TALES OF TRAVESTY
DR. JITENDRA SINGH
An unusual thought on New Year eve. And, yet quite true ! The new year is set to begin on an introspective, if not despondent note.
If not anything else, 2013 will be remembered for all the uncertainties it is leaving behind. Corruption galore ! Scams unpunished ! Political parties unsettled ! ‘‘Aam Admi’’ confused ! Prices skyrocketing! Survival unrequited! A nation at war with itself ! A society at crossroads !
Elections at doorstep…. but unsure about the verdict of ballot paper ! Global culture peeping in… but unsure about how to live with it !
The dilemma of India 2014 is indeed the dilemma of the common man today.
2013 was the year when unrelenting political parties felt constrained to unanimously accept the ‘‘Lokpal’’. The pressure of popular will triumphing over the lust for scotfree indulgence !
But, more importantly, if 2012 had ended with the shame and shock of ‘‘Nirbhaya’’ in the national capital, prompting strict legislation against woman outrage, 2013 is ending with revised strict laws striking ‘‘Tehelka’’ alleging rape by its ‘‘new’’ definition and in another instance, a Judge getting cornered for trying to be too generous with his Christmas eve overtures to a ‘‘not so gullible’’ Intern. In both the cases, the two celebrities hastened to apologize to their failed victims but in vain. Is this, in other words, the story of a society unable to cope up with the stress and confusion of rapid exposure to the realms of a ‘‘global’’ culture for which it is still unprepared?
Hence the rape! Hence the murder ! Hence the suicide! Hence the domestic violence! Hence the litigation! All in a hurry and all occurring to frequently. For reasons complex, at places bizarre. At home, at work-place, in a running train, in a moving bus, in a hotel elevator, in an airborne plane.
A curious scene unfolding. A nation of 125 crore reeling under poverty but rejoicing the TV debate on FDI (Foreign Direct Investment). A society of one billion struggling against inflation to sustain a single wife but happy discussing the prospect of a legalized homosexual partner. Priorities misplaced ? Thoughts mixed up? Or, simply, an alien cultural shock going beserk in oriental milieu?
So it is ! Nevertheless, there is hope! For better outcomes, at the dawn of New Year!
Rabindranath Tagore wrote nearly three decades before India achieved freedom, ‘‘… Where head is held high and mind without fear…. Into that Heaven of Freedom, my Father, let my country awake !’’ Today, nearly a century after Tagore said this and over half a century after India became free, have we, as a nation, woken up to the envisaged ‘‘Heaven of Freedom’’? That is the question.
The common man, or so to say, even the common woman in India will feel ‘‘free’’ only when he or she can walk through a deserted street or travel on a deserted bus…. unraped, unassaulted, unattacked, unharrassed, unteased and unintimidated. And, for Umapathy, 2014 will mean freedom…atlast after 66 years….. only when his heart feels free to echo the classical Rafi hymn ‘‘Ab Koi Gulshan Na Ujre… Ab Vatan Azaad Hai !’’
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