I am
always surprised at the surprise evinced by so many when godawful things go
down with clockwork like regularity. Recently a stampede claimed 11 lives and
injured many more following a cricketing triumph. Lack of crowd control, non –
existent planning or organisation for the victory parade caused the tragedy. In
a country where overcrowding is the norm across every overpopulated inch of it,
how did we not see this coming? This year alone, many lives were claimed in
similar stampedes at North Goa’s Shirgao village, a New Delhi railway station,
at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh where lakhs of pilgrims had gathered for a
dip, and the Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala Hills. And let us not forget the
theatre in Hyderabad where fans were killed in the mad dash to catch a glimpse
of a film star. Yet, we are bewildered when calamitous mishaps happen on
account of deliberate blindness and a lackadaisical attitude towards ensuring
the safety of our fellow citizens.
The
populace gasped in collective horror like the audience of Terrifier 3, when
video footage emerged capturing the last moments of a family trying to escape a
vicious fire. A desperate man threw two children (his daughter and nephew) from
the ninth floor before jumping himself. Relatives of the deceased blame the
shoddy response from the emergency services and bystanders who were busy making
videos without bothering to help. Unfortunately, sarkari incompetence and
societal apathy is only too typical. How many times have we seen fire - trucks
and ambulances with blaring sirens stuck in impossible traffic on narrow,
damaged roads packed with mammoth – sized speed monsters designed for the
Autobahn and condemned heavy vehicles held together by band-aids and everything
else on wheels and four legs in - between? We avert our gaze or utter a quick
prayer and hope for the best. As for what needs to be done to prevent the
preventable, we can’t be bothered.
There was
a lot of finger-wagging over a couple of cases featuring wives who
cold-bloodedly plotted the murder of their spouses. Naturally, feminists were
blamed for the deterioration of morality and the loss of traditional values
which leads to such shocking crimes. Even more naturally, nobody wants to
acknowledge that the system is broken, law and order is a joke, and we live in
a cesspool where anarchy rules and everybody including women would rather kill
than be killed.
Engaging
with the problems that beset us, is our collective responsibility. We can’t
keep blaming the morally compromised blowhards we elected to power in exchange
for freebies and empty promises about protecting caste/religion-based rights.
It is high time we shake off the torpor and actively work towards eliminating
the systemic rot, with a smidgen of smarts. We deserve so much better than what
we have settled for like the unpretty prostitutes with hearts of lead we have
become having bartered our bodies and souls for petty trifles. But in a
fractured land where laziness, stupidity, and bad behaviour alone is rewarded
repeatedly, we need to anticipate the worst and prepare accordingly if we have
no wish to become yet another sad statistic.
This article was originally published in TNIE Magazine
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