! Only a whirlwind of fear and pain and destruction at the end! We are people who just do not fight…when the kaccha-baniyain gangs bludgeon entire families to death we are only too grateful that we are not the ones to be murdered as we lay asleep, when young women get acid thrown on their faces to make them lead lives similar to lepers in the medieval times, we pay no heed, exact no retribution. When women are abducted from our streets we shrug and say that it cannot be helped….what WILL make us get up and say that this is not the India of my dreams and I will do something?

Young children kidnapped from outside their homes and held to ransom has become a profession...it is not a crime anymore. I think…no one cares anymore that 4 year old Raju was picked up and tied up in a gunny bag and thrown like garbage down a sewer while his distraught parents collected the money for his release…after all we do not know Raju and thank God! We have raised ours.

Today, we are under severe threat from Pakistan and China and our very own home grown terrorists, our politicians. And if you think I am seeing nightmares in smoke, China openly has declared that Arunachal Pradesh is theirs. Pakistan is telling us that we have no proof…NO PROOF with 500 dead and maimed!! Did Kargil not happen? What was THAT all about? What about the bodies of their dead army officers found on Indian soil killed after pitched battles?

Pakistan speaks of collaboration and joint inquiry…collaboration in raising terrorist training grounds? Yes, I am ready for that and make me the first volunteer…I am willing to go and kill the innocent and damn my soul forever if that is the price I have to pay for the peace of future generations. At least I will be spared the helpless agony of watching the Kerala CM making asinine remarks which lacerate my spirit, that grinning fat face of Vilasrao who sticks his own son to his breast while mothers are bidding farewell forever to their only sons, cut down in their glorious youth; the sheer impotency of a Government that we have voted into power and which symbolizes the failure of a 100 crore strong democracy.

Take me today, Lord, in your infinite wisdom… I cannot bear to watch this circus on TV anymore with the media hounding our leaders for some bit of accountability and answers while the politicians dance to the tune of some madman only they hear, sidestepping grave issues with the nonchalance of either born idiots or worse still, a callous and heartless lot who only hear the jingle of money and respond only to the lure of the ‘kursi’! Naqvi can see blood staining mouths red of the the scores dead and is appalled by the living??

Has the world ceased making sense or am I the madman! I am in a way relieved after the carnage…we all saw how major a threat lies like a deep, black abyss before us…and shutting our eyes will not prevent us from falling in that void. Didn’t we sit up and take note that the terrorists brought war in our midst, holed up inside our very homes and threw out a challenge, “who will dare stop us?” They actually thought that they would invade our heartland, kill as many as they could and then return back! That is really scary…they think we are this soft, this easy to take down!!

Where were our politicians…I saw no one even pretending to don a bulletproof vest to take an initial survey…when bullets fly, patriotism is easy to spot! And in rolled our men in OG…the ones who have seldom taken the spotlight..who live and die for us in barren spots with no witnesses that can testify to the sheer poetic bravery of their last moments. Young idealistic men who really see only the nation and their colleagues when death comes calling…even terrorists call out for mercy at the end….the soldier dies believing that he stands for truth and honour and duty. And we refuse to give them their due!

If we did we would tear that aged jackass of a CM limb to limb when he spat on the family of a soldier felled in battle! A nation that does not honour its defenders will itself be forgotten…so goes a saying. A nation that does not honour itself deserves to perish! And India lies forgotten. The world does not care…tomorrow they can blow up any city here and kill a few thousands, the world will cluck its tongue and move on. After all we ARE a third world country, brown to top it all! We look to them for approval in internal matters…yes, terrorism is a deeply personal matter!

Did we object when after 9/11, Americans made us stand in our underwear for “security checks”…they made the world and its mother strip, take off footwear, unwind turbans, take off the burqua…did we hear any complaints? No, we praise them for their strength! We know that if we want to enter the States, we have to obey their rules. It all boils down to pride in the end.

We have to find our pride and speak up. Do anything, however small. Whatever we think will mark a beginning…nothing is ridiculous, nothing is too small. The day you and I begin to think that we are just a tiny cog in this giant machinery and do not count, that is the day we have taken a bullet in our heart and may as well lie dead!