Unity in differences !

Tails up for a fight

It’s very difficult to settle down in a society where you think you’re radically different from others, you can no more relate to that society, that culture, that set of values. Similar, I think, is the plight of the Indian youth which resides in metros. Many of us have matured well before the average Indian age for ‘Indian maturity’, we relate to something that’s not generally accepted in our country. It is a severe deviation from streamlined India.

Realistically, Gandhi-Nehru are not our heroes, we don’t vie for government jobs, we don’t crave for Bollywood and its ‘running-around-the-trees’ movies, we are no more concerned about when our marriage is going to take place (or whether it’s going to happen at all), we don’t fight for gender equality coz we think it’s a given in our society, ‘Money’ is not the ultimate aim, we want we have everything available online and more importantly, we don’t think ‘Doing business with rest of the world is like slavery’. [P.S. – the traits are just to define the metro Indian youth categorically. More or less if not entirely, we are like this, most cases in-between]

However, there’s still a sizeable section of Indian youth that departs from this, in fact the majority differs from the above mentioned stratum.

1. Girls in pubs, girls in short clothes are attacked, molested time and again; moreover they are fed with some ‘useful and essential’ moral lectures

2. Politicians who rule us do not feel the need for an online social campaign, they can afford to ignore us

3. Most powerful medium yet in the country, Television, does not run even 10% of its time for something of our liking

4. Slum youths (belonging to some specifically poor and backward areas) attack us, our properties and get away with it very easily

5. Governments are generally sleepy towards us, with marginal budget allocation and major focus on keeping the majority in ‘backward classes’

Is this fair really? Why don’t we ever take out the anguish? Why don’t we ever express? Why don’t we vote?

The divide is ever increasing and severely widening; this could lead to clash of interests in the future alongwith continuation of imbalanced growth and extremity issues.

Is it our mistake that we are born in a well-off family, ‘Upper caste’ in a social hierarchy? We are suppressed when we fight against reservation.

Why we are not allowed to speak against people from slums? People from certain areas come to our places and build dirty and insecure slums around our habitats, yet we are made to share our cities with them (this is after paying loads of taxes which predominantly get directed to ‘development’ of ‘hamaare raajya’).

Mangalore pub attack is a recent shock. What is Shri Rama sene, who has given them the right to decide what should girls do and what should they drink or not drink?

Look no further, it’s you and me …… BJP is ruling Karnataka, ‘we’ have voted for them and that’s how they are in a position to take decisions on our behalf. Yediyurappa has not done enough against the hooligans and thus, they continue to haunt ‘us’. Now, next on the list is Bangalore pubs and V-day celebrations – as per SRS chief.

Even more shocking is the support SRS has garnered, many of the Indians are in favor of what SRS did, not expressing though. Majority of those who oppose the activity may go wordless if asked “What if your sister or wife would want to drink liquor or visit some pub?” You got it right, what’s around us is nurtured by our fellow Indians who ‘differ’ from us. India in a deeper conflict and further imbalance!

In mid-90’s, it was Maharashtra up against some fundamentalist forces, with stern protests against Michael Jackson performing in Mumbai [which was incidentally organized by Shiv Sena], Bryan Adams concert in Pune, Miss India contest and V-day celebrations. You may well relate this to Today’s Karnataka. Karnataka is at the same juncture where we were a decade ago. By Maharashtra’s experience, Karnataka should take strict actions against these hooligans with no-tolerance policy. This tendency needs to be killed and crushed.

That brings a lot of new queries or probable solutions to my mind: Should we have different governments for metros? Should we resort to some strict measures atleast now? Should we still not accept India divided north-south, Hindu-Muslim, Rich-Poor? How can we ensure everyone gets fullest possible legitimate liberty? And finally, should we really have such democracy?

Wonder who defined uniformity?

Who let the dogs out ?

And here we are, talking about dogs and cats. All of us have more or less accepted stray animals as parts of our life. Now, it’s time to give it a serious thought, something that is related to lives of people. Recent hearing on stray dogs at Bombay High Court has come as a shocker for people who are concerned for people. Statement can be interpreted something like this: a dog has life, just like we humans. It also has an equally strong right to stay and move around in social habitat.

One more thing: No court in Indian judicial hierarchy has rights to create or manufacture a law. Court’s and thus judges’ job in India is strictly limited to only interpreting the law, exactly as written, for the citizens of India republic.

And what’s at stake? Human life!

Stray dogs have been involved and been responsible for accidents on roads; groups of stray dogs wander around slums and cause nuisances to ‘humans’ residing at such places. Not only to the people who stay in slums but can be detrimental to people driving as well. The number of accidents due to stray animals on roads has increased significantly and then ofcourse, not to forget number of diseases those come along. For long can we afford to let go human lives just like that? Why are we being suppressed by notion of ‘great accommodating culture’ and idiosyncratic ‘right to exist for everyone’?

Why don’t we have a law that can help ensure safety for our first priority: human life? Why can’t judges interpret laws which are sidelined for the sake of judicial wins?

We are on a mission to get brains for animal rights activists, until then stay cautious!