I had held it for so long, but I too gave it up on that day, the day when our Mumbai was burning. Having vowed never to look unilaterally, I did get overpowered. “Damn all the Muslims in the world”, how easily it crossed my mind and senses. I have not been able to reconcile myself since then.
The terrorism wrought upon Mumbai was so ghastly that it shook my entrails out. It was the death of humanness, and this is saying a lot, considering we all have been witness to many barbaric incidents in the world. My heart died each time then, and woke up in search of peace that it ultimately found in this world. This time though, my heart has been torn asunder, and now instead of looking for some comfort, it is searching answers- some sort of re-belief from life yonder. The more it looks around, the more it gravitates to the same answer, the same belief of love. But you can’t feel it when there is hatred abound. When the terrorists are killing innocent people without remorse in front of your eyes, you can’t have any other outlook save revulsion. But the most distressing aspect of all is that you know it is not the solution for all this carnage. This vicious cycle of retribution has been created by us only, give it a dimension of country- US, UK, Israel, India, Pakistan or name it in terms of religion – Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism. All have struck in vengeance, and no surprises, the penance has been done by us only then.
I am not a moderate or a coward. I do believe that these gun-tottering sick people need to be eliminated. Not only they, but also their tutors and this whole ideology, need to be decimated. Killing is not the answer to injustice. Moreover every person has a right to live, most aptly exemplified in the movie ‘A Wednesday’ – “No motherfucker in this world is going to dictate when I am going to die”. The example here may be coarse, but it derives itself from the reality around us. And you know what; we need to change this reality, first, by fighting against the terrorists and their mythos, and second, by fighting against ourselves who create these terrorists in the first place. We can bring the prevention and cure both, which can ultimately become a panacea. But are we prepared and strong enough?
