Here’s another dig into the old files, and another writeup brought back to life. I don’t really remember when this was written, nor what event inspired it. Don’t even remember actually why I did not post it. Maybe I wanted to add something more to this piece and postponed it for later. And ‘later’ obviously led to forgetfulness and neglect. Well, here it is anyway, as it was left in my draft folder perhaps months ago.
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Again and again some or the other self-confirmed security guard of our national culture rises up to cry foul about the loss of culture. But culture to them, sadly, doesn’t seem to extend beyond a woman’s clothes or the distance a boy and a girl should maintain.
Sadly, none of them seems to be marking the demise of something more valuable which should have been considered a far more integral part of Indian culture. Listen carefully and you’ll hear the departing wails of almost all the values that really made our Indian culture so great.
If you can’t hear their cry, switch on your TV and watch the news. A frenzied driver killed a man for daring to honk his horn at him. And patience received yet another fatal wound. A youth was killed because he urged a drink of water from roadside loafers. Kindness and generosity were impaled. A girl of sixteen got molested by a group of 20, and a score more watched on, modesty, courage and true manhood felt the noose on their neck tighten further. A girl was burnt alive for daring to refuse a lover, love suffered yet another grievous wound. Even peace and non-violence is practiced violently these days. One little pebble is enough now to raise a storm of stones, because patience, tolerance and forbearance are all dying. Girls are routinely being killed, as an unborn, as a young girl, as a bride, as mothers, because tenderness and respect for womanhood have gone far away. Innocent children are being enslaved, beaten, tortured, treated as animal. Girls barely old enough to know themselves get ravaged by raging demons almost daily, because self-control is forgotten, pity cannot break out of of our hardened hearts and Humanity is dead, or definitely breathing its last. And honesty, let’s not even talk about that.
If ever you see any of these virtues appear as bright and shiny angels, beware, because more often than not, it’s just a fake glitter hiding something dark and sinister behind it.
We may see a man dying in full sight, but still would suspect foul play and danger, and move on. Because charity and trust have been rubbed out by deceit and treachery. And I really do believe that even if God himself comes down to guide our route, even He would be shooed off as a fake committing the blasphemy of pretending to be God. Because as with other values, even faith is dwindling fast.
Indians may be multiplying to millions, but the ‘Indianness’ in us is dying.
And all we seem to be mourning is demise of modesty in women. But then, it’s a tragic loss. A tragic loss, indeed.