Freedom is only a hallucination

“Frightened, ashamed and afraid of the blame
The questions are screaming, the answers are hiding
The sickness is growing; distracted condition
You can feel the disgust and smell the confusion.”Anathema, Pulled Under 2000 Metres A Second

 

Dear freedom fighters of yesteryear, your sacrifices have been in vain. You fought against oppression and gave up everything that you held dear just so the people of this realm would see a better day. A day where they chose their own leaders- civilized, educated, pragmatic visionaries who would guide this land of contrasts to prosperity and glory.

India today is nothing more than a forgotten concept. It is no longer a republic united, but a barbaric land where decadence rules. The parliament, once a symbol of pride of being the largest democracy on the planet is now filled with thieves, murderers, rapists and cheats. They debate not for the welfare of the country, but for themselves and the sect they came from.

You strove to uplift the poor and uneducated, those who were trodden down by the system and stamped as untouchables. You did not succeed. The poor are poorer, the rich are richer. The reservation system you created to battle inequality has been abused for personal gain. The truly backward are still where they were half a century ago. They are trodden over, abused, raped and their beaten bodies left for scavengers to pick on.

No girl, no woman in this country is free. Sure, they have access to better education, better jobs, but that is just on the surface. The society is is still perverted and patriarchal to the core. Women are seen as being inferior to men. There are those among society who still think a woman is a man’s property, tailor-made for a man to do what he wishes with her. Mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, girlfriends – no matter who the woman is, she is subject to eve-teasing, groping, the leering eyes of perverted filth and her dignity is taken on a whim, leaving her broken and scarred for life.

Religion is now a very lucrative franchise. It is no longer a service to God, but a way to earn riches and fame. In the name of God, countless lives have been lost, destroyed, looted and trampled over. The greats sought to enlighten the minds of the common folk, to drive them  beyond blind faith and superstition, beyond pointless rituals and violence in the name of religion. The greats failed miserably. Children are raised up to be God-fearing, not God-loving. They are brought up in a world of blind faith, where barbaric sacrifices of livestock are still carried out on terrifying levels to appease their Gods. Temples are awash with blood; vast red streams of blood and gore trickling down the steps.

The people are not the only ones who suffer. Forests have been cleared for profit, with no regard shown to the ecosystem. Green belts are bought and huge factories built in their stead. Poachers roam unchecked, butchering as they please, their purses bulging. Our national animal, the tiger is now on the brink of extinction along with countless other species of innocent fauna and flora. A leopard whose home was cut down is beaten to death with sticks and stones and iron rods by a mob who laughs and hoots with an insane glee as the poor animal dies; forest officials watching helplessly from the sidelines. Every other day.

Dear freedom fighters of yesteryear, you delivered freedom to the hands of a society that does not deserve it. Freedom was gained and it was lost, and this time, there is no one enemy. There are too many evils to fight, and too few willing to fight them.

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Don’t Rape

Protest against rape in front of the India Gate.

On Monday, all of India woke up to the horrifying story of the girl who was brutally gang raped in Delhi. The girl was raped by six people, tortured and beaten bloody in a bus for almost an hour and dumped naked on the sidewalk along with her boyfriend who was also beaten with iron rods and thrown out naked. Their only crime? Being out late at night with each other. All they ever wanted to do was catch a movie and go home.

As someone who has been to the same multiplex where the two watched a movie, and commuted down the same road where they suffered their ordeal, the story hits hard.

Delhi has been reeling under rampant incidents of rapes, gang rapes and mindless violence for quite some time now. The victims’ lives are destroyed not only by those who abused them but by society as a whole who blames them for ‘inviting the rape’. Worse is the face that most of the rapists are let off the hook by an inefficient and corrupt judicial system, or are simply never caught.

No girl or woman is safe in Delhi today. Children, teenagers, college students, married women, mothers, grandmothers, all of them have been targeted indiscriminately. Nobody can step out of their house on nightfall in Delhi without having to fear for their lives and virtue.

Drastic and immediate action is needed to drive fear through the hearts of those who abuse. New, more draconian laws need to be implemented that would completely destroy those who rape and abuse. Castration should be carried out on those who commit sexual abuse at a minimum. Apart from brutal punishments, the society needs to wake up and change its ways. Far too long the hypocritical Indian society has been shooting itself in the foot. We should unite against such evil, and be compassionate and kind to those who suffer instead of excommunicating them and calling them sluts. Then, and only then shall we see a better day dawn for the women of Delhi.

Thoughts and prayers are ever with the poor girl in the hospital. Nobody can give her back what she lost, but all we can hope for is that those who did this to her are apprehended and given the harshest possible sentences.

More about the incident: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-gangrape-victim-very-critical-but-stable/article4218677.ece