Today the 3rd of December one week after 26/11, we remember and recount the hour when humanity and every religion was marauded, raped and put to shame by some who thought they were making a selfless sacrifice for a great cause. But, I stumble upon the question, who are the real terrorists? Are they, those who do the act, or the masterminds sitting in various countries. Is it Osama or is it Bush? Is it Dawood or is it Modi? Is it LeT or is it RSS? Is it ISI or is it MNS? Or is it each one of us?
As I look within myself I realize how I am responsible for these acts.
A handful of men can't be the only one responsible for such an attack on civilization. There must have more who planned it. But why did they plan it? How did they get around all the problems? What do they want to achieve out of it? And what finally happened out of all these acts? As I set within myself to find answers, I reach the same blind alley with a mirror looking straight into my own eyes!
Why did they plan?
Somewhere, sometime, somehow, someone must have been mistreated. People can be highly selfish and political to enrage a whole clan, but no human being can think about vengeance without even a little bit of atrocity laid against them. Many such atrocities are well documented and accepted. Be it Hitler's gas chambers or be it the incessant drive of the mutated and disfigured sects of Christianity to baptize the whole human race. We have innumerable instances of how the so called Phony protectors of Hindu Religion tried every possible dirty means to gather more blind followers that they can rule on. And now the same thing is being witnessed as some FRAUDULENT AND FAKE Islamic guards, have set out, to not only destroy those who they think destroyed them, but also destroy and malign their own kind. But where were those other real religious men, who knew that each of these atrocities in the name of religion is so clearly shunned by the same religion that was supposedly protected? Where were the sane people when these insanities where being carried out? Its not that humanity was attacked by the perpetrators of crime, but the rest of us let them attack us. When the taxi driver was lynched in Mumbai a few kilometers from where I stay, I was responsible for not stepping out and letting the hooligans know that we the civil society object. The great teachers of our great Hindu civilization preferred to stay in their cocoons and not cry out against the atrocities infiltrated but others of their own creed. It's me and others like me who prefer to keep quiet just saving our own skin, who are responsible for these attacks.
How did they get around?
The gunmen who held the city at ransom could not have come in without someone from within us helping them. The people who rammed the planes into America's bloated ego couldn't have done so without inside help. So all these men get trained and brainwashed but at the end of the road there are some untrained and perfectly common men who open the gate to them for a price. These are these men who sell their mother, sister and daughter for what they think is small money, but I consider as their entire soul. These people are dead long before they die. But, aren't these people a product and part of the same society that we live in. They are one of us, who come to office, crib about their boss, enjoy a glass of chilled bear and like to hang out with friends. But, why do some choose the easy way to make some quick money. We are equally responsible in their act. We who try and show off little things that we think makes us superior. We who make him feel how small he is in so many things. We who demand more out of him than he can afford. The boss and his boss and the biggest boss who bag 100 times the money for one tenth the work. People who build palace after palace, when they can live in an apartment.
I understand that today CEOs and the Page3 creatures are coming out and joining hands to prove how hurt they are, but what I cant understand is why some entertainers charge 40 million rupees, why the Bacchans need a Rolce Royce, couple of BMWs, a Lexus, a few Mercs and what not, why Mr Ambani needs to build another Palace to stay, with seven floors for parking. These are the people who belittle the rest and then some from within us try to reach for more at any cost. Some might say that at the end it's the person's conscience, but I ask which conscience are you taking about, that which someone is born with or that which the society impregnates? Every morning when I drive down to work, there are so many others who hang for their lives out of the trains in Mumbai. I find myself guilty of so many crimes with this single action. Guilty of driving a car carrying one person when I can so well pick some people waiting at the bus stops. Guilty of switching on my AC, cooling the interiors and heating up the exterior. And above all I am guilty of belittling the efforts of so many others who don't have this luxury. I am guilty of being part of the crowd who has slowly but surely poisoned somebody to let of their guard for a little money.
I can go on how each of us has played our parts, but it will only prove how much we still debate and not put anything in action. And one such inaction which is the single largest contributor of all these attacks is our apathy towards casting our votes. We will shout and scream and accuse the politicians and the mayors about how they have failed to protect us. BUT HAVE WE EVEN CARED TO CHOOSE THEM? THIS WORLDS LARGEST DEMOCRACY SEES AN AVERAGE VOTING OF LESS THAN 40% AND THE LEAST VOTING IN THE MOST URBANIZED AREAS. WE ARE THE COWARDS WHO FIND EVERY EXCUSE NOT TO VOTE. WE ARE THE COWARDS WHO ENJOY A HOLIDAY WHEN WE SHOULD BE VOTING.
Although we light a candle in the memory of those killed, but we are the once who actually lit their pier by our apathy, ignorance, sheer negligence and above all cowardice of not reacting when we should have. WE ARE A PART OF THAT DEMOCRACY WHERE WE KNOW ONLY OF OUR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS BUT NOT OUR FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES.
I am one of us, a coward, a lame human (probably not human anymore) and a terrorist, who lets others do injustice to others as I remain mute spectator. I am the terrorist to have not caste my vote. And above all I am terrorist who will go back to work 10 minutes after writing this, and you will be one who forgets about this 10 minutes after reading this.
Yours sadly and shamefully,
A numb religion-less being
