She called him as the train chugged away from the platform. There was room for a last conversation at the convocation. But they had speculated a callous dealing of emotions, which got the better of memories. Now as he heard her voice one last time, the call dropped. "Out of network coverage," the screen read.
* "55 Words Story" is a novel concept owned by my friend Vivek Tejuja. I am merely reproducing my part of the contribution to his blog here.
It
once bore the marks of the bride's vermilioned palms. And the sons'
graffiti in early years. Today it embodied estrangement between the
brothers. The wall was dying. But even today, it allowed the widowed
mother to hide her tears and wails in its crevices. "Thank God I ain't
human", it seemed to say.
* "55 Words Story" is a novel concept owned by my friend Vivek Tejuja. I am merely reproducing my part of the contribution to his blog here.
Last week, a girl who came to be known by many names, lost her life to a bunch of depraved minds. A country was stirred, angry voices descended on the streets in screams and protests, demanding justice for the girl and for humanity. This wasn't a unique episode - probably just the proverbial last straw, people guessed. A week later, the protests have ebbed, everyone is back home, and we all know this wasn't the last straw either.
We are not to blame. We have our lives to live, and then, it has not happened until it has happened to us, right? Maybe. But more importantly, we don't know whom or what we are protesting against. It cannot be the government, because we are a part of them (hello, democracy). It must not be the legal system, for it is a little fanciful to combat something as colossal. It need not be the culprits, for they are not the only ones we would need to protest against. And one can only hope it is not against the eroding Indian culture, because there is anyway very little left of it to worry about.
Let's worry about how we perceive our democratic rights. Back in school, we were reminded ad nauseam that our rights only complemented our duties, or something like that. One of our most fundamental duties is to recognize that every single person around us has exactly the same set of rights as we do: right to peace, right to progress, right to express, and most importantly, a right to dignity. We all have our demons to deal with. We all feel a sense of deprivation. And that can't be a major surprise for a country with a burgeoning population, limited resources and even more limited education. But we cannot use our discontent as a trump card to go wield our frustration on any unsuspecting person. Because what goes around comes around, you know.
So, no. You cannot question a person's sense of fashion. You cannot start a riot only because a certain faction of the society doesn't play by your rules. You cannot question an 'outsider' who chooses to live in your city. YOU CANNOT LAY YOUR HANDS ON A WOMAN JUST BECAUSE YOUR FAMILIAL ORDER DICTATES THAT THE WOMEN OF YOUR HOUSE DRESS CONSERVATIVELY, WHICH LEADS TO YOUR MIND GETTING REPRESSED.
Rapes apart, we feel a violation of our dignity almost every day at the hands of our own people - in the form of communal and racial slander, in the name of social and financial inequality, and often even for expressing a simple opinion. The legal system will always have its recourse to such matters. We would much rather examine our own moral stature than taking on something that we have no control over. For all we know, the solution lies in the micro and not in the macro.
A good beginning towards this would be that we learn to mind our own business. Let's not interfere in each other's lives, let alone trying to control or mould them. Respecting each other is asking for a lot. Let's learn not to disrespect each other. That's best done by steering clear of others' territories. The first step to a cleaner country is in cleaning our own minds. Uniting to combat challenges that a country faces as a whole comes a distant second.
