Vispo

The Other Life

No more Children's Day

“A nine year old boy, Sagar, is sacrificed, to Goddess Kali, by his superstitious grandfather on Diwali night. The old man had hoped that the ritual would ensure the safe return of his missing son. While the whole country was celebrating the ‘Festival of Lights’, the light is snuffed out of young Sagar’s life forever.”  - The Telegraph.

If you think the event in the life of Sagar is an isolated incident,  happening to the citizens of  a war ravaged country or to the denizens of  a state  which is still caught in the throes of an existential trauma you are quite mistaken. The plight of the majority of children, the most vulnerable section of the society, is miserable wherever you look – especially in our part of the world.

Rape, abuse, dowry customs, child labour and infanticide are part of a tragic legacy in India that is also full of bright minds and a rich cultural heritage. Like every year, today children’s day will be celebrated almost in every school with aplomb, politicians will give big lectures about child development and with Facebook coming up in a big way all that you get to see are photos, newsfeed getting filled (over crowded) with people putting up photos from their childhood, seriously!? This is how children’s day is celebrated!!? 

The situation is very gloomy. Despite pious announcements, decisions and declarations, the condition of the children in the country is dismal. Though the child death rate has decreased, still crores of children die in India even before they reach one year. There is no health care or treatment available for them not only in the tribal areas, but in many parts of the country. Even sufficient foods are not available and malnutrition is usual which retards growth of the children.

Assocham’s latest study revealed spine chilling statistics. According to the reports, the national Capital is home to over 1, 00,000 street children followed by Mumbai (1, 25,000), Bangalore (1, 10,000), and Kolkata (85,000).

Source: Google Images

Leave the country as a whole, a good percentage of children in Bengal have no access to education, due to non-availability of schools in the interiors and also poverty of the families. They are forced to work in hotels, small scale factories, agriculture, and domestic work. Rules are there against child-labour, but it is more violated than implemented. In any town/city, you can see a large number of begging children, some of them exploited and terrorised by the mafias.

 The cruel exploitation of the children and molestation is another dark chapter. Children are sexually assaulted in even homes and schools, leave alone in unsafe areas. People in high society are also involved. Due to poverty, sometimes, children are even sold by the parents. Take the recent case of the student of G.D. Birla School. She was sexually abused by one of the male attendants of the school. She lost the innocence of her childhood even before she could understand it. She is just one among those hundreds of children who are abused and trafficked every day right under the nose of politicians and police. It’s just horrifying to comprehend the world we create for our next generations, regardless of location. With regards to a country like India, much needs to be addressed to issues of child slavery, prostitution and abuse hidden under covers of its spiritual marketplaces too.

Every 14th November we celebrate Children’s Day with great fanfare all over the country. Leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists and other celebrities visit slums, orphanages, and jails. They distribute sweets, clothes, toys, give profound speeches, deliver sermons on the duties and responsibilities of the citizens of tomorrow.  And then they go back to their cocoons of affluence and luxury leaving the children to rot.

Kids can’t revolt, they can’t take to the streets and most important they can’t vote. So naturally no one bothers about them. They can be used, misused and abused with impunity.

All it needs is little bit of effort, a little bit of commitment and a tiny voice in our minds and hearts that will urge us on to make the lives of those around us a little better. Only then can we hope for a world where a three year old girl does not have to be a victim of sexual perversion and a nine year old Sagar does not have to be sacrificed to Goddess Kali. Only then we can boast about 14^th November being Children’s Day and the birthday of our first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru.

An open letter

Dear Mr Terrorist,

How the hell are you? Rhetorical question. Don't answer that. Why do you do this? What do you hope to achieve killing innocent people? I believe you are not aware of this but the majority of the world's population is allergic to a condition called death, and you're helping spread the infection. (Okay, maybe not majority, but these studies use sample sizes).

Do you even realise the amount of discomfort people have to face because of you, other than losing their limbs and lives of course? Air travel has become a torture. The endless security checks mean a 10-hour flight becomes a 16-hour ordeal of intrusive pat downs with straight-faced airline staff asking us to honestly reveal if we are carrying bombs or other incendiary objects. (I wonder if they run into honest terrorists who admit to such a thing.)

Anyway, I digress. You kind folks are the reason they don't allow liquids aboard flights anymore, barring the contents of your bladder. An old uncle who suffered from a bizarre addiction to cranberry juice cursed your lot till the day he died as he couldn't carry his precious juice with him on flights. I believe one of his expletives started with nincom and ended with poop.

Forget flights, even the neighbourhood movie theatre now frisks two-year-olds for explosives. Sure, some of it is justified in case people get violent after sitting through a Sajid Khan film, but you sir, are to blame for this state of chaos and distrust on the streets. People worry about going shopping in case there are blasts in the market. Well, husbands are not too unhappy about it but it takes a toll on the economy, you know.

Our VIPs need so much protection from you that our roads get jammed whenever they travel. Even terrorists can't be so cruel that they subject people to the torture of a traffic jam. That's just inhumane. If you had a conscience I'd appeal to it right now.

Another grouse I have with you is the villains you are giving Hollywood. Remember the good old days when the villain was usually a slimy, ugly alien? Well those times are gone. Now our movies show terrorists attacking the White House instead of aliens, and we have to sit through that drivel. You and your AK-47s are to blame for this.

Frankly, I feel euthanasia with a heavy dose of barbiturates is a pleasant alternative to a suicide bombing. You guys should consider it.

I'd urge you to reconsider killing people to satisfy your prehistoric craving for fame and power. Besides, as my late grandmother used to say (God bless her soul), killing is just not a nice thing. 

Think about it.

To paraphrase Rumi, out beyond ideas of terrorism and religion there is a field. I'll meet you there for biryani.

Yours truly,

I am not a Khan

Neither I am a terrorist

Graphics : Debojyoti

My Faulty Fairytale

When I heard Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City say, "Some people are settling down, some are settling, and some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies," I felt compelled to write something. The majority of single women whom I see are struggling with wanting to get married and wanting to hold out for a man they feel terrific chemistry for-nothing less than butterflies.

Initially, I found them stupid, sentimental and full of fictitious characters revolving around the heads. Then one day I thought I found him. On certain occasions, surrounded by our friends, I looked at him and felt certain I had met the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with. Quite simply, he was my soul mate. We were desperately in love and had our future life together mapped out.

First we would save to buy our own home, then would come a romantic wedding ceremony and children would follow. You see, I never did find another man who offered everything he did, who understood me and loved me like he did. Someone who was my best friend as well as my lover.

Pic: Random

Then one day, a friend of mine, sends me pictures of roads. She writes: 'Wouldn't you just love to walk down this one? Just to see where it would lead you?'

They are long and leafy and often there is a curve round which you cannot see. It felt like I was watching him turn the corner in the road, leaving me and going somewhere else. And then, although we were still together, I lost him completely. He had fallen out of love with me, and I didn't fight for him.

Our relationship is like a great fat book, a soap of the highest caliber. I had got to know and love all the characters within it. I wanted to know what they'd do next. My heartbreak was like losing the only copy in print, when I'd been so gripped, so enthralled by it, and knowing it will lost forever.