State of The Nation - II

I was introduced to Nissim Ezekiel, in Sixth Grade English class. His ability to capture a mood or setting, simply in style and choice of vocabulory. This poem is a part of his collection"Typically Indian Poems in Typically Indian English". It's a poem that we should all read, I think. Seriously, beyond all the jokes and the wit, the verse has a point. A point, that we most desperately and urgently need to get.

The Patriot

~Nissim Ezekiel

I am standing for peace and non-violence.
Why world is fighting fighting
Why all people of world
Are not following Mahatma Gandhi,
I am simply not understanding.
Ancient Indian Wisdom is 100% correct,
I should say even 200% correct,
But modern generation is neglecting-
Too much going for fashion and foreign thing.

Other day I'm reading newspaper
(Every day I'm reading Times of India
To improve my English Language)
How one goonda fellow
Threw stone at Indirabehn.
Must be student unrest fellow, I am thinking.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I am saying (to myself)
Lend me the ears.
Everything is coming -
Regeneration, Remuneration, Contraception.
Be patiently, brothers and sisters.

You want one glass lassi?
Very good for digestion.
With little salt, lovely drink,
Better than wine;
Not that I am ever tasting the wine.
I'm the total teetotaller, completely total,
But I say
Wine is for the drunkards only.

What you think of prospects of world peace?
Pakistan behaving like this,
China behaving like that,
It is making me really sad, I am telling you.
Really, most harassing me.
All men are brothers, no?
In India also
Gujaratis, Maharashtrians, Hindiwallahs
All brothers -
Though some are having funny habits.
Still, you tolerate me,
I tolerate you,
One day Ram Rajya is surely coming.

You are going?
But you will visit again
Any time, any day,
I am not believing in ceremony
Always I am enjoying your company.

State of the Nation

Look at that flag. No, seriously. Just stare at it for a moment. The problem that this state is facing, as we speak, is that we're all focussing on only the Green, or only the Saffron. So much so, that we miss the big picture. We miss, that a fabric holds the two together; and that fabric is white, not red.

Ok. Enough unproductive symbolism. Moving on to what really matters. The recent happenings, in Mumbai, and the repercussions thereof, are painfully amusing to study.

Let's get down to the basics. In the vicinity of our great land lies another state. This unstable state, has a coast-guard that works like a valve. One-way movement only. Twenty heavily-armed men were allowed to travel out of its territorial waters, into ours. Three hundred Indian fishermen are rotting in Pakistani gaols, for having strayed a few miles into their waters.

Paradigm shift. Let us now assume that the attacks were completely unpredictable, inevitable, and that the security forces did as good a job as could have been done in ending this crisis. I said assume. I know there's a lot of discrepancies in all of that, but let us, for the sake of this discussion, believe. EVEN THEN it was just weird.

The Politicians:

I accept. We're in India. A country where babus and netas abound, and where they simply CANNOT resist politicizing some issues. But for Chrissake, there are boundaries. Limits, if not on what you can or cannot politicize, than at least on how tactlessly you should do it. Narendra Modi, in Bombay, was just a waste of time, effort and jet-fuel. Honestly! If he so badly wanted to help, he could have pledged aid to the Government of Maharashtra right from his office in Gandhinagar. A city, might I add, that takes its name from a man who will be anything but proud of what this country has turned into. Ministers quitting. Bureaucrats crying. More ministers resigning. More shouting, screaming and campaigning all around. Dirty. That's the only word I have for it. My dad sent me this text message last night that read "Fear not the terrorist that came by boat, but the one that came by vote." Sad, but true. I have half a mind to enter politics, just to be able to show them how it's actually done. How it should be country-before-party. The fun part, though, is that the educated urban demographic has now come to understand this, and it'll slowly filter down to the farmer in the remotest corner. I won't be amused, in the next twenty years, to see a significant and steady rise in the number of independant and communist candidates in Parliament. A good thing, perhaps, that. Perhaps not. Que Sera Sera.

2) The Media:

In India, it has of-late become a norm, to type-cast "Media walon" into people that dramaticize everything for the sake of TRPs, and don't know where to draw the line. While that is true on a lot of counts, I think it's commendable, the responsibility they showed while the events in Mumbai were being covered. I agree that some agencies have been rumour-mongers, and that it's painful how most agencies will spend months after the incident, dissecting every little, insignificant detail, and in the process, perhaps even spreading fear amongst Indians. That's not my point. My point is that while they were covering the events as they happened, most media chose to present only the facts, as they were. Which is a good thing. Also, (I think this is an Adnan Patrawala effect), but the TV channels were very particular on what "Operational Details" they chose not to telecast live. Good, that. I'm in no way saying the Indian media has come of age. It's still a scandalous, rumour-monging bitch, that is yet to understand the importance of brevity or context BUT, what I AM saying, is that we're getting there.


The Good, the bad, the ugly. Every single citizen of this country has learnt things the hard way. Let's just hope that future generations read about terrorist attacks in history textbooks, and not in the morning Daily. Hope, against all odds.

I know I shouldn't be scared, because by being scared, I'm only giving the terrorists what they want. But I'm scared; very. I tell you why.
I live in a city that has horrific civic sense, only topped by a general callous, self-centered something-bad-happened-to-you-not-to-me-so-I'd-rather-laugh-than-help mentality. Add to that a youth population that is rich, and moves so predictably, as if in one large group, thronging the CBD every evening. That a majority of our law-enforcement has palms that match McDonalds, as far as grease is concerned, doesn't particularly help. Our ministers too, are too interested in haggling for a bigger motorcade or a helicopter to go on campaign trips, that they often largely, if not completely, miss the point. (Remember the Tata Tea "Job Application" advert?)





My thoughts are confused and badly mixed-up. But I know that the human race is rotting, and that things could be a whole lot better. Whatever.

As some wise man (or woman, perhaps) once said,

The World is full of apathy to suffering. But I don't care.