A Journo's Diary

It seems like we have got used to the whole process of going through a traumatic experience hitting the country and then hearing our leaders blame it on “external forces”. This isn’t the first time when terrorists have given a severe blow to the foundations of the system. Only difference remaining that with every attack, the scale of magnitude keeps increasing. The question thus is “what next”?

Will the heinous attacks this time meet their fate the same way like the other incidents in the past when after a week or ten days of unrest everything gets back to normal? Or is this an indication of a failing governmental system? We spend hours and hours discussing over our hot cup of cafe latte, in out comfortable ivory towers, about solutions for the grave situation. But how many of us really make even one single step towards our “so-called” discussion?

For the past twenty four hours, I have engaged myself in discussions with people from various walks of life. The common point was the frustration within everyone. The frustration to sit far away from your homeland and seeing it go up in flames. The frustrations of seeing your own people die at the hands of the slow, inefficient and highly corrupt system that just refuses to change. But “what is the solution”?

With every attack, we either compare it to the 9/11 in U.S or the 7/7 in London. But how can we forget that 9/11 and 7/7 happened ONCE in the history of these countries. And there was immediate retaliation. Have we retaliated to the situation even once? Leave aside retaliation, the most we do is announce compensations and condemn the attacks. That sums up exactly what has happened in the past. The support that we get from the world community after every attack or a bomb blast is to tell us in a very polite way that it’s high time we gear up. But the question is “when”?

We hear our leaders talk on television and we rise up in protest. Natural as it may be to us, but in a way we aren’t helping much by letting out our agitation on our own selves. I see hundreds of communities on facebook and orkut within minutes of blasts on topics such as “Save Mumbai”, “Stop Terrorism” and so on. But can I humbly ask if that’s making even one difference? Our technologically challenged, retired yet power hungry politicians won’t even give a damn to such communities. I guess we are doing such things in order to stand up to face our own self and tell the world how much we understand things.

In a way, if we look at things, Democracy isn’t the solution for us. Just by giving our opinions on television and writing blogs, we don’t become a voice of “We the people” of our so called democratic system. I feel frustrated at times when I see such incidents happen and the helplessness on my part to do anything. Not because I don’t want to, but because, like many other young people ready to reach out, I too can’t find the way to start. And thus, the solution? I am sticking to the conventional way of expressing my opinion. Something that will never ever reach the government.

We in India work on, what I call the “Blame-Game theory”. It all starts with one small or big incident, in this case, a huge incident and then starts the blame-game. Starting from the terrorists fighting for their own idiosyncrasies to government blaming it on the external forces or across border linkages and finally on to the citizens rising in protest blaming the inefficient system. But in this whole game, it is interesting to note the missing element. It is the lives of the hundreds who die, a murder of their wishes, their dreams and to some extent their families. But “what about them”?

Philosophical as it may sound, but I believe it’s time to get out of this vicious circle of blame-game. If we blame the government, in some way we are responsible too. We choose them, we give them the powers and we idolise them to a great extent. There has to be a start somewhere and I am going to make my start by not wasting my time in blaming anybody but trying to find a solution myself. And even if I can make a single little step ahead, I know I will have the support behind me to follow and lead through this never ending fight against inefficiency, torture and to a great extent tyranny.