I am an average Indian man. I am the same as everyone else. I do nothing, admitted. I sit on my chair all day wondering what's going wrong with everything and everyone around me, agreed. I slouch, read stuff on the internet, watch videos of little girls molested publicly in large cities in India, outrage and then forget about it. I know.
I am a culprit, I say to myself, of a corrupt, immoral and heartless system.
But I am, in fact, the criminal. I am the one who is corrupt. Because I bribe myself into believing that mine is a good, safe and secure nation. I am the one who is immoral. Because I commit the morally reprehensible act of staying silent even when I should not. I am the one who is heartless, because I see something happening as horrendous, yet I do not think the same can happen to my own wife or mother or sister.
I am ashamed today to think that I am of the same nation as those people in Guwahati. The Preamble to the Constitution of India says "We, the people of India,.... assuring the dignity of the individual...hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution."
But no, we are not people. We are worse than animals. We do not assure the dignity of an individual, but ensure that we shall find every opportunity to downgrade it. We do not adopt or enact any words of this Constitution, but make it our Constitutional Right to ensure that women always think twice before stepping outside their doors.
Aamir Khan in Satyameva Jayate talked about female infanticide and foeticide some time back. Some of those girls who were killed may be sitting up There, glad that they weren't born after all in a land as insane, degraded and horrid as India. They are probably glad that they weren't born in a land where we teach our daughters to "not get raped", but do not teach our sons to "not rape".
This is not where I want to be. This is not the country I was taught to epitomize and idolize when I was a child. This is not the land where "the mud smells like heaven". It doesn't.
Right now, it smells of shit.
No. This is not my India.
- Vinaykrishnan.
