Last Friday was like all the other Fridays.,
I was heading off to work, with beatific plans of the week-end lying ahead of me... semi awake and uninterested in looking out at the same view that greets me 5 out of 7days in a week, Me and Pepsi were in a state of amnesia (she comes to work with me... ) when I was jolted out of my delirium, we have reached Hi tech city, Didn't realise how fast we can cover the distance at early hours and that too in the comforts of an air-conditioned cab, driven by a skilled enthusiastic chauffeur. When a dexterous driver steps hard on the car BREAK, one understands what near death experience is. I was surprised to see that at an early hour like that there was a Traffic jam, and began to recount all my frustrations about bad traffic in Hyderabad, and voice them aloud to Narsimha (that's my efficient chauffeur's name... ) he listens for a second and the turns back and says Madame I need to go see whats happening... I say OK.
Narsimha parks the car, silences the engine and Pepsi wants to get out of the enclosure too... I tell myself why not !!! It is good to sometimes expose oneself to the Non-CONDITIONED air...
LOUD noises, Buzz err Krssshhhhh OIE arrreeeyyyy MAKK Eeee Grrrr brought me back from my wonderland, Along came the actuality of stopping the car with lightning break and Narsimha's sudden passing out of the sight... that happened 5 minutes agooo...
Where is Narsimha ??? I look around and spot my Driver, from where I was standing it looked like he was being beaten up ... OH MY GOD WHY IS NARSIMHA being beaten up ???
I put Pepsi in to the car... to run in the direction of the crowd where Narsimha is being beaten up... DAMN IT poor guy, what did he do ??? I was trying to cross the road with my eyes fixed on the crowd... now am Closer... Close enough; to see details, CROWD was made of 4 participants and 1 victim and the rest of 12 to 15 people were audience entertained by the spectacle that was happening there... absolutely unaware that they are big hindrance to the traffic...
DON'T go there Madam, those people are hungry beasts, Lets go back... Says Narsimha... Ooofffffff !!!!!! Relief that its not NARSIMHA being thrashed...
nevertheless it is a man, some man I don't know who is being pound into powder...
who is that man being beaten almost as if they mean to extract juice out of him...
I needed absolutely to go and see, and know why were these very angry mortals testing that other man's mortality ???
I look back and Pepsi is scratching on the window pane with gusto, I sometimes wonder if Pepsi thinks that she can wear things out thin enought to make an escape way by scratching on them for a certain time; comedy in an action film.
I continue ahead with Narsimha following me constantly asking me to not go anywhere close to the crowd. But I needed to know like the way he did 10 minutes ago.
I approach the crowd and look for traces of kindness in these people who were watching, I see smiles that made me want to look for hidden cameras somewhere... May be its all for gags, if not why are these people standing there and watching with a smile.
I ask my neighbour Sir what happened ??? he says " HUM KO KYUN JI" (meaning Its none of our business)
WHAT ???? WHHHHHHATTTTTTTT ???????????? Then why is he standing there and watching the show ??? Like it is his BUSINESS TO WATCH a man being hammered but he doesn't want to know why. VERY WELL. I decided to address the animals directly, I went right in between and said "Please tell me what happened? " even before I could get a response to my question, I was forced out by a very concerned lady (her concern directed towards me) she tells me AMMA please go away, that man deserves all the beating, I ask again Why and she says see amma he drank so much last night he came and fell on the porcelain jars... He was still sleeping right there, shame less man, look two of them broke and 4 cracked. The two that broke are the best pieces and they cost 800/- each and this drunkard man is refusing to pay.
Viola so the reason was out in the open... :(
I don't understand if this was right and if it calls for soo much assault. OK may be the 4 men are frustrated coz their labour is destroyed, what about all these people standing around and watching the TAMASHA ??? There is zero compassion in these people, moreover they are enjoying watching the violence... fellow-feeling just seemed to have died. My heart began to sink I could feel it in my feet, any more of this and It will flow out on to the floor... and carry on in its journey to find a volcano... (what ??? Anyways!!!)
Thinking proactive I ask myself What can stop these people ??? POLICE. yes. I tell them that if they don't stop this nonsense immediately I'll call COPS. They stop and look at me. The man who was thumped was lying right there on the ground, I look at him he must be in his early 30's coming from an auto-rikshaw family back ground... from where could he have given 800*2 to these guys, besides he must have thought its easier to be bashed up than pay such a huge some...
Is 1600 really such a huge sum to these people that they beat another man up with absolutely no remorse... ??? My god I was thinking of all the times I spent that kind of money for a single not soo delicious meals in restaurants and felt soo ashamed. That money means someones life...
That Friday made me so heavy hearted, People watch a fellow being beaten up and don't do anything about it... affected people thrash up coz their loss is too much... and People also prefer to be beaten up than pay that money.
I still don't understand, But in that incomprehension I learnt something, a memorable incident in otherwise uneventful ordinary life... I left from there feeling as beaten up as the man himself, only that my wounds were not physical, under trauma were my belief in humanity and the modern situations that are motivating people to turn violent...
Last Friday was like all the other Fridays except that I began to question if we are the same nation that fought its Independence war "NON VIOLENTLY" ???
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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2 comments:
Very well written babe!! Makes me crazy to think that people give themselves the right to be so violent and beat people up, is it the growing frustration that comes from depleting resources and its very inadequate distribution or is it simply how man is destined to evolve or more possibly a result of the cumulative force of both of the above?!?!?
bystander effect/apathy is such a curious thing really. its like a metaphor for everything we let slide in our lives... the effect of media, violence, class struggle!
Thanks for the blog!
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