The Shame That Beckons Us Every New Year

2016, a year that sent us into a vertigo with its sphere of "Surprises", ironically ended in a "Predictable" whimper - At least for most Indians. Predictably, like every year, men and women of all hues gathered at a famous landmark, reveling like there's no tomorrow, in a famous cosmopolitan city, to conjure a new beginning. And quite predictably the new-beginning that these revelers had desired for never arrived. Rather, by the first-day break of 2017 they experienced déjà vu of the old-world order. Nothing! Absolutely Nothing ! had changed. Once again, a girl/ girls was/ were groped in a crowded place by "faceless" men, in the shadows of burly policemen. And even before most Indians could come to term with what had happened, politicians had descended with their abominable comments.

Prominent questions that popped up in everyone's mind, in the aftermath of the new-year incident, were - Why are people not sensitive to women? Why should women bear the brunt of unruly men? Why shouldn't there be a curfew on men lurking at late hours? Shouldn't such irresponsible politicians be put behind bars? etc...

While no one can doubt the validity of these questions, they still miss the reliability test. Assuming we found the answer to each of these questions and acted with alacrity on the solutions, would we still be reliably able to say that such incidents will not occur in the future? I bet, the answer is a big NO. Not because, the questions asked and solutions found were wrong per-se but because we were trying to find the right solution at the wrong place. And right solutions are those that remain reliable i.e. they pass the test of time. For instance, the utmost shameful incident of 31st Dec, 2016 was an exact repeat of incidents in other Indian cities ealier. After all such previous incidents as well many questions were raised and most of them were similar to those mentioned above. Rightful solutions were found too - new laws were enacted; administration was awakened and media became active. Unfortunately, none of these solutions were reliable enough to remove the curse of "unruly men", "gender insensitivity", "irresponsible politicians" etc.. Again, the post-haste solutions fail at another level as well and that is they get mired in quick fixes such as "teach women self-defense techniques", "place more CCTV cameras", "have women police in public spaces". All of these quick-fixes are indeed important without a debate. But a second look at the quick fix solutions exposes the mistrust we have on our own people and the lack of mechanisms that enable the correction of a society through greater trust building. A society where trust levels are low is a recipe for disaster.
The need of the hour, therefore, for all of us is to step back from the current incident and focus on the larger narrative. The larger narrative exposes our double-standards where certain problems are given priority over others, leaving behind a weak scaffolding that can collapse at the slightest nudge. The larger narrative is about how each of us is vulnerable to abuse and dishonor everyday - financially- where did our road tax go? why did the poor farmer get robbed of his property by the cunning politician; physically - why are our brethren in deep jungles not provided with basic healthcare? why does a senior citizen have to pay commission and stand in a long queue to get his hard-earned pension? emotionally - why does the long arm of justice not act against the woman who implicated her husband falsely?  what mechanism does a poor lady in a dark corner of the country have to register a complaint against her abuser? 

Unfortunately, the larger narrative manifests from the same key component - it is the feeling that "I can get away" and "nothing can happen to me". Such beliefs preclude us from exhibiting dignity and acting responsibly. The abuser thinks - the girl shall not complain and i can get away. The contractor thinks - I shall pay my commission and nothing shall happen to me. 

Thus, it behoves us to reflect on this matter and ask ourselves - what would make us behave in a dignified an responsible manner, every time?

The reliable answer to this poignant question lies in the simple construct of "Sensibility", which unfortunately is grossly missing from the belief-system of majority of Indians. Absence of sensibility and sensibility alone prevents most of us from behaving as dignified and responsible citizens. As our society opens up more, it seems as if lack of sensibility is giving way to abundant bigotry, in every sphere of life. Unless the weak scaffolding our society is strengthened from its roots we can await our vulnerable moments of exploitation.

To my mind, if we want to create a strong society that is devoid of bigotry and lush with sensible people we would require a two-pronged approach -

(1) A strong education system that promotes critical reasoning ability among children is a must-take first step. In the long-term such a system will bless these children with the power of Questioning. To grow up as sensible human-beings one must learn to Question. No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, should escape the universal duty of questioning all that we believe, our actions and our inactions. Ability to question before one acts shall not only prevent indecorous events but eventually lead to the blossoming of an otherwise stunted society.

(2) In the more near-term it must be the call-of-duty among honorable adults to protect the vulnerable most. We as adults must remember that while the 'death of one person is a tragedy, the death of millions becomes only a statistic'. And we must prevent that one-person from dying. Our great glory can be achieved by existence through purpose - live for a cause that leads to greater good; display of valor - start by picking small battles against minor actus-reus; and sharing and educating - share what little you have and educate the bourgeois.

Meanwhile, we can just relax a little bit and read this positive story by humyum posted on 10th December: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/125412-unusual-funny-heartwarming-experiences-road-36.html#post4107342

Tale of Two Books

Recently, I concluded reading two books – The Lives Of Others and The Lowland – the former written by Neel Mukherjee, an Indian based out of England and the latter written by Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian-American. Both these books are a simulacrum of Charles Dickens’ famous composition – The Tale Of Two Cities and can best be captured in Dickens’ own words -

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way”

Like Dickens, who set in front of us a panorama of the raging fight during the French revolution between the bourgeois and the aristocrats in France and a parallel world set in London around late 1700s, Mukherjee and Lahiri captivate us with a similar tale of somebodies in Calcutta, Bengal, during the Naxal revolution and a parallel world set in the US, almost 200 years later.

Still, the two books beautifully bound by a saga of heart-wrenching love, death, a failed movement – a revolution, couldn’t have been more diverse at once. Lives Of Others is primarily set in Calcutta and the hinterlands of Bengal during the decades and those immediately succeeding the Indian independence when the Naxal revolution had erupted, while in contrast The Lowland mainly commences in the decades of the Naxal revolution stretching upto the early years of the current millennium.

Not just with their timeline of event presentation, the two authors contrast each other in their drama presentation as well. Mukherjee, more Rushdiesque in his style, lionizes his characters and expresses them through their action as much as their locution compared to Lahiri who distinctively adopts a blander but saucier approach to her characters.

The comparisons and contrasts in the two books continue beyond the two authors’ style of presentation, much into the lives and deaths and in the palisading of the characters. Lives Of Others ends with a contrived and tragic turn of events in the protagonist – Supratik Ghosh’s- life after he had hatched the plan along with his comrades from CPI (ML) to kill policemen so that they could loot their arsenal and take their revolution forward. Concomitant with Supratik Ghosh, Udayan Mitra’s, the protagonist in The Lowland, life also follows a similar sequence of events as if by design. The protagonists from two different books surreally come together, as if to plan and execute the same policemen, for the same purpose. At this juncture, the reader can easily be transported to an emplacement where Supratik and Udayan would meet daily to chart out their execution plans, discuss the road ahead for the party and their afterlives, as if they were one, as if a reflection of each other, comrades forever. Mukherjee and Lahiri’s characters meet only to diverge once again. Mukherjee limns his saga around the Ghoshes, Supratik being one of the grandsons, who are a rich and conservative business family and where lives revolve in and around Calcutta, but ends it with the youngest grandson ending up in the United States. Lahiri on the other hand chooses to depict her characters as a set of free-flowing strong willed agents from the Mitra family, who choose to stay in the United States for a better part of their lives but almost in bathos ends her saga in Calcutta.

The two authors brilliantly bring together, with their compelling, comparable but contrasting stories, an idea of Bengal and Bengalis who saw the spread of India’s first peasant revolution – a revolution that still continues but is much less understood today. Full marks to Mukherjee and Lahiri for their beautiful portrayal of events.