Do nothing - Perfect strategy for terrorists ?
I am a strategist. I like to think of interesting strategies. Pulling things together, understanding trends, making predictions, optimizing activities etc. etc. Sometimes I look at different people around me and try to think of what i would do in their positions. For example how would I launch a car in the market or as a doctor how would i maximise benefit for my patients etc.
The most recent role to which I played an imaginary understudy was that of a terrorist.
I sat thinking what should be the best strategy for people who wish to destroy India. After lot of deliberation I reached to a conclusion that inaction is perhaps the best action.
As an Indian, every morning I get up to the threat of meeting with an accident on the road. Even if I manage to reach office safely I am not sure if I can still be sure of a job. Some whimisical investment bankers up there on the East coast of America can create havoc in the lives of me and my friends just because the idiots thought that they can make a lot of money by giving loans to people who will surely default.
If that does not happen at least I am sure to ruin my day by making a purchase at any shop or eating at any restaurant where people are shamelessly conspiring to cheat me. For a change suppose the shopkeeper's decide to be good once in a while one of these policeman by the roadside will surely manage to fleece some money from me for one or the other reason.
If nothing else then huge family pressures to be better than my mausiji's son will surely take its toll on me.
So what do I look forward to as an Indian- a life of avoidance - how to avoid accidents, how to avoid pressure, how to avoid getting fired, how to avoid the corrupt policeman on the road, how to avoid falling into the trap of funny bankers selling funny money in the form of mutual funds and ULIP plans, how to avoid impolite gestures by barbaric motorcycle riders who have absolutely no sense of the magnitude of the risk that they sign for when they negotiate a sharp turn in front of a car without even a helmet. And even if I manage to avoid all this as a young man and reach a humbling middle age then a complete new set of things to avoid emerges - how to avoid my kids from getting into the wrong school where education is no more than a commodity and the school itself is no more than shameless money-making business, how to avoid my kids getting infected by all sorts of mental pollution that is generated by the so called entertainment business, how to avoid getting cheated by a property broker and what not.
If I am personally not affected then at least the likes of Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati and Ramalinga Raju will time and again put me to shame for being an Indian by indulging in reckless acts of self-interest and mass destruction. People like Danny Boyle will make fun of me by showing their Golden Globes which they earned by mocking India with help of India's most celebrated music director and one of the senior-most actors together with a British-Indian who probably had not even seen a photograph of slums before he accepted the role to play an inhabitant of those.
And so even if I look alive, I am in reality a scared, insecure aggregate of bones and flesh who even without the threat of terrorists is living quite an unlivable life.
So then all my terrorist friends, why on this earth do you invest so much to destroy a country, which, if you show some patience, will chalk out a road map to self destruction soon...
Proud to be an Indian - ya right after all I can still buy a two rupee chart titled "Leaders of India" with disfigured images of Nehru, Gandhi and Patel at the local stationery shop and stick it in my room. I can still go about bragging how every piece of science and technology ever invented has a reference in our Vedas without paying much heed to the fact that people in my country still die of common cold. I can talk about how Chanakya and Kautilya knew all that there is about the art of politics hoping against hope that my audience has not seen the shoes flying and nowadays cash as well inside our parliament.
Anyways I am proud to be an Indian and please feel free to forward all those meaningless petitions and "how great India is" sort of emails so that I can play my role as a citizen.
"Yes we can" forward emails and create an illusion about our greatness and sleep peacefully every night.
The most recent role to which I played an imaginary understudy was that of a terrorist.
I sat thinking what should be the best strategy for people who wish to destroy India. After lot of deliberation I reached to a conclusion that inaction is perhaps the best action.
As an Indian, every morning I get up to the threat of meeting with an accident on the road. Even if I manage to reach office safely I am not sure if I can still be sure of a job. Some whimisical investment bankers up there on the East coast of America can create havoc in the lives of me and my friends just because the idiots thought that they can make a lot of money by giving loans to people who will surely default.
If that does not happen at least I am sure to ruin my day by making a purchase at any shop or eating at any restaurant where people are shamelessly conspiring to cheat me. For a change suppose the shopkeeper's decide to be good once in a while one of these policeman by the roadside will surely manage to fleece some money from me for one or the other reason.
If nothing else then huge family pressures to be better than my mausiji's son will surely take its toll on me.
So what do I look forward to as an Indian- a life of avoidance - how to avoid accidents, how to avoid pressure, how to avoid getting fired, how to avoid the corrupt policeman on the road, how to avoid falling into the trap of funny bankers selling funny money in the form of mutual funds and ULIP plans, how to avoid impolite gestures by barbaric motorcycle riders who have absolutely no sense of the magnitude of the risk that they sign for when they negotiate a sharp turn in front of a car without even a helmet. And even if I manage to avoid all this as a young man and reach a humbling middle age then a complete new set of things to avoid emerges - how to avoid my kids from getting into the wrong school where education is no more than a commodity and the school itself is no more than shameless money-making business, how to avoid my kids getting infected by all sorts of mental pollution that is generated by the so called entertainment business, how to avoid getting cheated by a property broker and what not.
If I am personally not affected then at least the likes of Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati and Ramalinga Raju will time and again put me to shame for being an Indian by indulging in reckless acts of self-interest and mass destruction. People like Danny Boyle will make fun of me by showing their Golden Globes which they earned by mocking India with help of India's most celebrated music director and one of the senior-most actors together with a British-Indian who probably had not even seen a photograph of slums before he accepted the role to play an inhabitant of those.
And so even if I look alive, I am in reality a scared, insecure aggregate of bones and flesh who even without the threat of terrorists is living quite an unlivable life.
So then all my terrorist friends, why on this earth do you invest so much to destroy a country, which, if you show some patience, will chalk out a road map to self destruction soon...
Proud to be an Indian - ya right after all I can still buy a two rupee chart titled "Leaders of India" with disfigured images of Nehru, Gandhi and Patel at the local stationery shop and stick it in my room. I can still go about bragging how every piece of science and technology ever invented has a reference in our Vedas without paying much heed to the fact that people in my country still die of common cold. I can talk about how Chanakya and Kautilya knew all that there is about the art of politics hoping against hope that my audience has not seen the shoes flying and nowadays cash as well inside our parliament.
Anyways I am proud to be an Indian and please feel free to forward all those meaningless petitions and "how great India is" sort of emails so that I can play my role as a citizen.
"Yes we can" forward emails and create an illusion about our greatness and sleep peacefully every night.
PS: Sorry for being so negative - just can't help...
Looks like a lot of pen-up emotions finally decided to explode!
ReplyDeleteI loved the Danny Boyle reference the most!
hmmm....
ReplyDeleteIn this case there are a lot more to explore up on the terrorists that lie inside everyone... in fact we all are quite ignorant to a lot of things which are going around us which makes us a terrorist...
The Do Nothing sums up a lot of things and is the prime reason for our countries path towards declination globally....
rightly pointed out.. its high time that we look around us to do something and at least say our self that I will be the change and will make the change around me.
:)
Archana - Yes, this was a sudden outburst of emotions and I knew that I have to write it in next 10 minutes or so...
ReplyDeleteSelva sir - Generally if you look at history most golden eras of a country are preceded by the rise of the middle class and revolutions.. there might be one in the making in our country too. But I am not sure... I seriously think that our attitude needs to be radically transformed. We are as divided as we were in the 1800s and this will have to change...
ReplyDeleteI agree with Selva Sir, that we need to change our attitude towards life.. But my question is HOW?? Even if i tell 10 times to ppl around me that "talking on phone while driving is not safe " They take it lightly and instead of understanding my point make fun of me. If i say that "I dont submit fake receipts in office to get money reimbursed by the company" they look at me as if i am a MORON. And they just cant digest if somebody is not behaving the way it is expected (being an INIDAN). Their prompt reply is "Look we have a harishchandra in our team ".
ReplyDeleteShikha: Rightly said - and I think all these people who make fun of righteous people also get ashamed of themselves because deep down they know that they have let something die within them. There is this famous child-test... which says dont do anything in your life that you would not want your child to find out about you... not many in our society today can pass that test...
ReplyDeleteand Shikha.. though I agree with you that when you tell them they make fun out of you, but I do think that at your absence when they repeat the same mistake they do think twice.... and I've seen some people get inspired by our deals in front of them and try to follow us... but one thing is there before telling them one have to show them that we can live like what we think and talk :)......
ReplyDeleteI would also stress that we should keep on telling them their mistakes to make them realize at some time....
though a negative post, it is unfortunate that there is so lot of truth in whatever you said.
ReplyDeleteTerrorist is a catalyst - whenever they assume the self destruct process to be slowing down, they intervene and push the accelerator!
Rangrajan thanks for your comment and guess you r right that terrorists are skillfully using the internal resources that we provide them with and from time to time just make sure to pur enough oil to keep the fire burning...
ReplyDeleteSelva sir: You r right if we can be an example of what preach people do take notice...
ReplyDeletenicely put together but i feel there are many more good things around....yes its truth but one sided truth
ReplyDeleteAll the mess has one rather minor advantage. Our jokers give us enough to laugh at (between the sobs)
ReplyDeleteDo check out some speeches I have written for some of our er.. leaders at http://www.rameshsrivats.net/2009/01/100-word-election-speeches-part-3.html