What Republic day means to me.
- Reading about the ‘25 most important days in the history of the Indian republic’. (covery story in ‘The Week’)
- Being given the topic - ‘The ten most important days in the history of the Indian Republic’ for a GD at CL yesterday.
- Doing well at 2 because of 1 :)
- Enjoying a full-day holiday. (Did you know that it’s illegal for educational institutions to remain open on this day for any reason other flag-hoisting)
- Catching up on reading blogs because of 4.
- Listening to a really good song after a long time. I just love songs with fundas.
Unpatriotic? What do they expect us to do? Hoist the flag? What’s the point?
Of naive opinions…
I’m sick of hearing so many naive opinions. People say, “It’s time India showed its anger” or “India funding Pakistani Jihadi groups” so seriously, it makes me want to stare at them (or scroll up and down, hunting for the punch-line) to make sure that they are not cracking a straight-faced joke!
The old days of war are gone. Terrorism is no battle of Panipat, where you just need more bombs and men on the ground to win. You just can’t bomb Pakistan to make the problem go away. First of all, it’s a nuclear power… Actually, I don’t even want to continue.. there are so many reasons against war that if I listed them all, this would be a very boring post. You need to make the root of the problem go away. You need to understand why healthy, intelligent, young men and women would willingly blow themselves and many other innocent people to bits. Why are they doing this? Is it because they have been told that we did something terrible to them or their ancestors? Did we really do something like that? Shouldn’t we clear up the misunderstanding? Shouldn’t we do something to improve our relations with them - like extending a willing hand of friendship when they most need it? This brings me to my second point..
Do you seriously think that the Indian bureaucrats (People who are confident of clearing the IAS exam in the first attempt, raise your hands. ahaan.. Didn’t think so!) and the Indian politicians (How many of you would even think of playing the game that these people are the grandmasters of?) are so stupid that they would just hand Musharaff a cheque for $25 million dollars. Of course not! There are probably a hajaar riders attached. A lot of the amount is probably in kind - like blankets, or something like that - manufactured by an Indian company whose revenues are going to take a nice jump thanks to the earthquake. And probably, some of the amount even consists of discounts - ‘you buy $100 million worth of goods from us, and we give you $10 million worth of goods free’. Even if there is cash, it’s probably under the control of a trust fund and it’s released only when proper documents are submitted that can convince the trustees that the money is for good purposes and not for buying bombs. Of course, I’m just speculating here (I couldn’t find any information on what exactly constitutes this $25m aid on the web. If you do, please give me the link), but I’m pretty sure that what I’m saying is closer to reality than the idea that India is writing a cheque to the same people who bombed us.
Think about it guys. Pakistan is not one single homogeneous entity that is hell-bent on bleeding India. Just like India is not a billion bodies with one soul. Not all Pakistanis want to kill India. They listen to the same music that we listen to and watch the same movies we watch. We are all human. Deep down, none of us want to kill anybody.
I’m sorry if I’ve hurt anybody’s sentiments by this post. Btw, my home-city, Mumbai has been bombed several times in the past. I am furious with the terrorists too and I would just love to get this problem fixed.
