Can We Evade The Consequences Of Evading Reality?

For a country that was accustomed to saying something as futile as ~It’s high time~ post every bomb blast, train accident, terror attack, riots, infant deaths, floods, earthquakes….

~It’s high time someone was held accountable,

x was looked into…

y was reformed…

z was modernized…~

Yes, that standard phrase gave us a momentary sense of urgency, several well phrased op-eds and noisy, pointless TV ‘debates’.

Needless to say, in the end, it spared all those responsible because life was about passing the buck, our own short memories and getting back into the business of living.

Note, I write in the past tense because now with Covid19 which has hit us with a sledgehammer, never anticipated nor experienced before, we will not have the luxury to get away with ~It’s about time~ & go back to our old ways.

Locked up in our homes, we have been given the opportunity to look out & see the world we took for granted, transform before our eyes. And what is most revealing and shaming is that it happened without our presence, without our participation & without our arrogance.

The blue skies we had forgotten, the clear streams & rivers, the snow-clad mountain views, the loud, happy babble of birds, the freedom of wild life ….it would be criminal to return to the way we were and a terrible legacy to pass on to our children.

For an ancient civilisation we evolved through a natural process & other times through a violence beyond our control. But as a young nation we have resisted fundamental changes because our leaders unsure of the power they might unleash, froze us to old fears & dogmas.With intellect inadequacies and inexperience, tying us forever to history and past masters.

The status quo suited them & we, new to freedom, followed unquestioningly.

We overlooked the fact that the Idea of a Nation is never finished. It has to be recreated in every generation.

No doubt over the years the fissures & the chasms have become more evident among us, encouraged by power hungry, insecure politicians of seven decades.

To keep us divided was indeed a good business plan.

Even those who sat on the fence toppled over in fright at the advent of 2020.

The differences further deepened between those who don’t want to let go a position of being more than equal & the vast majority who will now, not settle for less.

On one side of the spectrum is a community that takes pride in retaining every aspect of its faith & flaunting every outwardly symbol of it.

On the other hand, the followers of the oldest religion on earth, have over centuries made way, made place, through unimaginable violence and discrimination, finding themselves so boxed in, that the only way was out was a combustion of civilizational revival and renaissance – or a slow but sure, cultural annihilation.

As through our windows we have witnessed the rejuvenation of Nature in all its panoramic splendor giving us untold joy in these uncertain times we have also watched with horror an unfolding of events, attitude, violence of a people that seem all the more removed from a country that has actually successfully gone into lockdown mode – unbelievable for 1.3 billion.

Just as it will be criminal to push back Nature in that box in which we suffocated it, we will also find a resistance to going back into our container of political correctness, suppressed anger and frustration.

 So, when the lockdown is removed, in a staggered or any other form we will hold our leaders accountable to an equivalence in delivery of justice, be it Minority or Majority, as others a control over our places of worship & education, a uniform civil code and most important a thorough, merciless weeding out with due investigation & prosecution of those who set out to destroy this country and its delicate fabric.

It is said that every war, every natural calamity should teach us something.

Post Covid19, it will be to the peril of our existence as a Nation, if we continue with such inane phrases as – ‘it’s high time’….

The time will be NOW and for that to be a reality, our leaders who have shown exemplary dexterity, strength and vision in steering the country through uncharted waters of handling a deadly virus will be called once again to show the same leadership skills here and most important – They Will Not Be Allowed To Forget.

#HumYaadRakhenge

~Through every generation of the human race there has been a constant war, a war with fear.Those who have the courage to conquer it are made free & those who are conquered by it are made to suffer until they have the courage to defeat it, or death takes them~ Alexander The Great