The Secu-LIAR-ist Ideology!
There are quirks of this society that never cease to surprise, or rather, rattle me. A friend of mine was recently denied the purchase of some property in Mumbai - reason: he is a Muslim! Quite shocking, I'd say. It's routine news, some others might say. But the point is - I think it's disgusting to think that people can have such parochial mindsets in what they call the advanced era of a modern India. I mean, to stoop as low as to deny someone an equal right based on his religion is pretty shameful. But let's leave that aside for now.
What I fail to understand is, how do we have the (in)sanity to indulge in such trifles after witnessing such heinous forces already trying to disturb the harmony of the country (it's barely 5 months since 26/11, guys!). Is the bitterness that they are trying to spread in here not already enough? Is it wise to give these external demons a reason to laugh at our own inability to live harmoniously? How much sensibility does it take to consider the existence of compassion and humanity beyond a concocted boundary of religions? Food for thought, everyone.
For the property owner who prompted me to write on this hackneyed topic - do remember, the world goes a full circle. Let not a day come when you find yourself seeking a plush home abroad, and you are denied one simply because you are not of the same creed as the others. But if it does, you will probably wish you had been a little more broad-minded towards your own countrymen. Don't take this suggestion to heart. Take it to your soul, if you have one.
It's no good faking integrity and unity and..what was that word again? Yeah, SPIRIT! - if you can't get your basics right. To sum up what we stand as even after witnessing a hundred 26/11s already, I'll end by re-writing a few lines I had recently penned:
We limp back to life on a busy city street,
Where meaningless trifles turn up the heat.
Curses turn into blows, and blows into bloodshed,
Each man for himself, unity be dead.
Those demons laugh at us as we busy ourselves in the brawl,
And we still proudly claim: United We Stand, Divided We Fall.
4 comments:
recently been to UP (Lucknow and Kanpur) and realized that theres a huge power distance, be it in terms of religion, caste, social status, gender, etc... sad that people still are so narrow minded in a so-called modern and evolved India that is ready to take on the world...
But yeah, its shocking someone being denied a piece of land just bec of his/her religion... hope the same thing happens somewhere else to the person who denied...
Good lines u penned... cheers :)
thanks Neel, it's people like you and me who can all but TRY and change the way people think..it's left to time now to see how far we succeed!
Thought provoking, Nishant.
Yes, it is disgusting that anyone be treated with discrimination based on any grounds whatsoever.
This man denied a piece of land in his own homeland is not an outlaw. He is only a man born in a different religion, and he is proud of it. An Asian treated with contempt in foreign land is not an alien. He is only a man born in another faraway country.
Worse, and I'm stretching this to other limits; A 21-year old woman burnt alive by greedy inlaws is not an evil spirit. She only could not feed hungry mouths with money from her parents. Or, a newly-born girl child discarded in a rotting heap of garbage, left out in the cold to be devoured by a pack of hungry stray dogs, is not a devil. She is an innocent child born to inhuman and insensitive parents who never deserved her.
Who are we to deny the right to live and the right to live with dignity to any other human being? When will we ever stop scarring souls?
Ghettos exist everywhere. The person you mention happens to be a Muslim but go as posh a locality as Hill Road, Bandra and you may be denied a house if you are not a Catholic. Go to Borivali/Kandivali and you'll realise the same applies for non-Jains in certain buildings. Go to South Mumbai and you'll find Parsi colonies where a non-Parsi can probably not even enter. I think its a failure of the system including we as its key constituents. We fail to provide a sense of security to the minorities around us. The religion bias exists in most of us even without realising it. Its only when we become a victim of such bias we feel the need to challenge the status quo.
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