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    We Are A Nation Of Onlookers And Show Offs

    I am not getting into the unholy debate of who does what or what one should do in his/her social life or the ever so funny phenomena of displaying your moral superiority at the drop of a hat. I am not at all saying how we as a nation collectively are bankrupt in many things, which also includes the minimal or nonexistent ethical and moral quotient. I am not outraging on our indifference towards many things which we know are wrong for us, our society, our nation and even our value system. I am also no way claiming I have the authority to point fingers to everyone else just because I am largely hallucinated of me being a superior human in comparison to many in our country. What I am is what I am and I am quite sure I will pretty much remain that even if I go through a millions of blogs questioning the very attitude that I may possess. This is applicable to everyone else also. So this piece is no way meant to raise eyebrows or an attempt at changing the perception towards the idea of responsible citizenry or for that matter even basic civic sense.

    I am not going to outrage over the Guwahati molestation incident either. Raging over internet on sensitive and serious matters might just give that self-satisfaction of having a superior moral but in reality it is not more than a futile attempt at romanticizing with an idea that we can change the world by venting our anger on the cyber space. I am not a person who gets flattered by the idea of contributing to the society by just pressing the like button on some bloody Facebook page condemning the Khap dictate. Episodic outrage is pointless if the solutions sought for are not institutional and unidirectional. So outraging on public forums is nothing but just the reflection that we have enough spare time to show our good or not so good English literary skills and ogle at the cleavages the next time we are around a shopping mall. So neither do I have much of an anger against all those rascals who were tormenting a hapless girl on a busy street nor a pride feeling for those who supplied close to a million of Tweets condemning the above mentioned rascals. For me, both groups are equally useless in the context of whatever happened in Guwahati and many similar unreported happening elsewhere.
    That said I still believe we have turned ourselves largely into a group of Showbaazs. Issues pertaining to many sensitive matters have long been treated as a fanfare to showcase yet another of our show off skills. Be it molestation caught on camera or the decades long sexual harassment case involving S.P.S. Rathore; it always remained a placeholder for many to display their not so required concerns which invariably always are fabricated and artificial than otherwise. For everything that our media wants us to believe we go gaga without understanding the core constituents of the whole issue and furnish statements as if it is our moral obligation to shout for every damn thing before we realize for what exactly we are shouting. I have no problems with people overreacting on issues which rather requires a holistic and constructive approach but the indemnification of the veracity of the situation by going ballistic on cyber space and thinking yourself to have accomplished a herculean task of mending the norms of the day and scared the shit out of those who are responsible is a little more of exaggeration than anything. This collective behavior of ours has a striking similarity with that of a real life and reel life. The hero of the movie can fight with a dozen well-endowed rowdies and still emerge as a hands down winner but that certainly is not the case when it comes to realty. The false propaganda that our brains force use to imagine; the idea of accomplishment that we want to convince ourselves the very next moment we press the like button or Tweeted an aggrieved text is nothing but cinematic. In reality it achieves nothing. This solid affinity of individuals to galore the virtual to bring that false sense of Dejavu of accomplishing something has a cascading effect on what one possibly could have done to bring some difference. We remain so preoccupied and contained with our theatric countenance that we seldom realize that we could have done way lot better than just Tweeting or liking one thing or the other and searching for Sunny Leone’s nude pictures the very next second.
    That’s why precisely I feel we are a nation of onlookers. Not because we don’t do anything to set things right which for sure we know are wrong but because we think the Tweeting and pressing the like button is the best and most welcomed thing that we can offer, given the situation. That is not only scary but a matter of great concern since we have limited ourselves inside the boundary of social networks. When it comes to doing a big show off on someone else’s apathy, we have largely five major categories of people. The ones who keep fighting their war for justice on the social platforms and there is another lot who readily venture out with burning candles in their hands for every damn thing. There could possibly be a third section who would be doing both. That is laughable. To round all these, there is a fourth section who always are busy defining their own existence and nothing matters to them until someone blows their asses to pieces. These are the kind of species who would remain bystanders and enjoy a good show doing nothing and scratch their balls later on dreaming what they could or should have done. There is another set that are outright nonsense. The set which are nothing short of wannabe superheroes and claim they could have done one thing or the other, had they been present in that moment. But in reality, it is only that big mouthing that goes viral every time something spicy like the Guwahati episode comes up and full time engagement in garnering some brownie points becomes the general motto.
    Look at the people of Mumbai and the 26/11 in particular. Lot of outrage was there and very rightly so. When a state fails in its primary duty of protecting its citizens then we have to outrage. We have to do every bit to expose the incompetency of the state, the government and the people in power and drag people out of their comfort zone to answer uncomfortable questions. We should be unforgivable towards everyone who has a direct or indirect hand in allowing an unfortunate thing like 26/11 to happen. But what we did instead? We talked for hours on TV debates and Tweeted nonstop during the incident. We kept on exhibiting our dissatisfaction on the state of the affairs and our paralyzed security apparatus. Bravo! Even we came up with revolutionary statements like ‘Enough Is Enough’. We disgraced politicians who were sitting pretty under the soothing cover of their Z+ security and dared them to come out of their cocoon and face the real world once, which we common populace face every day. As if the icing on the cake was missing we topped it with a massive and Guinness Book entry worthy sized Candle march. All is commendable and appreciated, but how many of those who were outraging did vote during the general elections that followed a week later? Questioning the intent of all those who form our authority circle is where we as a nation are pioneer but when it comes to teach them a lesson of their non-functioning we shed ourselves away from the thick of the things and sleep well into the afternoon on voting days. Noted so called celebrities like Sobha De who were head over heels in criticizing the government of their failure were nowhere seen near the polling booths later. A golden opportunity to teach the scoundrels a lesson was lost and it’s no surprise that the same set of buffoons are back at the helm.
    Even our reaction in the Ruchika Gerhotra case is shoddy. While we thought we have scared the culprit after burning tons of wax in various candle light marches of ours; in realty we achieved next to naught. The idiot is free from jail and going on a purchasing spree of luxury vehicles while we have already forgotten the story since we believe we have already done our bit once we Tweeted on it and burnt a candle. I am no advocate of violence but I feel the man who attacked Rathor with a sickle is way saner than us guys who just got our blood boiled after reading few scribes in the newspaper or hearing a TV debate on this. At least the sickle has left a scar for the thug to ponder for the rest of his life while our jingoisms were as effective as Mamta Banarjee for Indian Railways.
    From Gurgaon to Guwahati, it is absolute jokers that fill our society. That also includes me. We have already turned ourselves to a huge block of laughing stock for reasons known to none. For everything the best that we can or prefer to do is boil our blood quite unnecessarily without achieving anything and get indulge in a lot of show off at the howling of the wolf. Be it burning a candle or running around with a bunch of flowers, we are all over the place with our tweets and Like buttons while when it comes to some real action we conveniently show our middle finger and go on a hibernation. Aren’t we in real sense a nation of onlookers?

    9 comments:

    1. Brilliant piece Boss. Can't agree more to each line that you have penned.

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    2. a sense of being directionless... we jokers r fit to be ruled by these tugs... how on earth can u explain Jagan reddy's party getting elected in majority seats in AP when everyone one is aware how he made his money.... in reality i a shit scared to think what are the solutions... i see none which is realistically possible..

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    3. Very well written mate! We have grown to a nation of showoffs... Social networking was invented for people who found more time to spend on their computers than to interact/socialize with their friends. But we Indians, though growing in larger and extended families, friends and societies are blindly using only to show off. Having said this you won’t mind me tweeting your blog :)

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    4. Shitty article. Follows the very behaviour it aims to ridicule..Armchair criticism!! If you had to rant on and on about the same thing, why vile the same behaviour from others???

      Wasted my time reading this.

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    5. Now you wont even approve my comment, as it slays you down

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    6. There you go!! Though I have written it for some praise, I am not that adverse to criticisms either

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    7. Now thats laudable then :)

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    8. Nicompoops understand one simple fact!

      Sonia Gandhi is the Queen of India.
      Rahul Gandhi is the Crown Prince
      Priyanka Gandhi is the Crown Princess
      The Vadra Rascal is the Prince-in-Law

      MMS is just a munimji of a family enterprise!
      The rest of the jokers are the odd job guys.

      Democracy b damned. We are still living in a Monarchy. The only comfort we can have is the freedom to have an opposition that is opposing amongst themselves and of course be happy that u can vent ur anger and discontent on this blog without the Queens private army hauling u to the dungeons!!!

      Even if we have 100% compulsory voting or a 100% voting percentage in the next election, we are still doomed. Ask why?

      Because the quality of the people in this country is just a notch better than those in the Congo basin so instead of an out and out Banana Republic u get a safed elaichi monarchy!!! A whole mass of people in this country does not have the means as well as the idea of personal hygiene. They do not even know that they need to wash their hands with soap and water after having a poo at the loo! Their favorite pastime is chewing on some thingummy packaged in a sachet and marketed to the hilt with stars like Sanjay Dutt cooing goa goa gutka and chewing it like the cows chew cud and then spitting it all over the place!!!

      What kind of leaders do u think such a society can bring forth? Yeah u are rite! U guessed rite.

      The masses in this country deserve what they get or u can say they get what they deserve - Works both ways.

      Look at them behaving like responsible citizens in Dubai Saudi Singapore US UK Australia NZ.....

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