The Great Indian Tamaasha

Yesterday night as I watched my child's face while he was sleeping I felt an immense need to thank the Great One above for keeping him safe... safe from caste-related violence, religious violence, religiously motivated violence, corruption, the mafia, political scandals, the Kala Kaccha Gang, murderers, bandits, burglars, muggers, thieves, robbers, (and thus reminded of) the politicians and their politically motivated violence, hit-men, paid-criminals, hit and run speedsters and road ragers, kidnappers, ransom seekers, drug traffickers, gun runners, money launderers, extortionists, poachers, human traffickers, sexual abusers, sexual harassers, physical abusers, emotional abusers, mental abusers, people who neglect their duties, drug abusers, terrorists, abductors, rapists, bribe-seekers, bribe-givers, con-men and women, confidence tricksters, fraudsters, auto and taxi frauds who over charge, pick-pocketers, bag snatchers, chain snatchers, cyber criminals, poachers, wildlife traffickers, arms traffickers, illegal drug traders, people who indulge in domestic violence, infant killers and abortionists, dowry seekers, dowry givers, terrorists, the corrupt system that cradles it and the law enforcement who hide it all.

I was glad that I was not part of the 5361 convicts in Tamil Nadu and the 123941 in India, I was particularly glad that I didn't have to die in these prisons as was the case of 65 others in Tamil Nadu and 1430 others in India. It was nice to know that I was not part of the statistics that reported 16561 suicides in Tamil Nadu and 132226 in India reported every year. It was great to be home safe unlike the 32153 who died over a decade's time in an accident in Tamil Nadu and 373917 others who died across India. I was glad that the rowdies in khakhi (a.k.a the police man) neither received a complaint against me nor was a case registered unlike 43373 in Tamil Nadu who were framed just like the 1426718 others throughout India. I was particularly glad that I did not have a pending case to brood over unlike the 20 million (accounted for till the end of 2002) pending court cases country wide, which makes me not part of the 1 million persons in jail waiting for a fair trial (accounted for till the end of 2002) because the conviction rate of court cases is only around 1 percent. I was glad that I could get past all this and be there to watch my child smile.

I was also glad that the great nation where I live wishing to be safe where 1,700 people died instantly in Bhopal on 2-3 Dec 1984 from the Union Carbide gas leak and 22,000 people who have died since Dec 1984 from its after effects and 570,000 people who continue to suffer from varied diseases affecting respiratory, reproductive systems as a result since 1984 and still my mighty judicial system has remained impotent in rendering justice yet wants nuclear power stations established in rural parts yet again even if it is over the dead bodies of people who know that prevention is better than cure and object it, the same way tribals are killed in other parts of my country to get them off their natural habitat rich with natural resources to allow the rich man and the white man to set up his mining industries. Meanwhile, the dark streets sleep unworried through the deliberate hourly power-cuts as it celebrates a politician's birthday(s) announced in larger than life cut-outs through its corners for dogs to mark their territory thus shower them with the honour they precisely deserve as men in white with retarded colonial reminiscence of master-slave imagery running all over their nerves bend over, completely surrendering their arses nevertheless their dignity, respect and pride along with as the unheard moaning pain of the man on the street submerge dies as he moves past this tamaasha knowing that his voiceless voice just as his fate, glooms over his will to live, like a ghost that haunts him in his nightmares as he curses himself for being born and not being able to die, just as having to vote with none to vote for.

I was glad. Glad to see my son's smile as he sleeps without knowing all this; trusting that the world that I brought him into was safe, nice and happy. Smile my sleeping child! life is but a dream.

Statistics:
http://ncrb.nic.in
The Hindustan Times
p.c: http://genealogy.about.com/od/cemetery_records/ig/tombstone_symbols/sleeping_child.htm