First things first: Though the year isn't 'new' anymore, would like to express my greetings and best wishes to you for a safe and happy 2010!
Having said so, though my wishes are completely honest, sincere and genuine, I think we need to be better persons, and a better country, if we wish to actually see a better than 2009 year for us all.
I'd like to use this post to pen (type) my reactions to some of the prominent events of the last few days/weeks. I can't wait to vent my frustration, anger, disillusionment and repulsion about certain events, by just writing about some of them in this post. Guess, getting it outta my system through this platform would channelise my useless frustration into something constructive than just ranting about it.
We need to be a better society, a lot more tolerant towards each other in terms of understanding/reconciling with/being accommodative to each other, vis-a-vis our cultural and attitudinal differences. Equally importantly, we need to be zero-tolerant when we see apathy, discrimination, injustice, the usual corruption, and unfair use of political/administrative clout, etc. in our midst.
Safety, I wished?...Dream on!
Safe, I have wished...for 2010.
They say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans!
Pray, tell me, can cases like Ruchika's make anyone feel at ease?
Will we have time to talk about being 'safe' from anti-national, external conspirators against India, if we have not even addressed offenders from within, like SPS Rathore?
And it goes without saying that the probability of feeling happy when not feeling safe, is as much as that of Kumar Sanu or me winning the Miss Universe title.
Peeping into the future through the eyes of our approach in the present
There are some things that bother me a lot:
It's already sad to see a crime being committed. One cannot undo a tragedy once it has occurred, but the least one can do is to not defend the perpetrator of that wrong. You are wronging the victim much more.
KPS Gill's brazen and bizzare defence of Rathore is shocking, disgusting, and totally shameless, to say the least. What totally beats me is why we haven't raised our voices against such defences.
The article I have quoted still doesn't cover everything. I saw his interview on a news channel and he actually asked for a review of the law against a crime/charge such as molestation, which per him is frivolous and nothing serious.Why??
Is such stout and abominable defence of a crime called for?
If this is what we do in the name of democracy and free speech, knowing fully well as to who is in the wrong, then shame on us.
It won't be surprising if in the coming days, we see more and more such gentlemen coming out seconding dastardly acts while using their right to freedom of speech. Honestly, what really beats me is how can we not accord punishment sooner to known offenders, in clear open-and-shut cases where the least the victim deserves is to see justice being meted out ASAP.
Coupla Other Newsmakers
As 2009 drew to a close, a Nigerian and an octogenarian chose to hit the hall of shame. The former decided to wish Merry Christmas in his own not-so-merry way, mid-air on a US flight, while the latter, a governor, decided to lead by example in preaching make love, not war to 2 (or were they 3?) ladies.
Ofcourse, both remain unrepentant and least apologetic about their acts, the terrorist defending it and the politician in a gubernatorial position going a step ahead and even denying it!
Lessons
Talking of the ameer-baap-ka-bigdaa-beta and failed hijacker, among the first things Obama did was to take responsibility and ownership in ensuring that "the buck stops with me" and starting off an action plan and learnings from the incident on how to ensure nothing of the sort even happens again on American soil. He might fail, yes, but what's heartening to see is an honest, conscious, sincere, vigilant and genuine attempt at making things work, ironing out the flaws...and it all begins with recognising the flaws, assimilating the lessons to be learnt and getting to work on incorporating them.
We are like that only, ji
What all have we ever pro-actively done, as a follow-up after the numerous terrorist attacks, to bring about accountability, transparency and an action plan that ensures no recurrence in future?
Nothing, except dishing out impotent, rehearsed and meaningless rhetoric such as "This won't be tolerated" or "We salute the city's people and its spirit".
Bullshit seems too respectable a term to be accorded to such soul-less, intent-less, tokenism and sheer crap.
Hockey's in a mess..but we couldn't care less
As I write, we have come to know that the hockey team is in a mess but we couldn't care less..oh, and even this wouldn't have occupied mind space and new real estate, but for a tweet by a superstar.
Question: Why does a Sharad Pawar, a Rajiv Shukla, an Arun Jaitley, or a Lalu Prasad, et al, not get involved in any sport other than cricket?
Who wants to improve cricket sports administration in a country where the only sport that needs least attention is cricket? More importantly, why? Would they have done so if our cricketing coffers weren't overflowing? Is it just a coincidence that they are all involved with only that sport, whose administrative and financial spoils are too apparent to be termed news?
Doing our respective parts
In all this, I just hope we, and even if not we, atleast me - I, try and just do our bit in not tolerating injustice/corruption at any level, in any form, and most importantly, also ensure that we do not spare those who have the effrontery to shield the guilty.
For, this is anyway, all that an individual can do - his bit. Nothing more.
But the operative word is Nothing Less. Nothing Less than this will do from each of us. On the other hand, if each of us tries, nothing more than this is required to make us a vibrant, genuine happy, just, and safe nation!
Here it is then..To doing our bit!
Cheers n Amen!
