Life is a prison laid before your eyes. You are but a slave
of the actions you take, the choices you make. You are just a common man who
has been shoved down a narrow road due to the actions of your past. These were
the thoughts that broke his sleep. He felt the cold sweat trickling down his
forehead. It is one of many nights where he is haunted by these horrific dreams
these revelations. He thinks he can shield himself from the horrific deeds. Clinging
on to his religious believes, he makes a desperate attempt to justify his
actions. So he was told-the end justifies the means.
He remembers his early childhood- the summer of 1990s. His
father was a farmer his family had a small piece of land in a desolate village
of Madhya Pradesh. The government forced on the farmers to buy imported
fertilizers and pesticides. For a farmer who does not reap much this was a
losing cause. Each year the loan amount became bigger and eventually one
morning his father decided to take a gulp of the imported pesticide to bring down
the eternal curtains. He remembers all relatives showing up in his father’s
funeral. The entire village coming down as the local neta made a speech on how
one of his brothers has become a sacrifice to the government’s policies. There
were elaborate gestures, promises and local media coverage. Soon after that in
a dramatic turn of events- one day he found himself in the streets of Mumbai
deprived of this land and starving for one meal a day.
Mumbai or Bombay is perhaps the only city in south-asia that
has tremendous high and incredible lows. One of the major reasons it has been
rocked by terrorist attacks in the last 20 years will be the fact that there
are people who are easily available to corrupt. These people live in slums, don’t
have social security, health care, education and are in every way deprived of
the privileges of a modern society. The modern society they see in front of their
eyes every day reminds them of the startling difference in their life style. It
is only natural to feel deprived. This factor increases exponentially with the amount
of people who come into this city every day to make a living. For our deprived
soul the feeling was no different. He lived his days in utter disarray everyday
noticing the startling difference.
Then one day he was made a part of an act even he was not
aware of entirely. He did not know what the political ramifications will be. Overtime
how he did what he did- has been uncovered by a lengthy legal procedure
which took years to surface. Within this time he unknowingly made a million
dollar sales in the name of social media coverage. News channels, news-papers,
politicians and human rights activists sold him to a nation of a billion and
more. All these years he was locked in his cell. For him though this was
unexpected. When he was clean he did not have a roof over his head. He had to
think about his meals. Now all he had to do was stay in his cell, meet with his
lawyer and visit court for his hearing in a high security escort. Whatever
remaining time he had was for him. What he felt, did he repent does not really
matter. He was to be made an example by the people for the people.
For us though this should be a question? Does terrorism
really thrive on a religion? Or it thrives on the startling difference of the
haves and the have not’s? This person could have been of any religion. He could
have been the person responsible or had just been an accessory to the crime. It
just takes a spark of rage from a person with ulterior motives. All these
deprived souls in our country are an explosion about to happen. If people are
the biggest asset to a democracy they are also its biggest weakness- and the
largest democracy in the world has shown us this fact time and again!
