I’ve been asking myself this question for quite some time now. The gang rape in Delhi served to make it more urgent. “Where is our country headed ?” I’m sure lots of other people too, pretty much like me, are echoing the despair that one feels within oneself. Our country is steeped in a shroud of apathy but why?
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This mindset reminded me of the movie Mangal Pandey. I took someone like Pandey in pre-independence India to break the “rules.” He was a sepoy who turned into a revolutionary and fought for freedom from oppression. Do you remember fighting for anything ? By anything, I do not mean the trivial fights or arguments that take place within families. I mean a fight for the common good, a fight to bring about a change of some sort in societal terms. For the life of me, I can’t remember any such. Our entire generation, possibly the generation before ours and most definitely the generation after ours – has just been going with the flow, turning with the tide, not ever stopping to think of which direction this is taking us.
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We have, as a people, become exceedingly self-centred, focusing just on ourselves and our well being. With this sort of a mindset being prevalent rather widely, it is not a surprise that we want to stay within our comfort zones. No one wants to step out.
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The gang rape of the 23-year-old in Delhi was not something new in the country. There have been plenty of others but what this particular incident did was to set off an overdue spark. This incident sent people over the precipice. All of us died a bit that day when the 23-year-old breathed her last. Humanity as we knew it, died with her.
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Yes, our country needed a wake up call and there was a lot of rage among the people but the worrying factor is this – once the initial rage dies down, once the fires die down, what next ? Do we just go back to our earlier comfort zones and wrap ourselves in a blanket of apathy? Do we just focus on some other issue that raises its head and leave this issue out in the cold ? Do we just go on with our lives?
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Once fires die out, they leave behind embers. But these embers have to be stoked, the fire needs to be kept alive. Herein lies the crux of the issue. If these embers are to be kept alive long enough to bring about winds of change, we have to change. We need to work on changing our attitudes, we need to work on changing our mindsets. The edges of our minds have rusted long since, the sharpness of our responses blunted by inaction and lethargy. There needs to be a rebirth, a resurgence.
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When we talk about changing our attitudes that we’ve grown comfortable with, we are then faced with an issue. What is then needed is for us to look within ourselves, to introspect deep within our minds. Once the process gets introspective, we come face to face with our inner selves and it is at this point that the precipice seems fathomless. It is when we come face to face with our Inner Self that we see ourselves for what we are, stripped of all facades and notions that we otherwise project to the people around us. How many of us would have the strength to “see” ourselves for what we actually are ?
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Sometimes, the people of a nation join hands in rejoicing and celebrating yet revolutions have never been born out of joy. Their birth is rooted in oppression, in sorrow, in grief, in rage, in outrage and in a sense of indignation.
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The powers-that-be surely must be hoping that the fire will die out and that the dust will settle. For us, as a people, the only redemption will lie in carrying this on. In this instance, as the flames rage, as the chants for change grow louder and stronger, we must not forget. We must not forgive.
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Gauri dons many hats. Of a wife, a mom, a teacher and more. Apart from working as a full time English teacher in Hong Kong, she also raises and nurtures two children. Her family means the world to her and life is a happy roller coaster ride. She blogs at http://tiny-tidbits.blogspot.hk/. Originally intended as a means to preserve memories for posterity, Tiny Tidbits now plays host to a wide range of issues, thoughts, musings, raves and rants.