Woes, Unhinged

The recent bomb blasts in various Indian cities have me worried.

I worry for the future of my extremely flawed, yet still, much beloved nation. I love my country, even though increasingly, there are fewer and fewer credits against its name.

But more than the ravings of these twisted minds, what worries me is the increasing religious intolerance amongst my countrymen.

Today, when I say “ravings of these twisted minds” it can mean any one of these:
a. so-called vengeful extremist Islamic elements
b. so-called ‘righteously outraged over conversions’ violent Hindu mobs
c. so-called ‘violently seeking our share of the national pie’ naxalites
d. so-called ‘protecting the honour of mother languages’ extortionist elements
e. so-called ‘protecting age-old culture by curbing creative instincts’ extremist Hindus
f. so-called ‘offering a plank to the powerless’ power-leeching politicians

And let us not even venture into the realm of gender bias and anti-women tendencies.

Everyone is an enforcer in today’s India. Enforcers with limited mandates and individual agendas, who toy with sensibilities and sensitivities.

And we, the spineless, stand and watch it all.

I can close my eyes and pretend that I did not hear and see anything.
I can crawl inward into that warm and fuzzy place in my mind and pretend to be indifferent.
I can trawl through the internet and seriously think of migrating to a different land with at least different problems.
I can hear and watch everything and say, “as long as that is not me”, I am fine.
I can bemoan my country’s spiritual and philosophical decline for an hour and then trumpet my country’s raised economical profile for days to blind myself to such decline.
I can ignore all these and console myself with cricket.
And when that fails, I have dreamy Bollywood.

But once the lights go up on scrunched popcorn holders and empty cola bottles, naked reality is all that remains under the heating sun.

Bottomline: Will more of us give in to the reality of oppressive and seemingly powerful zealots or will more of us dig in our heels in favour of the much short-changed liberal way of life.

The answers to this will make or break India, my much maligned, yet much beloved country.