16. Unanswered Prayers and Two Indias

They say there's two Indias. As I watch NDTV news telling me that, as of now, 7 blasts have taken place in Delhi, killing 18 people, and that some lame terrorist organisation has taken self-glorified responsibility for such cowardice - I recognise too many Indias to count. I wish it stopped at the official 4 of religions, 21 of languages or 28 of states.

There's an India that wants to cover up from their conscience, all that's going on. I've written this when Mumbai was in blood, that the spirit of the city was an excuse for not giving a damn. Except, its got Barkha Dutt's seal of approval now. Ofcourse, that doesn't change a thing, now does it? Go watch Mumbai Meri Jaan. The news is too real.

There's an India that doesn't see the beauty of its democracy, in all its failings. The kind of India that thinks that minorities are ill-treated here, that the flaws are bigger than the whole. For someone who seeks to improve this, yes, the flaws look bigger. We don't do anything half as well as they should be done, but we do them a lot better than others who claim success.

We are a happier country, in general. But that also makes us complacent. The same things that make bribery and corruption inherent to us, the same things that make us, by international acceptance, "the laziest on the planet", also make us slower to react to things, and make us an unaffected bunch. We're getting used to it, slowly, that bomb blasts will happen - we're putting them up there with the general inevitability of death. The only thing that doesn't quite sink in, is that it could happen to me. Not the city next door, not the people we don't know. It could be a neighbour, a friend, a colleague, a mother.
So when it happens, the grief, the rage is confined to those who are immediately affected.

I'm already writing cliches.

There's an India that figures in statistics. 7.2% unemployed, 25% below the poverty line. Unelectrified villages, dirty water, another village in Tamil Nadu that gets all of Europe's garbage. The children represented by the children in the !dea ad. Statistics. Like the people who died in Delhi.

There's an India that stars in statistics of a different kind. The 8.9(now 7.7)% of growth, the $million and $billion of mergers and overseas acquisitions by India Inc, the falling rupee and the Jack and Jill BSE sensex, all of which are rather impotent figures compared with the twelve-point-something inflation rate.

Thats the idea of statistics, you see - they don't care about each other. All these numbers look good on presentations and news articles, but otherwise, they're just as meaningless as whether 18 died in Delhi or 20. As meaningless as the spirit of a city covering up for "I'm not dead so let's get on with it."

There are more Indias, I guess - I meet a new one every other day. And thanks to my ability to forget stuff faster than I believe I will, this is pretty much what I managed.

And if some of this stuff reads contradictory, I'm Indian finally, remember?
All I know is I was trying to pray when the reports said no one was killed and the injuries were at 30. This post is my frustration at an unanswered prayer - maybe a prayer too late.