The moment was unsettling and disturbing when I put the book (The algebra of infinite justice) down. It managed to create an atmosphere of uneasiness all around. In an attempt to reclaim a sort of normalcy, I raised my head to overlook a group of bourgeoisies working, picking up piles of rubble in the distance. There weren’t many options left from that moment onwards.
The majority of Indian society (and by that I mean the village dwellers as well as metro dwellers, there isn’t a third place right??) is currently being controlled as the puppets of a loony circus headed by the “oh so awful!!” netaji’s , the two headed shark like MNC’s and by a minor underlying philosophy of democracy. Have we as Indian citizens have not been raped, tortured and strangled countless times (and continue to do so) by a handful of show runners?; being passed of as undelectable whores. The only difference is that we are better off NOW being controlled and managed by a different pimp all dressed up as “The Savior”. Congratulations!! Fifty years since 15th August 1947 and this is what we’ve become. What is most striking is also the funniest of all: We’re “okey dokey” with it.
It is most pitiful to see the sorry situation in which village dwellers are made to face a harsh, unavoidable and baring truth by the hands of corrupt beauracrats that shuffle them like a deck of cards and position them accordingly to their advantage. Anyhow, traditionally goats & chickens are well fed before they get sliced into a well marinated “butter chicken” or “mutton seekh”. The Narmada valley project’s horrors and Enron’s big value blood sucking (money sucking) machines shall remain resonant in the Indian society forever. What happened to the Adivasis, the Dalits who formed a majority of the population at the site of the Narmada Dam or the Maheshwari Dam (now either in ruins or dead) is well comparable to the state of those goats and chickens who are counting their days in a cage.
This is not just an expression of opinion. This is a confession. More so because of Arundhati Roy’s bold and in the face use of English language strips the Indian government off its rags uncovering revealing, bitter truths. Anyone who wishes to gain a deep insight of the process of understanding the conditioning of Indian minds should read her book “The algebra of infinite justice”. It’s a vision express stopping at all the little stations which are generally misunderstood as the big ones. Of course, they’re small. You know THAT because either you are left either at the mercy of the TT (in our parallel case the media, the government or any other politically corrupt institution) or the passengers around you (the society). So where does one get to command the authority of freedom from here. Nowhere??. “Just stay shut till your final destination” says The TT “You’ll be told when to get off” Ever felt like being taken for a ride? Maybe not? You’re better off than most Indians then. Kudos!
Are we chutiyas to have been blinded so heavily by soda pop fizz cans, unsettling TV reality shows and sparkling clean, jingled commercial breaks and actors/cricketers better termed as “taxi drivers” endorsing a branded jeans?? It’s a question that needs immediate awakening to. Arundhati Roy questions us as humans (citizens is still a long shot) of the states we live in and where we draw the lines to be not called as apes. (At a minimum, they live as family and look out for each other, not strangle one another when called upon by an army of goons)
I say give it the book a read in order to be a better judge of who we ought to be, not what we’ve become.
MOOD: Infuriated x(
