Arbit Bakar on Republic Day

Authorspeak: The ‘Cribbing’ post. However these are some of many issues that crossed my mind today and as the title suggest these are all random (For those who do not know, ‘arbit’ is an expression for ‘random’ in our institution). So if you find the post incoherent do not say that I did not warn you.

I was forced out of the deep slumber by the constant ringing of my phone. ‘God damn! Why did I put it on ring mode?’ I asked myself this simple question while moving off from my bed to get to the phone. It was from my friend reminding me of an important work that I had to do in the evening. I checked the time. It was 9:30 am. I had missed the republic day celebration by half an hour. ‘So, no point remaining awake’ I thought as I dozed off again. I woke up exactly an hour later due to the ‘door-banging session’ which only my friends could perform. I can’t blame them though: I use the same against them.

‘What?’ I asked as I opened the door.
‘You missed the Republic Day celebration.’
‘So, what’s new? After class X, I have not attended any of these celebrations.’
‘You should. At least show that respect to your motherland.’
‘I love my country. That love would not diminish if I do not attend some function. And any ways how does it matter? More than half of the educated people do not know the difference between a republic and a democracy.’
‘And who told you that?’

‘Experience. If you do not believe me, conduct a market research instead. You are likely to get interesting answers. I’ll tell you an incident. When we were preparing for our placements in our undergrad we decided to have GD sessions. We met only once and that shows the limit of our enthusiasm. However during that GD session I gave the topic to one of the groups on ‘India as a republic’. They talked for full 15 minutes on democracy. Agreed these words are used interchangeably but at least we, the so-called educated of the society, should know the difference.’

For all those who are still a bit confused about republic and democracy, I am pasting the first line of an article on the difference between republic and democracy.

‘By definition, a republic is a political unit governed by a charter, while a democracy is a government whose prevailing force is always that of the majority.’ (Of course, if one searches the net many articles would explain the differences in detail)

However moving back to the point from where I digressed. We conversed a lot on many issues when the topic came back to the speeches given in the republic day function.

‘There were some very good speeches. The one from our elected representative, when he talked about our social responsibilities and our role in bridging the social divide in our country, stood out though.’ My friend was visibly impressed by the speech. He went on to explain it in detail.
‘Tell me one thing. We all are aware of our responsibilities. Aren’t we? But we will only pass the test of this responsibility only when we will be able to contribute to society in a positive way. And that is a tough ask in today’s materialistic world.’

Sometimes, I feel that there is a silent revolution taking place in our times that will restructure the society we live in. At others, my faith in that process is shaken when I find that even the educated youths engage in caste, religion, dowry etc. And what about the social divide? We witnessed an outrage on ‘Mumbai 26/11’. All celebrities, politicians and the general people united in that time of crisis. We bloggers did our part. There were many homage posts, outcry posts, hate posts and posts on what not. I wish I could have seen similar reactions when a band of 200- 300 naxalites ambushes 20 odd policemen in Chhattisgarh or Bihar or Jharkhand or Andhra Pradesh. Aren’t those policemen doing their duty and are dying valiantly while fighting a losing battle? Why isn’t there a public outcry to provide them with modern arms so that they could perform their duties well? Why I am writing this? I do not know. It may be because I feel that instead of ‘only’ expressing our views we can play a more significant role in this slow transformation of our society. And if we do not wish to play a part then in all probability we do not have the right to criticize the portrayal of India in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (Even though it subtly caters to the old western mindset of India) because even though we are progressing, still a large part of our population is deprived of its benefit. And when we will be able to realize this truth then maybe we will be able to apply our abilities well in contributing to the society.

As I was writing all these my mind was occupied with many issues. The first came from an article which I read yesterday. It focused on the recent slump in the placements across institutions in India and suggested that the products of these institutions (Especially from the ones engaged in imparting Higher Education) should act as job creators rather than job seekers. I principally agree with the idea. However, the truth is that most of the students take heavy loans in order to pursue their graduate studies and have to repay those loans. Thus the reluctance to take up entrepreneurial ventures stem out of many reasons which the author failed to highlight.

The second issue which concerned me was the attack on a Mangalore pub by a ‘self proclaimed savior of Indian culture’ group Ram Sena. What was worse that they beat women in the pub. Have we really progressed? And if this drive was against ‘obscenity’ then what could be more obscene than poverty. Crores of women in India do not have access to dignified clothing. Why don’t these groups go and help them first? Because it will not give them chance to vandalize. Till when people in India will use vandalism as a mark of protest? Why do they fail to realize that these acts are affecting our own growth?

The third issue was Raaz: TMC. Now I know that this is a 360 degree turn from my previous cribs. But the truth is that Raaz is a big mess. With a decent first half, it could have been an engaging thriller. However, lack of imagination, creativity and sagging screenplay made this film as a ‘bakwaas’. And what was the need to directly lift scenes from ‘Ring’ series, Devil’s Advocate, Exorcist among others. It gave the feeling of been there seen that. Though the production value of this movie was far better than many horror flicks off late, one misses that spooky feeling. Don’t these filmmakers have interesting horror stories to tell? They should go back to villages and ‘valleys’ to fetch story ideas on supernatural phenomenon. They will get plenty from the folk-tales and legends there.

P.S: Wishing you all a very Happy Republic Day