What About Me? What About Us?

The country has to returned to normalcy after the long drawn dance of democracy. No more rallies, slogan shouting, traffic jams, propagandas, netas and netagiri... Some sense of respite could say! Finally the fiasco is done with, lights off and the drama over... No wait, is it over? Yes so to say the political ignominy and excitement has come to an end.

But the day to day drama of people in this land of paradox, has that come to an end? Well, let’s see-

In the dark corners of this land thousands each day live with the hopeless agony of food scarcity, the twinge of not being able to feed one self and loved ones, the pang of seeing someone die every odd day due to chronic hunger, the trauma of stooping down to the level of a beggar or thief for Some Food Babu, Some Food.

Yes we are surely waiting for the benefits of what do you call it the Food Security Bill! By the way you can have your laugh we do kill rats to fill our stomach, we have learned how to eat wild berries and not die. And yes! Now that the forests are gone we can only count our days to die!

Not a shirt on my back not a penny to my name. Wonder why? Oh I just married off my youngest daughter. Lucky I only have three daughters. Have? no Had. The elder one was burnt alive because I could not give a motorbike to my son-in-law, who is a businessman himself. This time I took no chance I fulfilled all their demands, hope this one will survive.

Don’t ask why is did all this. Dowry Oh no, we don’t believe in dowry, we Indians are modern and very broad minded. Cash and Kind we give in a daughters marriage is for her well-being only, all of it belongs to her. Yes surely and that is why grooms family like blood thirsty leech is ready to sell their son to the highest bidder.     

Rape is the new buzzword in this country. Every newspaper, television channel each day reports about some or the other story on RAPE! A girl was gang raped...minors raped and hanged...women raped in a moving train...father rapes daughter...uncle rapes niece...

Enough I say! Nothing will happen to the perpetrators of the crime, the law fails the victim and media reports will go on and on reporting about it. Can the mind-set of the people be changed? What rape are we talking about when visibly some abuses a girl in the open? What about the constant ogle, dirty comments that girls face each day? Did I miss child abuse even of little boys, sodomy, marital rape? So much for being part of a cultural rich society, where people do not have right over their own body.       

Did you know that in certain part of this country there are people who are Chinese or Japanese, Korean possibly. The region is somewhere near West Bengal, northeast India it is called. How many states that region has, no idea. Cannot go there for people believe all the year through there is terrorism.

Does anyone bother to know that the North-eastern region is home to vivacious tribespeople and many other non-tribal communities. That it is a hub for bio-diversity and holds in its bosom some of nature’s greatest bounties- Cherrapunjee (highest rainfall in the world), Majuli (largest river island in the world), Loktak Lake (only Floating lake in the world) and the list can go on. But why to talk about all these because north-easterners are only stereotyped ignoring the fact that in culture, education and in almost all domains if not better people here are at par with anyone else all across the country.      

Most of the people of this country are obsessed with religion, gods and goddesses. Some who wants to make a living can do so by selling goodies related to gods, it’s a huge lucrative market. At every nook and corner of this country one can find a mandir or masjid or church or gurudwara. This obsession is claustrophobic for those who understand that gods cannot give solution for every problem or rather any problem. Being spiritual is not the problem being a religious bigot is the problem in this country.

Religious fanaticism has led to enough bloodshed and loss of dignity and has it stopped yet? Well the answer is but obvious. My son had small tea shop infront of the masjid, on the day of the riots they killed him as they thought he was a muslim. Another lady lost her entire family in the riots and now has become a lunatic herself. The stories are endless but question is has the outlook of the people changed at all? Or at a drop of a hat we will witness another massacre in the name of Religion!

Governments will come and go, bureaucrats will change, new polices will formulated and life goes on!! But- What about me? What about us? Living in the very many corners of this country does life change, rain or shine the seizures of life doesn’t seem to abandon us and every moment is a new struggle.

A battle to breathe till one day nature decides to take its course and wipe us from the face of this earth… For me, for us The End, The Bliss, The Redemption, The Happiness will then arrive!!