The Unsafe Citizen

Unsafe Citizen
It was just another day for Param, a petite merchant in Gaffar market. After carrying out his household chores, he was on the way to his one room shop. He did his pensive prayers for protection of his family. Param just started a venture into the retail of export apparels. Took up a mortgage couple of months back, had major expansion plans. The first half of the day got good business for him, so he decided to commemorate the same at a nearby café. Just when he entered the premises, thinking to relish a good meal, he was thumped hard by something. His head got hit by the wall, blood started to pour out of his skull. For a minute of his consciousness, he saw people running here and there, he saw a mother holding on to her toddler in arms, the other, grabbing her 4 year old daughter. A 85 year old aged man was struggling to march out of the mammoth smoke which galloped the slender boulevard. There was a colossal commotion all over the place. And there laid a person in shatters, with almost all of his body parts sprinkled at the corners of a Video game parlor. He had with him a note which was detectable but could not be understood by all. It was in URDU. An ID card was discovered mentioning name of a “Pakistani Jihadist”

Param lost his consciousness. His right arm positioned 10 meters away from his body. A huge stampede left the place into a burial ground. The place where children played was twisted into a cemetery. Hundreds of bodies were lying in an unsymmetrical fashion.

It was a terrorist assault. Yet Another Terrorist attack, which claimed life of 130 innocent lives, 500 left injured combating to gain counsiousness. Thousands of people directly affected by the gutless and spineless act of few so called “non state actors”.

While we are wedged in our day to day trivial problems, there still are families trying to recuperate, recover from the trauma. The post trauma era never seems to perish for them. They are given compensation for the soul they cherished so much. They are compensated for the existence which was declared precious by the almighty.

The Impotent politicians manufacture a government based on a pledge of keeping each and every citizen safe. But is the Indian citizen in safe hands or is he blinded by the fake promises of an incapable and ineffective government.

Do we have to wait for someone else to do something about the protection of our family? Do we really expect a NSG commando in each house to protect us. Do we really think that such an unfortunate event can take place at a far-flung place? Its time to wake up. Its time to break the safe and cozy dream of living on a bed of roses. Its time to take a pledge of serving the country. Big words? Eh? NO, they aren’t. As a matter of fact, Even a single person can bring about a transformation in his own approach. Quite often we think that we cannot bring about a alteration in the system. I say, try to sleep 1 night with a mosquito in the room, that 1 mosquito would surely make your night sleepless. Correspondingly, a lone individual is much more competent of changing his immediate surroundings. Regrettably, We have drastically underestimated our potential. Everyone is thinking of the Macro Environment. Never in our cribbing mode, have we thought about our own very small environment, the Micro Environment.

How often has a youth helped a victim of an accident? How often have we turned our backs on the girl being harassed by a group of raucous road side individuals? We are so much in love with our own security, that we forget the well being of a fellow human.

All the time we are praising the martyrs and the freedom fighters. This was only because they sacrificed their life for us to sleep peacefully. They left their families to protect us from the injustice done by the “terrorists of their time”. If we respect them so much, why don’t we try and inculcate their values, their principles.

Its time to stand up united as Indians and not as racist, religious figures. Its time to eradicate all the disparities of cast and religion. Its time to take one step further to bring about a change. Its time to revolutionize the current scenario rather than trivializing the irrelevant things.

Let us all stand, united, to abolish the injustice being done in our Micro Environment. Lets help a woman to get her seat in the bus, let us help an old man cross a road, let us help a lost child on the road, let us stand up for what is right, unafraid, undeterred.

These small things would be observed by the onlookers, which in turn would make them think about our bravery. Let us all hold hands and raise a voice against terror, against injustice. Let us bring about a leader from within ourselves to change the society for good.

Pranav Sachdeva