The Rant

No guesses on what my ranting will be about this time around! Its been just two days since the terrorists have played havoc in Mumbai. With operations at the Taj still on, I find myself compelled to vent all my anger and frustration.

First and foremost, I am truly amazed at the perseverance of the NSG, their courage and their selflessness is something that we can all stand to learn from. To deliberately put your life at risk, to walk into danger with your eyes wide open is no mean task. It is the spirit of these guys that we should derive our strength from. Hats off to these men.

The news channels are flooded with stories, stories of induvidual acts of heroism, civilians who have risen to the occasion; the staff of the hotels who, even when staring death in the face, put their guests first, their duty first.

I dont want to take the steam away from any of these people. In fact, they actually represent what our nation is truly made up of. But what irks me is that we shouldn't even be thrust into this situation in the first place! Why is it that these acts of barbarism are allowed to fester to this extent? why can't the politicans and all the other dividing influences in our country realise that our country comes first, not the parties, and definitely not the votes! Only when they get over these differences and unite, and look at the bigger picture can we, India, flourish as a nation.

Now, for those terrorists.I can't think of any justification, any reason important enough to kill innocent lives, for that matter, any life. Every person is part of a much larger network, each of them intricately linked to a hundred others. It is scary, to put it mildly, to even think that it could all just vanish, be snuffed out in the blink of an eye. Don't the terrorists see that? They are such people after all. Don't they recognise the importance of a life? Is it that easy to poison a person's mind down the wrong path? I often sit and wonder whether I, when placed in their position,would be driven to the same actions; whether i could be as ruthless as them, and give up all my induvidual reasoning, for a larger 'purpose'. And what I realise is that I can! Its easy to be like them, to be led by some other voice which promises to give them purpose and passion, to treat your own life as less than important. But at a point, every person is at a crossroad, where they have a choice. A choice on what they want to be and how they want to do it. And its that choice that defines them for the rest of their lives. It takes courage to not be like them. And thats where they will always be different from us. Thats where we will always be better than them.

Apart from this, there is yet another worry which nags me. Its the fear of riots that might emerge at the wake of these attacks. The 'anti-muslim' sentiments that will resurface. The agony of all angry Indians that might end up directed at our own Indian Muslims. This is where i have never fully understood the meaning of a religion. I feel that every person is different. Every person is unique and every person has a million facets to them. We can never completely understand a single person completely, let alone an entire religion! Then how can we direct our hatred towards some vague definition of a set of people. I have never understood Hitler's need to exterminate the entire Jewish race and I never will understand the 'holy wars' that are taking place today. To paraphrase Thomas Keneally's lines in his book, 'Schindler's list', "Every German had one jew, one jew who was different from the others, who didn't deserve to die". I'm sure each of us will have our own ' one jew' in this situation and that we should remember that every Indian muslim we know is probably someone else's 'one jew'. So I hope and pray that people remember this, and remember that the war isn't against muslims, but is against the terrorists, who just happen to be muslims.