Thursday, January 26, 2006

What colour is Oblivion?

Today in Sudu's class for O.E (Sudu is our drama teacher, Mr. Sudhamshu, spelt with an 'm', Sudu with love:)), we watched the docu, 'Final Soluton'...by Rakesh Sharma. We are reading Mahesh Dattani's play, 'Final Solutions', n Sudu always tries to got that extra mile with his classes, so the screening. Though I do have a hunch that the fact that all of us blattenly refused wake up from our bored stupor n participate in the discussions last class, which made him order us to "bugger off", 15 mins into class, may have played a small role!

To be very honest, it was not all the easy to digest...the docu I mean. Sure all of us have heard a lot bout the imfamous Godhra riots. Read a lot, seen a lot. But it still pulled your heart right out of ur ribcage, n twisted it bad to watch a li'l kid...probably not even 5 years old say that he saw his grandpa n uncles being brutally murdered. That he saw his dad's fingers being chopped off wen he tried to save them. That his mother, his aunt were stripped right in front of his eyes, before their limbs where chopped off. He wondered, why they stripped only the womenfolk. But even in his innocent mind, he knew who "they" were..."woh Hindu log hai na..."

I could feel the anger swell inside me as I heard Praveen Togadia proclaim to the crowds, that we need to forget Gabdhi to "fight injustice". I could feel the sorrow, wen a lady cried that she saw poor starving infants being thrown into the fire...that she still gets nightmares. Wen the cemetry keeper told the camera man that he'd lose his mind if he saw the scratches, the wounds on the breasts of the dead bodies of women brought to be buried...

We couldn't watch the whole docu...the 55 mins of class didnt permit. So we decided to wait till the next class to continue.

As I was walking out of the media lab, I was already thinking about the psychology presentation I had to make for the next class. Got out, saw Danny, smiled at her. She smiled back, n commented, "Not one of the best way to start my way". For a minute, I stared at her blankly. Didnt get wat she was referring to. Then it hit me. The docu. Can u believe it? I had already forgotten! I, who was so deeply affected by the plight of those hapless thousands. So deeply angered by the injustce of it all. Deeply affected! My own hypocracy shocked me.

What was wrong with me? What is wrong with all of us? How could we forget? How did we allow ourselves to forget...so soon? So easily?

"Those who forget history are condemded to relive it" George Somebody. And so we re...reliving it...time after time. Godhra. Mumbai. Babri Masjid. Delhi. Bhopal...time after time

What have I really seen in life? I ve not known real hunger...the one that pinches. I ve not seen war. Not seen hatred...the kind that makes u kill unborn children. I dont know what suffering is. Does that mean what I've seen in life is all a dream? An illusion? Meaningless waste? Do I really realise how fortunate I am? Or am I?

I know pain. BUT I also know what it is to be loved. What it is to be liked...AND disliked. I can see beauty in life, in this world. I can feel the joy of walking in the rain, of staring at a starlit sky, of walking barefoot on wet grass...of feeling the sea waves touch my feet n go...I can look at a child smile at me, and feel happy to be alive.

But what bout that li'l kid? Will he look at midnight sky filled with a million stars, n realise that God must love us guys down here..or will he relive the horrors of that horrible night when all his people, his world, were brutually destroyed? Will that lady ever get a peaceful nights's sleep...without the nightmares?

God...how can u make the same world so diffrent for 2 people at the same time?

Ms. Know-it-all asked: Will u remember that kid tmorrow?
I hope I never ever forget...again.

10 comments:

Manoj Prabhakaran said...

Well, Republic Day wishes!

Renjith said...

worth thinking

crumbs said...

@ mp
sarcasm at its best huh?sure i deserve it
@renjith havent all of us thought bout it enough already?

silverine said...

Beautiful post!!! I am horrified at the revelations in the documentary :(

Anu said...

i dunno whether v can condemn ourselves for forgtting how ruthless or disastrous their life is or has become... nor can ve forget it..... we all have our share of life s a bitch situatios and get lost in tht... each head own problems!!! i mite sound very cruel but thts the way the earth moves...

crumbs said...

@silverine
this's not half the story.the docu's...well...li'l hard to digest
@ tsu
precisely my point...we wont remember...unless it happens to us. life's rule.not that it makes us any better people...jus more, much more fortunate

Sreejith Narayanan said...

Dear Moontalk..
This is a very sentimental issue.. May be a few of us are also wounded by these riots. But who cares? I should sadly admit noone really cares about what has been happened over there.
Else how could the majority in Gujarat vote Narendra Modi back to power, after they all witnessed the way he handled the crisis! He won with a huge majority! This can be due to three reasons
(a) We are not aware of the actual reasons/depth of the riot. The people in Gujarat felt Modi handled it fairly.
I am not ready to buy this argument, which leads to the next one.
(b)The people who voted are the ones who blindly believed in the Hindutwa call of BJP/VHP. That might be showing that either the educated middle class also are indirectly supporting Modi, which I believe is not the case again!
(c) what would the congress have done that is different from the deeds of BJP? What happened to the Godhra reports in the parliament? What did the congress govt at the center do about it??

So the natural conclusion is, noone really cares! The educated middle class, who are supposed to be having opinions abt all the issues, are irresponsible enough to caste their vote during the elections, so all the politically motivated/ biased ppl are the ones who vote, and so we get the same old leaders coming back to power!

And abt VHP, there was an article in HIndu a few years back, saying their manifesto is no way different from Lashkar E Thoiba!!

No hard feelings please...

Anonymous said...

brutally honest.

we have lost our senses.

Renjith said...

the story .. me a big time cyber guy myself ..wrote this in malayalam in 201 i guess ..now just felt will transalte..not very creative when it comes to stories nowadays

One in the crowd said...

@ Sreejith Narayanan...

Let me put things in better perspective...the educated middle class in gujarat DOES support Modi...

As for him coming back to power, it's not like people blindly trusted him but just that he successfully whipped up a mass hysteria...secondly, people just didn't have another option...the candidate opposing him was Shankarsingh Vaghela - a BJP turned RJP turned Congress candidate...now who on earth would trust him?

@ Moontalk

You are right. We just don't remember anything. But even if we do remember all that, what is the point? Do we do anything at all to make a difference? So, if we don't intend to do anything about it, it's better to forget and move on