Deadly Detachment

On Wednesday Delhi woke up to a horrific story. Two sisters in their mid-forties kept themselves locked in their house in Noida for six months and were starving to death. No one else lived with them. Both were unmarried.

After the death of their parents in the mid-nineties and abandoned by their brother, the two sisters had no one to turn to. Living in abject poverty without electricity and water connection, no one ever visited them. They always remained indoors and survived on chips and biscuits. But when their only companion, their pet dog, died they lost their will to live. They stopped eating entirely, silently waiting for death to take over.

No one from the neighbourhood or even the Residents' Welfare Association did anything terming the strange behaviour of the sisters as "entirely personal matter." It was only after a social activist intervened that the Noida police barged into their house and rescued them.

Now, in hospital, one of the sisters is in coma and the other barely alive.

This is not a stray incident that we come across everyday in newspapers, read, express horror and forget. This incident in isolation might seem to be a story of individual pain and suffering but put into a larger social context it brings forth a suppressed yet a very obnoxious reality of our times.

Acute depression is a problem that is becoming increasingly prevalent in every metropolis. The lack of sense of belonging to the community and complete absence of social interaction leads to insecurity which when not addressed at an early stage futher leads to various mental disorder like schizophrenia and losing the will to live.

Human being is a Gregorius animal. Socialisation is an art that man has mastered since the inception of its race. After birth, the first social unit that we come in contact with is our family. We learn to identify people around us, forge relations. We learn to be affectionate towards others and love others.

As we grow, we look out for people like us. We choose and become a part a group of like-minded individuals who we call friends. They become our world, people we live for and can't do without.

The journey of human life is fraught with uncertainties. Relations change, equations change with changing circumstances. But what doesn't change is the innate human want for companionship and his tendency of emotional dependence. We need a cushion to fall back on every time we are hit, pained and defeated in the struggle of survival. We are not so strong to go through everything all alone. Human beings were not meant to do so.

But the mechanical world in which we live today, doesn't leave us with the time to ponder over such tender issues. We want to earn money, splurge on the latest gadgets and load our wardrobes with clothes we would never wear, beat every one else in the race of materialisation.

Who has the time to spare a thought about what we miss in this rat race?

How does it matter to us if someone in our neighbourhood is starving or dying? We will have our nose dug in our ipad and push in the leads of our ear-phone deep inside, so that no amount of howling and painful cries can break our blissful dream of utter contentment.

Coming back to the story of the Noida sisters, deserted by fate, they were forced to live a life unworthy of human dignity. If the community cannot provide two helpless women security, it speaks volume of our degrading morals and ethics.

Human callousness has reached dangerous levels. We love to be apathetic, we love to see people in pain and unhappiness. We love to discuss the misfortune of others but never extend a helping hand or even lend a patient ear to suffering people.

If development costs us our very human nature of kindness and empathy, what is the point of this blind race? The Noida episode is only a prelude to a much bleak situation. It is a slap on the face of a society that claims to be civilised and developed but is devoid of any tenderness and concern for others.

It's time that we learnt something from this..... or else tomorrow we would be rotting in some dark corner of a busy, indifferent urban jungle and our cries of pain would be lost in the noise of gadgets we had so preciously accumulated over the period of our life.

Revolution

The ongoing movement"India Against Corruption" to get the Lokpal Bill passed has fired the imagination and seized the attention of every citizen of this country. The apolitical leadership of Anna Hazare has given it a different shade and momentum. The fight for the bill has been on for 43 years but it has never before occupied the center stage.

Many had labelled the terms and conditions of the Lokpal Bill, as envisaged by eminent people of the civil society,as utopia. Now that the bill is almost on the verge of seeing the light of the day without any major change in the civil society stance, it has got cynics wagging their tongues. They are sceptical about how the bill would make any signigicant change in a country where corruption has seeped deep into the DNA of its people. No doubt corruption is the sole antagonist in our democracy. Only time will tell whether the bill would have any positive outcome in a country which is corruption infested bottom up and inside out. It's too early to discuss the sucess and the failure of the bill.

However, in our cynicism, we are overlooking a very important factor that made this revolution not only a success but the focal point of every dining table discussion and serious political deliberations.

A democracy can function in it's true spirit only when citizens are aware of their rights and sensitive towards their duties. Unfortunately in India, the world's largest democracy, this has never been true. The right to vote might seem to be a veto power in the hands of citizens to topple an ineffiecient government within a span of five yearrs. But lack of political mobilisition, awareness and illiteracy have reduced the right to vote to a mere formality, where people at best are participating in the decision making process in a passive manner. Add to this the money and muscle power that rule our electoral system and the political milieage gained by manipulating religious sentiments of people.All you get is a farce in the name of democracy.

And why blame just the political class. The educated elite basking in the glory of India's rapid economic growth and the disillusioned urban youth entangled in a mess of foreign dreams and westernisation didn't help the cause of this rotting system. Safe and sound in their own cocoons, they just wanted to have one big fat party. But things couldn't have gone on like this forever. In the past one year a series of scams have been unearthed. Every expose was followed by vigorous attempts of cover up. All this not only damaged the credibility of the government irreparably but also took a toll on the ever-complacent attitude of Indian masses. And when we are seeing live footages of revolution raging across the Middle-East, could the fever of being rebellious and turn a little dissident escaped us?

The run up to the governments relenting to accept the Lokpal Bill, saw people turning out in hoards. It was simply the reflection of the changing psyche of a newly awakened India. Coupled with the frenzy created by media, it seemed as if India has been transported to some different era. And what was noteworthy, was the diversity of protesters who had gathered at Jantar Mantar. From safai Karamacharis to educated elite, from students to professionals, from house wives to school children, every strata of the society shared the same platform, without any grudge or disdain for each other. Economic and social background became irrelevant. Each individual, each group and each community merged with each other unhesitantly. Afterall they were the victims of the same system.

No one can predict the future of the Anti-corruption Bill. But the fact that the whole of India stood up as one unit for a cause in so many years, is a reason enough to celebrate. So, today the cynics can shut up!!! Let this incredulous moment sink in. Let this be the beginning of a new era, a new India.