Seven were already inside the auto rickshaw. There are always
many of these autos at an auto stand, but somehow not many to hop in. An auto
stand is more of a central area of a busy roundabout; it can be any area where
the auto-wala feels comfortable to park his ride, sometimes even allowing other
vehicles to use the road! Anyhow, being the eighth wonder inside the auto. Back
seat loaded (better, overloaded) with four mammoth sized and bull shaped
arguing aunties and the elegant front seat occupied by the country’s foremost
luminaries, and founders of the Utopian societies.
I’ll tell you this with my two years’ experience in the auto,
as I used to go to my coaching (!) classes while I apparently prepared for
engineering entrance exams. There’s no
better place to listen to the political rumors than the front auto seats. The
views of the people, in almost all cases involving the auto driver are worth
listening to. They are just ludicrous! And yes, incessantly complaining of the
government, sometimes even unsure what they are complaining about.
But that’s the thing I appreciate about them: they complain,
they talk about the corruption, abuse the system and most importantly know more
than well-educated young people listening to their i-pods. This is what our
society, among various other major elements, greatly lacks. We have stopped
discussing the social problems, we have stopped complaining the setup and we have
stopped resisting. We have just taken everything for granted, like we pop up a
crocin whenever we feel like without even consulting. All the inconveniences
and problems we face are a part of our life.
People have started ignoring even front page headings, and
the memory is getting short lived. From acts of terror to simpler scandals, we
have developed a tendency to ignore it. The twin blast in Hyderabad went past,
and so did the myriad of rape cases before the Delhi case. Crime is as easily
neglected as common cold.
Political agendas are no more discussed upon. The
down-the-sewer education system, or the construction of three dams by china
recently. The nuclear project controversy, or the chopper scam. No discussions.
I don’t consider the debates (as if they are) on the news channels as
discussions; they are heated arguments in an uncontrolled environment, which
moves very quickly from ‘what is to be done’ to ‘what the opponent hasn't done’. The only discussions that make it to the minds of people are of Raghu’s
slaughter of the auditioners in roadies, and the useless likes.
We have moved ourselves so comfortably into the bubble of
comfort, revolving around the concept of not thinking of that what’s happening
around. On the issue of the Delhi rape case, a deep analysis was done by a
psychological expert. It revealed that most women feel that they won’t be raped
because they don’t want to imagine it that way. In a similar manner, you will
never imagine your city under bomb threats, unless it is. I can’t imagine a
bomb kept at the big bazaar at Ranchi! (Many of us might not know this but one
was found at that very shopping
mall. Wonder why every big marketing complex in Ranchi has detectors now?)
Just recall how many times in the last ten years have you
heard ‘Irom’? No, I haven’t misspelt the name of a metal here (by the way this
one is stronger than the metal!) This woman has spent her last ten years on
fast, without food or water! And she has a purpose, a very strong one. But
people just supported her when she had started her fast. After a few months, the
news of the fast was past. People forgot her, but she kept the fast. People
outside the seven states kept ignoring the gravity of the situation AFSPA
created, and the repercussions it brought along.
Recently, giving up hope on people who had seem to completely
forget the person spending ten precious years of her life on fighting for them,
Irom Sharmila broke her fast. It was coming. What would have been if nobody
would have attended the speeches freedom fighters used to deliver? What would
happen if you ignore the person trying hard to help you? The person will
eventually stop helping. In this country we have rare few souls trying real
hard to help. And the way we encourage these souls, we are going to lose them
too.
So why is it that we ignore the daily dose of anti-social and
immoral acts around us? Overdose? Yes, the media- print or cacophonic
(otherwise called electronic media) has thrown to us reports of infinitely many
unwanted events. So much, that even before you ponder and stretch your mind on
one, another fresh report comes in. Take a month, like this current month and
see how many scams, how many murders and how much corruption captured the
screens. In case of scams, it’s like back to back blockbusters I used to listen
to when I last saw television (and that was long ago!). 2G scam, 3G scam, Swiss
bank scam, Commonwealth games, Tatra trucks, Chopper scam and the list goes on,
with money involved chronologically increasing! Many more scams have been overwritten
in my memory, again due to overdose!
Of course sitting in front seats of auto won’t help. And
sitting in the back seat and arguing definitely won’t. It’s not that if
something bad happens regularly, it becomes ‘less’ bad. We were born with a
choice of volition but the social environment made us forget this. The
government isn't there to take away your choices; it was made to take choices
for you. Raise your voices. Heat up debates. Place your demands for a better peaceful
society. Or did we forget that we can
have a better society?
We have the power in
us to change. Lord hanuman was cursed to forget his powers. Of course it’s a
story, but it was written to learn from. We all very well know what he achieved
when he realized his strength.
