We Indians are very good at remembering the occasions and not the 364 days that are around that occasion. As we move in to February and are planning to celebrate Valentine’s day, we as a society have seem to forgot what happened on Dec 16 last year. The law will take it’s time as it does in India with all sorts of nonsense being thrown in as the reasons and all political parties engaging in mudslinging to show that their linen is the cleanest. What I am worried about is how we as a society have moved on from the incident.
In the morning when we pick up the paper and see that one of those six shameless creatures and as the reports are telling the worst maniac of them is declared a juvenile. We say to our near and dear ones “This is India nothing is going to change” and quickly sip our coffee and move to our workplace. The kid who has heard us saying this instantly feels OK this is India and It works like this and nothing is going to change. The girl who is growing up and feels safe in her household when hears this instantly develops a feeling that she can’t be the same outside as she is inside.
All this while one thing I heard the most from people around me is about the change of attitude but nobody mentions how it can be brought about. Our mythology tells us that the person who lost his wife and brothers in gambling is the Dharmaraj (the one who maintains the integrity of religion) . Moreover in another of our holy books we are told that the person we worship as God left his wife just because he had a doubt, not evidence only doubt was enough to leave her in a forest where she raised her kids on her own and he ruled the state as king and people call it Ramrajya. Moving to the modern day society and our movies shows that when one of our villains faces some adversity what he does is he shows his manhood by picking the ladies from the household of the hero. In our advertisements and most Bollywood movies girls are shown as a piece of attraction and as one of our modern day cricketers who is touted as the next big thing says that he has two ways to attract a girl shows the mentality and we all enjoy the same.
One of the most terrible excuse I hear from the people in rape cases is that the girl must have provoked the guy. My goodness if that’s an excuse than Mr. Amir Ajmal Kasab is not guilty because he was not only provoked but brainwashed by some idiots to carry out the Mumbai attacks. Banks store a lot of cash at a single place and that should be enough provocation for all of us to loot it, isn’t it. I can go on and on and let you know that we are pathetic as a nation, we fight when somebody makes a movie and tout ourselves as a democratic country, we get angry when a book is written and ask the person not to enter our country, we are the same people who asks a painter to leave the country because he painted what he felt, we are the same people who lit a candle at the jantar mantar one day and next day votes for a rapist.
Yes we are bad and are reaching a tipping level but as they say there is light at the end of the tunnel and we the young people of India and not a fool at 42 who calls himself the youth, we the next generation of this country the 20-30 year olds are the one who are going to shape what this country will be like. Do we want to see our daughters go through the same or do we want to see them walk shoulder to shoulder with the opposite sex, the change is going to come from within, you have to be the change you want to see in the world.
(All the thoughts mentioned in this article are personal and have nothing to do with any religion or any individual.)
