There is so much that can be said about Delhi and it has such a rich and long history that the more you reveal, the less it seems you have touched upon. There are various facets of the city and various ways one can approach when he/she talks about what Delhi signifies to them but in this day and age there is an unmistakable pattern of rage filled incidents in the city. And this seems to me a way of fight for survival and assertion of various groups/ classes within the society.
Gone are the days when logic or common sense were expected as a norm. This is the age of the absurd. Logic or rationality have been appropriated by blind self-righteousness. Let me illustrate this with an example, a personal experience I was privy to recently. I went out in my car accompanied by an acquaintance and his wife and daughter of 9 months old. It was raining and the roads were quite chaotic with no sense of order. Just when I was about to take a right turn a man and a large family of nomadic looking people started banging the hood of my car and started shouting expletives saying, 'it's a red signal, can't you see, will you run us over?', while the fact was that they were obstructing the view and there was no way to know if the signal was green or red. It is easy to get provoked when a random stranger starts hurling abuse at you but I was unphased because I knew he was not worth my time and he was accompanied by 10 - 12 people. Also, the guy in my car worked in the police department and he held me back because he sensed and told me immediately that those people looked like criminals, the kind who work in gangs and ultimately want to steal or rob people one way or the other. When they moved slightly away from the car I got out and called him out. These kinds of criminal elements need to be told that no one is afraid of them. This is why I got out of the car on my own terms and did not indulge in violence but did not back off either. But it made me think a lot until I came across plenty of articles that this is indeed a way in which many gangs function and yes they use women and children too to carry out their nefarious deeds.
Criminal or not, it is apparent that the city is losing its cool pretty quick and it's almost a warlike situation on roads where if you follow the rules, you're doomed, if you don't follow the rules, you're doomed. Where is my country heading :( This way society would become another Syria. Government can only do so much, when will people realize they have responsibilities towards the nation as well. And what does violence solve? Nothing! But Delhi can't accommodate the influx of people from nearby states anymore due to sheer lack of space!
Gone are the days when logic or common sense were expected as a norm. This is the age of the absurd. Logic or rationality have been appropriated by blind self-righteousness. Let me illustrate this with an example, a personal experience I was privy to recently. I went out in my car accompanied by an acquaintance and his wife and daughter of 9 months old. It was raining and the roads were quite chaotic with no sense of order. Just when I was about to take a right turn a man and a large family of nomadic looking people started banging the hood of my car and started shouting expletives saying, 'it's a red signal, can't you see, will you run us over?', while the fact was that they were obstructing the view and there was no way to know if the signal was green or red. It is easy to get provoked when a random stranger starts hurling abuse at you but I was unphased because I knew he was not worth my time and he was accompanied by 10 - 12 people. Also, the guy in my car worked in the police department and he held me back because he sensed and told me immediately that those people looked like criminals, the kind who work in gangs and ultimately want to steal or rob people one way or the other. When they moved slightly away from the car I got out and called him out. These kinds of criminal elements need to be told that no one is afraid of them. This is why I got out of the car on my own terms and did not indulge in violence but did not back off either. But it made me think a lot until I came across plenty of articles that this is indeed a way in which many gangs function and yes they use women and children too to carry out their nefarious deeds.
Criminal or not, it is apparent that the city is losing its cool pretty quick and it's almost a warlike situation on roads where if you follow the rules, you're doomed, if you don't follow the rules, you're doomed. Where is my country heading :( This way society would become another Syria. Government can only do so much, when will people realize they have responsibilities towards the nation as well. And what does violence solve? Nothing! But Delhi can't accommodate the influx of people from nearby states anymore due to sheer lack of space!
No comments:
Post a Comment