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Tauseef is not here to make a victim’s cry for the fading sense of ownership in his country. He is also not here to play the argumentative Indian. Here’s an inward gaze by the author and his threat perceptions as a minority, exclusively in Different Truths.
Don’t worry! You don’t need to keep your mutton biryani away. Or, beef biryani — if you are reading this in Kerala, West Bengal and North East. This is not another post from a Muslim in the new India complaining about the increased threat to being a minority (of any kind) here. Such posts have become somewhat irritating for people, who are earnestly waiting for India to outshine others on the global front and give them something to fulfill their appetite for chest thumping —they are mostly men with a thick mustache, and a handful of women with big bindi seem to also have joined the club. Oh, was that spuriously generalised and grossly offensive? Thank you very much, but I do think I’m not going to take that back. I realised they are walking offended despite my dose of provocation.
I am not here to make a victim’s cry for the fading sense of ownership in my own country. I am also not here to play the argumentative Indian — that right has (un)righteously been taken away from me since long back. I am here to not make a point which I am completely entitled to, and no one can censure that — not even the (un)officially imposed ring masters!
Look, what had to happen has already happened (Shh! Pakistan defeated its “papa” in a cricket match recently!) and what has to happen is also not stoppable — as fatalistic it is as Indian I am. And, this has been our guiding karmic philosophy for probably 5000 years. See, how I injected 5000 from nowhere! The number 5000 has already done quite a bit of damage to our discourse and has been declared by UNESCO as a prevalent cause for the declining level of sentience among the new Indians. A mathematical number was supposed to be objective and impersonal, but that rule clearly doesn’t apply to our beloved ‘5000’. I have no idea who came up with this magical number, and I have no interest, whatsoever, in figuring that out as research doesn’t get much of a traction as a propaganda does. Rigorous research only helps when we’ve got some physical ailments like cancer or low virility to cure but not when we are trapped in our emotional and psychic rage or cage. What then soothes you, soothes you — it doesn’t have to be true. It just needs to cater to your deepest and scariest malice and bias. That’s how we are designed within and all this civilisation and ethical code shit is exogenous.
What is happening all around is perplexing and vexing to see. We are stuck in a jam almost everywhere: reasoning, culture, economics, politics, and traffic (if you are in Gurugram or Bangalore). I know I can’t be lauded as a sharp trend watcher for making that banal comment about the society, but the fact is I am as clueless as you are in making sense of the zamana. And, how one couldn’t be as what is happening seems partly engineered sometimes and totally random most of the times. Agreed, there would be a few people, like every other time, who are ushering us into the politics of binary, but what is most disheartening is the complete insanity which has pervaded all of us (including the author). I am sure there are social scientists and cultural critics out there, who would have more to educate us on the origin and the propagation of this madness that has got unleashed upon us. Alas! They will either go unheard amidst the noise happening or will be labelled and branded as anti and pro X, Y, Z to delegitimise their voice even before we hear them. The latter tendency, I guess, gradually and sadly led us to the present era of post-truth.
My bro keeps advising me to worry less as this is how things have been here since always and why people would listen to me anyway. I get his concern, the second part of it is valid but the first, to me, seems to be emanating from his inability to recognise the truth and/or sheer cognitive laziness at his end (sorry, bro!). Going back to his second point, the job of talking has been taken away by one (and I say only one) since May 2014 and if anyone else dares to speak is instantly denounced as illegitimate and redundant by the Ministry of Silence and the brainwashed citizenry. The one, who sees himself as Darth Vader, has taken it upon himself on behalf of all of us, without even asking, and delivers it solely through his outlandish oratory masterstrokes and, not to forget, those vivid hand gestures and facial expressions. None of us can match up to his variance in style and ability to ceaselessly surprise both the sides. It will be wiser to humbly concede in that case. Also, it’ll be acutely heretical on my part to even dare to walk into the territory which so legitimately belongs to him — and solely him.
So, here I shut it to march into an era which approves of only two things: nonsense or utter silence!
©Tauseef Shahidi
Photos from the Internet.
#StatingPoint #Opinion #Country #InwardGaze #India #OwnershipOf Country #UtterSilence #EraOfShutUp #DifferentTruths
