Did we realize that we would be undone by our beliefs? Would those brave souls who stood up to the vagaries of the world have realized that the first to throw stones at them would be same who they hoped to emancipate. There are some moments that force us to confront these questions which the mundane doesn’t often permit us the luxury of. Why would a boy who lived the best of his twenty five years in some village of West Bengal suddenly find himself in the dark confines of a prison in Hyderabad, a lifetime away from all he hoped to return to one day? Did he realize that one day he would fall victim to that same nefarious plot, the fear of which had actually forced him to voice his protests when many seemingly literate and educated souls strived to shut out all voices of reason from their heads? Would the world now bother to listen that his many dreams in life never included an appointment with the police baton? Or would they even listen that you dreamt of becoming a compassionate businessman (utopian I had thought)? Or that you dreamt of adding the honorable prefix of 'Dr' to your name? Surely, who would care to listen that you sat in a class of a hundred in school, or that unlike many (like me) you had to fight constant battles with the English dailies and dictionaries to get where you are? Would they care to stop and think of what shaped your thoughts as they hurry to pin you down to their narratives? Will they care to analyse the emotions and faith that took you in the directions of the batons?
I ask these questions knowing the answers. Sometimes those are the ones which are the most hopeless. So I'll ask just one more. What kind of a world (country) are we living in? All of us know that we are going to the dogs. Didn't you tell me some two years back, even before HE was elected that if such a thing come to pass, people of your faith will be deported to P*******. The events which followed must only have helped to exacerbate your fears. If Dadri was everything you feared, only know that you are not alone in your fear. I can only imagine the angst you surely must have felt when a whole community is repeatedly asked to ‘prove’ their nationalistic credentials. Surely, you should have told them about the time when you chided me when I would support the P******* cricket team. Such are the markers for nationalism today! Do you think they have enough space for all of us in P*******? Because if it is you today, it's only tomorrow before it's us.
We do not know where you are. All of us are hoping against hope that you are safe and have dug in there. But then my despair returns. I dread that I willpick up the morning's newspaper and find that they have labelled you a T********. The dreaded T word for all in your community. Will I be listening to rabid news anchors tearing you apart. Surely, a new history will be encrypted for you. But it’s your future that they are aiming for. We really are going to the dogs, ain't we? But I'm waiting for that bite of reality that will open people’s eyes to the fact that the dogs they should dread are on their Right rather than the Left. Sad as it sounds, I find myself hoping that the bite comes all the more sooner for them. In the meantime it's up to us to remind the world that you are a flesh and blood human with dreams that are at once ethereal and mundane, rather than venomous abstract concepts that will surely be laid to consume you. Stay strong friend!
I ask these questions knowing the answers. Sometimes those are the ones which are the most hopeless. So I'll ask just one more. What kind of a world (country) are we living in? All of us know that we are going to the dogs. Didn't you tell me some two years back, even before HE was elected that if such a thing come to pass, people of your faith will be deported to P*******. The events which followed must only have helped to exacerbate your fears. If Dadri was everything you feared, only know that you are not alone in your fear. I can only imagine the angst you surely must have felt when a whole community is repeatedly asked to ‘prove’ their nationalistic credentials. Surely, you should have told them about the time when you chided me when I would support the P******* cricket team. Such are the markers for nationalism today! Do you think they have enough space for all of us in P*******? Because if it is you today, it's only tomorrow before it's us.
We do not know where you are. All of us are hoping against hope that you are safe and have dug in there. But then my despair returns. I dread that I willpick up the morning's newspaper and find that they have labelled you a T********. The dreaded T word for all in your community. Will I be listening to rabid news anchors tearing you apart. Surely, a new history will be encrypted for you. But it’s your future that they are aiming for. We really are going to the dogs, ain't we? But I'm waiting for that bite of reality that will open people’s eyes to the fact that the dogs they should dread are on their Right rather than the Left. Sad as it sounds, I find myself hoping that the bite comes all the more sooner for them. In the meantime it's up to us to remind the world that you are a flesh and blood human with dreams that are at once ethereal and mundane, rather than venomous abstract concepts that will surely be laid to consume you. Stay strong friend!
