Chez Moi

Less than twenty-four hours after the first blast and the mud-slinging has started. All the political bigwigs are at it again - pointing fingers at everyone else and trying to pin the blame on someone for yesterday’s atrocious acts of violence and murder.

For that is what is was - cold-blooded, calculated mass murder of innocents who did nothing but take that particular train for their journey home. Home to their children, parents, pets - but never got there. Hundreds of lives were rudely cut off because some fanatics got it into their heads that they would kill, maim and murder some innocent people of Mumbai. Why? Just ‘cos they could do it! In the name of God, religion, righteous beliefs - nah! This is about power and nothing else. Everything else is a front, a façade to give their ‘image’ a boost.

Saddened though I am by yesterday’s happenings, the chief emotion in my heart, that fills my very being now, is anger. Anger that this has been done to our people again! Lots of talks in the media about the blasts of 1993, more recently the IIS-B attacks - what is the point? What has been done since then to a. prevent such an event from occuring again b. form an effective emergency services in the form of police, ambulance and fire services?

One word - zilch!

All the news clips that have been shown till now have images of people lying broken and bleeding and police officers strutting about the place, talking to media. Nowhere did I see an EMT tending to the wounded or an ambulance speeding away. But there were lots of pictures of the general public lending not just a solitary helping hand but jumping headlong into rescuing trapped survivors. (Aside: Readers’ Digest - is this the rudest city? May be they didn’t hold doors but they came to their fellowmen’s aid when it was needed. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it!)

Will our so-called leaders ever learn? Will they stop looting the country and stuffing their pockets and actually do something good for the country? I was reading a book the other day, which was set in Mali, Africa. The country’s economy is described to have been ‘raped’ by the powers that be, that the poor are languishing in the streets. Well, that may not be the scenario in India (not completely - yet!), our country’s prospering at a rapid clip inspite of the buffoons that claim to run it. If a country can do so well inspite of our bevy of corrupt politicians and officials, how well can it do if we actually cleanse our systems of them?

This might be a load of baloney but something has to be done. We cannot be bombed in our homes, trains, roads at any time of day or night and carry on doing what we were doing before that, for ever. Like Sukhi’s famous line from Rang De Basanti, ‘even an ant reacts if you step on it, but we don’t’.

True enough!

It is time we reacted. We have been targets, victims long enough.

It’s time.