Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Rain Messenger's Diary 19...Letter to Annie 7

Dear Annie,

It has been ages since I last wrote to you. Every day when I look around, there seems to be so many things to speak of or discuss but the daily grind drains the wish out of me by the time I manage to get some time to do so.

Nevertheless, I have managed to shed my lethargy and finally write to you as I have been deeply disturbed over the past few weeks (months?). Every day when I glance through the newspaper while sipping on my morning cup of Darjeeling, I get depressed. Kashmir and more recently the Uri incidents have left me feeling really empty. You know some random rioter in a so-called urban posh Indian city actually felt he was better than “some random Kashmiri stone-pelter” because he unlike the Kashmiri was “Indian”.  Anyway, sorry I digress.

As usual, I wanted to offload my burden to you as who else would have the patience to hear my ramble. The heightened rhetoric of patriotism is really scary. We have alienated a large section of the populace in Kashmir and now with the Uri incident the so-called enlightened internet warriors are baying for blood. Cries for war and bombing our neighbouring state fills my news feed and the posts are full of vitriol. Reading these leave me cold every time.

Annie, do we realise that this is not that simple or desirable or in any way sensible? What do we really want – the death of hundreds / thousands of sons, daughters, brothers, husbands or wives guarding our borders to avenge the 17? Am damn well sure none of the people who spew hatred from the comfort of their homes using their top-notch smartphones / laptops will go to sacrifice their precious lives. So we are happy to let others die for us while we claim the baton of patriotism. How exactly are we better than those who send suicide bombers in that case??

I know, by now you must be itching to interrupt my rant to tell me, so what do we do? Do we not avenge those who were killed? Do we not make them pay? The answer unfortunately is also yes. It is high time that we do take a tough stance but that stance is not through direct confrontation with a nation that has highly unstable and unscrupulous government with access to nuclear weapons. The modern warfare is perhaps won via economics and not guns. Let us be prudent and let us be strong and let us try to prevent more deaths rather than inciting for more. The government seems to have reacted on these lines only which is heartening and I sincerely hope we find it in ourselves to truly be strong and stop this cycle of hatred via the internet – YOU ARE NOT HELPING.

I will stop now and hope once again you find it in you to be patient enough to calm my agitated mind. When I write again maybe I will be more positive

With all my best wishes,

Rain Messenger