Rewind to 26th/27th July - 12.20 am- Its my roomie on the phone-
"hey Smits we at Pindis for dinner ..u wanna join in?
..."I would have but just that I am in the studio for last three hours "...
she asks - "But why?"
... "hello.. ain't u aware of blasts in Ahmedabad this evening?
40 killed and more than 100 injured..toll rising every minute...there's high alert in the country...
Delhi on red alert..u watch out'
..."What!! ..am clueless.ok ,I'll call u back...need to check on my cousin in Ahmedabad..."'
and even as she disconnects...I hear a man in the background letting hell loose upon
the waiter for the pooor service in the restaurant..
Well, I do not blame my roomie or other people for being where they were at the time referred to ...
and it's not even unusual for a large population to be completely ignorant that a city bleeds
at a particular point in time. After all everyone has a right to unwind after a hard day's work.
Nor is it possible to be clued to 24/7 news channels round the clock for latest information.
But what does come to the mind and worries is, have we become passive in our reactions?
Passive to the extent of becoming insensitive?
Do news of deaths, disaster and destruction actually shake up our conscience now?
Is it not true that to most of us so engrossed in our day to day schedules...news of a blast is passe?
Okay ...another blast..a,b,c city ...x,y,z people dead..ah..that's bad...anyways..whatever
Some even joke...not to exclude us mortals of the media fraternity itself..
ah only ten dead! that's not good enough .
It wouldn't be wrong to say ..till the time a close one is God forbid wounded ,or living in a terror target city,
we hardly sit up and take serious view of things.
Is that what resilience is all about? Or are we confusing resilience with compulsions...
compulsion to cling to so called normalcy?
Images of locals on the spot rushing victims to hospitals are common seen. We salute the Samaritans.
Ofcourse one might ask from us miles away from the terror scene ..what is there that we can do exactly?
It's not just about the physical presence..it's about asking oneself..what if my city is the target tomorrow?
What if I am next? would I know how to deal with such a situation? Or should I wait for crisis to be my teacher?
Am I alert enough about my sorroundings? Would I keep my eyes and ears open for any suspicious details?
If I were to spot one, would I set my skepticism of the police systems aside and inform concerned authorities?
How many times have I called up blood banks in my city and asked If I could be of help?
Can we not take few minutes out of our packed routines and try and know our neigbours and strenghten civilian networks?
And how often have we actually closed our eyes and prayed silently, even if for a few minutes, for those who
have lost their loved ones and whose lives have changed forever?
I neither want to sound cynical nor too preachy like for my age.
But having said that, we need to realise that life is precious..so is every moment..
definitely we cannot afford to panic..we cannot let fear to take control of our lives gifting the
terrorists a reason to celebrate.
No..we can't let them triumph...but we can't lose out on humanity..we can't let complacency get the better of us..
Or individual acts are not the reply to organised acts of heinous crimes. But then we shouldn't even blame solely
the system for everything..we are also the system and we need to
play our roles,howsoever inconsequential or trivial...they might seem. We need to fight.
Surrendering ourselves to situations and accepting everything as it is, is as bad as allowing fear get the better of us.
We have to demand for better conditions, for secure sorroundings, for better social environment for one and all,
voice our concern on issues that affect us and our future generations...
Above all.. We need to live, not just from our homes to offices to clubs...we need to Live Life.
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I agree with you on the front that many people actually make fun of such situation and in my eyes that is not a very good thing to do. I mean one does not even have so much consience about those who have died and are injured in those blasts or any other tragedies, can't they even be nice and pray think about those people who have lost their near and dear ones in those disasters be it of any kind. And to be honest I have seen many people like these arond me and it surely makes me angry. ...Reply
I don't agree when you say we have lost our conscience, or that we hardly care about whatever is happening around us, or that we don't pray for the lost ones. Of course we do.
I think its the responsibility of the government and its so called system to take care of the security concerns all over the country.
And that's the reason why they are elected. But they end up blaming each other.
The least the citizens can do is, i suppose express their anger in blogs like this, raise voice against the ill-happenings and see to it, if any such inhumane act happens in their city, maintain peace and harmony and help the injured and move on.
The moment the life stops, the moment people get fear in their minds, the moment people carry out strikes against the government, the moment people blame the "other" community for the heinous act..there it is..we are giving reasons for the terrorists to celebrate. That is what they want. To bring instability,in whatever possible ways.
But yes..when it comes to strengthening the civilian networks, informing the concerned authorities about any suspicious movement or objects, handling situations like this if, god forbid,happens somewhere around us i think we are very much complacent. We have become too busy in our personal and office life that we hardly care about "being the change that we want to see". We do have the "chalta hai..chodna yarr" kinda attitude. That is something we need to really take care of, put a very serious thought over it.
I remember when our company had a fire-fighting drill organized a few months back, i could see hardly anybody listening to them. Such drill has many take-aways that could be very helpful in emergencies. But hardly does anybody realize this.
It is very important as you say "we are also the system and we need to play our roles,howsoever inconsequential or trivial.".We really need to wake up, we really need to fight. ...Reply
A very good blog.Yes.Indians are apathetic towards incidents such as this and any incident involving death of or injustice to innocent people.When i first broke the news of the ahmedabad blasts to my one of friends explaining to him how it had claimed so many lives, he started to smile and told me to relax as such incidents are good as they would check our population growth.I immediately became furious but did not let my emotions spoil our friendship.Such is the attitude of most of the Indians.They will never realize the tribulations and pain experienced by victims and their families in such incidents unless the victims themselves happen to be one of their near or dear ones.To change the attitude of people may not be easy but definitely some measures as suggested by this blog can be implemented.The concerned public should raise their voice to demand secure borders,stringent anti-terrorist laws,capital punishment for perpetrators and above all quick and adequate relief for surviving victims and their families.Only when we demand such kind of measures can we call ourselves "true patriots" and not just by saluting our flag on 15th Aug of everyear and forgetting about our nation and its people for the rest of the year. ...Reply
Hi Smita!Very well written and thought provoking. U remember the movie page 3 and the song kitne ajib rishtey hain yahan pe? No lines can better exemplify the status quo that we are destined to live with.Jargons like work load, professional attitude, deadlines,societal positioning etc.,have sustituted our life with escapist and self centered vibes.We have discounted the basic fundamentals of humanity and sensible reciprocations from our life to remain relevant in the rat race to achieve the materialistic deliverables.In the blinding process, we tend to eschew the fact that next turn can be ours.If failures to take up adequate measures, remain a law and order problem; our attitudinal shift through indifference and selfish motives help the militants multiply their destructive acumen and time slots of duty free chaos and repeat the predictable arrangements of A,B,C...shame on us! ...Reply
Yes, I agree with the misunderstood and misquoted resilience part. Newspapers confuse this with indifference. Its not resilience when day in and day out your cities are bombed and the city just wakes up next day to a 'normal' life. It is the sheer indifference that leads to 'what the heck, another blast, its the same thing' kinda thoughts. One can talk of resilience when you have serious and sincere steps taken towards making the work of those stupid terrorists difficult like hell. The sense of insecurity, and the lackadaisical attitude towards security strategies has made people/the-state void of resilience. We just don't care. ...Reply
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