Being Indian v/s The Moment

ಸ್ವಂತ, ಸಂವೇದನೆಇಲ್ಲದ ಹಾಗು ಮೊಳಕೆಯೊಡೆಯದ ಭಾವನೆಗಳು ಬೇರು ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರುವ ಆಳದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾನವತ್ವ ಬರುವವರೆಗು ಭಾರತೀಯತ್ವ ಒಂದು ಕನಸಾಗೇ ಉಳಿಯುವುದು.

That was an ordinary day like any other, had a not so stressful day at shoot. So had taken out my laptop & was doing some research on 26/11 attacks. Also saw lots of tweets by RGV, movie trailers & was appreciating the craftsmanship of RGV. Performances of Nana & the boy who plays Kasab were impressive. Read a lot of positive feedback about the movie everywhere. Even I saw the small but well discussed tweet conversation & the bonding story. Was really moved by how the Maula song illustrates the madness of terror & terrorists. It got me to think about their life, why & how anything like this was possible. 

Soon it was evening tea break, few more scenes were shot, pack-up was announced & was coming back home. The peaceful & usually crowd-less residential area of Raja Rajeshwari Nagar is a pleasure to drive in.

Two junctions before my home, I spot a silver coloured Santro (first Edition) probably from 2003 was in the middle of the junction. I could have easily manoeuvred around the car & passed the junction. But because I wanted to make the santro driver aware of his fault of standing in the middle of road I stopped right in-front of him & honked.

Then I spot the driver, a young boy in his mid 20's with glowing white face & a French beard without the moustache  wearing a light green shirt. He is on his phone & trying to understand from someone on phone which road to take.

The man in the navigator seat was talking to the people in back seat turned towards the driver now & rigorously started pointing his hand towards the right of the car. This man was in a maroon coloured full armed kurta, with the checker black & white shawl & a white skull cap. Because his direction wasn't taken by the driver I think he was screaming at him & showing the direction. After a second I could see his face, he had a golden framed glasses & a long beard without moustache.

It was about 5 seconds & my impatience had suddenly had transformed into curiosity  Now I started looking at the back seat occupants, there were four young boys. I could not see the two who were towards right of the car but could see the boy who was sitting next to the left door. He was definitely a teenager with clean shaven pale white face, wearing an off white shirt & eyes full of some kind of concern & he was looking at me when I spotted his face. He turned his face away & I saw the boy next to him.  He too was a young boy, wearing white skull cap, a red T-Shirt & probably I saw fear in his eyes because of the screaming from the long bearded man in the front seat.

I turned my glance to the front seat occupants & saw that the decision was made to take the right turn. That car turned right and moved on & cleared the junction for me to continue home.

I have read & studied about how powerful our mind is & its uncomprehending limitless capacity to process, segregate & relate information, with unbelievable speed & accuracy. I experienced it in this 5 seconds. May be if I had written this just after the incident am sure I would have added more information about what happened in those 5 seconds.

Suddenly the CID inside me woke up to what could this be. I looked at the car registration plate. It was KA 18, that means Chikmagalur, had read about the Indian Mujahiddin operatives who were arrested some years back from Chikmagalur.  I noted the number down on my phone (all this time I was standing in middle of the road), I immediately punched 100 on the phone dial pad and pressed the green button.

Then at that instant I was forced to ask my self some rational & practical questions  for some of which I had answers & most of it was unanswerable. The reason why I am listing them here is because I request you all to empathise with me & ask yourself these questions...

1. Why am I being so judgemental?

2. Am I influenced by 3 hours spent on the 26/11 research I did on that day?

3. How can I judge a Terrorist based on the appearance of an individual?

4. What's the difference between my influenced thinking & a terrorist & a religious fanatic or even a spur sprung rapist?

5. Why should anyone consider such cases to be reported? Would the have done it if it were to be 6 boys with socially acknowledged "Hindu" outfits?

6. Was my reaction based on the fact that there are very few Muslim families which live in entire RR Nagar & there isn't even a mosque in this area?

7. If my assumptions were right then wouldn't I be doing "great service" to my motherland? 

8. Should I have got down from the car & asked them if they need guidance instead of rudely honking? At-least I would have found out what's the truth right?

9. Is it my home & school education which has made me like this?

10. Or the conservative Hindu upbringing?

11. International hatred towards a particular religion could be the reason?

12. If with so much education & rational thinking a person like me can loose to a moment like this, what about the religiously & categorically trained terrorists? Have heard about the selective preaching & teaching done at their camps.

13. What about our country which claims to be secular & democratic? Is my county doing this to me?

14. Am I as dumb as a brainwashed terrorist, who would not care about innocent people?

15. Can this act be considered against the secular beliefs of the country?

Of course yes I immediately pressed the red button and cut the call. 

You need to answer them, else you too have failed in "Being an Indian".  Forget being a world citizen, or even Indian, I think I at that moment had failed to be a human.  The moment had won with a large margin. Would like to end this blog with how I started it with the line in Kannada stressing on the fact of Being Born before Being an Indian.

ಸ್ವಂತ, ಸಂವೇದನೆಇಲ್ಲದ ಹಾಗು ಮೊಳಕೆಯೊಡೆಯದ ಭಾವನೆಗಳು ಬೇರು ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರುವ ಆಳದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾನವತ್ವ ಬರುವವರೆಗು ಭಾರತೀಯತ್ವ ಒಂದು ಕನಸಾಗೇ ಉಳಿಯುವುದು.