And the women said it:
They cuddled it on their teddy bears,
dressed their pets with it,
they wore it on their bags,
stuck it on their cars,
and just so you would never miss it, they printed it on their clocks:
And put it on the coasters with your drinks.
When they were really mad, they even carried banners:
As an Indian for whom even the memory of the morning sounds and bustle carried within the magnificent modulation of the Suprabhatam
or the azaan,
was a tonic,as fragrant and bracing as the tumbler of decoction coffee, many of us started our day with, this cry of utter despair and resignation was something that I could never get used to.
For all the swagger and the colors and cleverness of commerce this seemed like "a sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions." Karl Marx on Religion.
"SSDD" was the sad credo of the America behind the hype. The angry wail of the many who had been left behind in the cavernous cracks of a "developed" society.
The unshaven old man carrying a lathi who had somehow been allowed into the Marxist Home Minister's peshi expelled that same tired sigh when he put his hand on my shoulder for support and said, "Koi Sunvayee Nahin Hothi Babuji"
I had suffered nearly a decade of repression, from the corrupt bureaucracy and the press, and I could only agree with him.
Indeed, we all know, if the Hon'ble Marxist Home Minister had heard this man, he too would have been able to do precious little than appreciate the pithy local wisdom of his petitioner.
When Neelam Krishnamurthy witnessed the Delhi High Court actually reducing the sentences of the Ansals in the Uphaar tragedy, she expressed the same horror of betrayal.
Sangeetha Sharma, advocate of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and mother of two, was overwhelmed. Hounded and betrayed,by an environment conspicuously lacking in honour, she did the honourable thing. This mother took her own life.
No black guard of the law rioted for Sangeetha Sharma. They just forgot her.
Nobody heard Aman Kachroo when he cried for help.
Nobody heard the girl from Guntur.
Parliament did not hear the Supreme Court either.
Ask Somnath Da and he will tell you nobody heard him either.
Our Chief Election Commissioner thought he had earned the right to exercise his fundamental human right to complain and obtain redressal.
He, like the rest of us, had to come back with his intentions questioned and ears ringing.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court imagined he would be heard by the striking lawyers in Chennai. What happened?
Those unfortunate souls are still striking. Even doing some typically delayed PR. Soli Sorabji's "delay syndrome".
Who is going to listen to the lawyers now ?
We have our parliaments and our legislatures. Our courts and our thanas. Our Press and our zillion news channels.
And they all sing the same mournful dirge in this noisily derelict "democracy" that the stupid foreign press has somehow labeled "vibrant":
"Yahaan Koyi Kisi Ka Suntha Nahin Hain. Koyi Sunvayee Nahin Hothi Babuji".
1 comment:
Difficult to deny the powerful statement you made. We have become sadistic.
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