you and aam aadmi
Do you think you are an aam aadmi?
you are a voyeur in the great playground of this nation. You are outside the playground. You are a consumer. you earn your white collar dollars and spend it on processed snacks and shiny things. and that's the only thing that excites you or the people high up. They are concerned with nothing else about you. Sadly, neither are you.
The only things that hold your gaze are TV and your ever expanding belly. The shining rectangles are narrowing your minds and squeezing out all empathy you've got.
You whine for a while when shit happens. But won't try to affect any change. At this moment you pick up the placards in the name of aam aadmi and walk in circles in your living room. But there's nothing 'aam' about how you see yourself. You are world unto you. That world is small but richly invested with your emotions. That narrow world doesn't entertain logic or differing opinions. Once painted with a favorite color, the personal bubble refuses to be bathed in any other light.
The aam aadmi at the centre of playground has no placards, has no cameras, has no interactive glowing rectangles to play the unfair game. But he is forced to. The game's an abomination. An invention of modernity. No one wants to play it but 'aam aadmi' get sucked in it nevertheless. you don't. you have detergents, cars and deodorants that help you remain out of the boundary of the playground.
But you are a funny spectator. You don't cheer the playing 'aam aadmi'. You jeer at his mouth for uttering sounds in non modern languages. You cover your nose in his direction, for he has yet to learn your perverted notion of shame. You deride his love for his motherland by calling him anti-progress for not letting the big people rape the nations' resources. You cry foul at his increasing standard of living for you see that as a threat to your standards of living. You want him to vacate his home which had been destined to be crushed under the juggernaut called progress. Millenias of waiting for this eventual destruction. That's the aam aadmi's karma.
But if he does move and end up in your backyard, you screech and shout to get him crushed here again under the juggernaut called greed.
Unfortunately for you though, your inaction is as loud and potent as your possible action. Your westwards dreams have gone bankrupt. Like the aam aadmi your karma will be measured on this very land itself. Your backyards will continue to get filled. While you want to impose martial law on the traffic system of India, the aam aadmi is imposing himself on the little oases (more like a giant dung heap the flies get attracted to) you call home. Your inaction is breeding new future battlegrounds right along your water pipelines and conditioned air.
Wish you cared for your children. You wouldn't have let the world go on as it is. They will breathe fear and uncertainty before they would know what breathing is.
That's your legacy. Fear, uncertainty, hatred, bigotry.
Jana Gana mana will become the anthem of suspicion. your india, my india. There will be a race to un-belong and then to belong. The abstract is already larger than the real people. It will get even more imaginary. What started as a dream of equality, will now become a cynical joke. nation. India. unity.
About time you set your karma right. Neither I nor you want the children's neck at the mercy of red scythe. The only way to that is to play the game alongside the aam aadmi. to enter the playground. That's all you need to do. enter.
you are a voyeur in the great playground of this nation. You are outside the playground. You are a consumer. you earn your white collar dollars and spend it on processed snacks and shiny things. and that's the only thing that excites you or the people high up. They are concerned with nothing else about you. Sadly, neither are you.
The only things that hold your gaze are TV and your ever expanding belly. The shining rectangles are narrowing your minds and squeezing out all empathy you've got.
You whine for a while when shit happens. But won't try to affect any change. At this moment you pick up the placards in the name of aam aadmi and walk in circles in your living room. But there's nothing 'aam' about how you see yourself. You are world unto you. That world is small but richly invested with your emotions. That narrow world doesn't entertain logic or differing opinions. Once painted with a favorite color, the personal bubble refuses to be bathed in any other light.
The aam aadmi at the centre of playground has no placards, has no cameras, has no interactive glowing rectangles to play the unfair game. But he is forced to. The game's an abomination. An invention of modernity. No one wants to play it but 'aam aadmi' get sucked in it nevertheless. you don't. you have detergents, cars and deodorants that help you remain out of the boundary of the playground.
But you are a funny spectator. You don't cheer the playing 'aam aadmi'. You jeer at his mouth for uttering sounds in non modern languages. You cover your nose in his direction, for he has yet to learn your perverted notion of shame. You deride his love for his motherland by calling him anti-progress for not letting the big people rape the nations' resources. You cry foul at his increasing standard of living for you see that as a threat to your standards of living. You want him to vacate his home which had been destined to be crushed under the juggernaut called progress. Millenias of waiting for this eventual destruction. That's the aam aadmi's karma.
But if he does move and end up in your backyard, you screech and shout to get him crushed here again under the juggernaut called greed.
Unfortunately for you though, your inaction is as loud and potent as your possible action. Your westwards dreams have gone bankrupt. Like the aam aadmi your karma will be measured on this very land itself. Your backyards will continue to get filled. While you want to impose martial law on the traffic system of India, the aam aadmi is imposing himself on the little oases (more like a giant dung heap the flies get attracted to) you call home. Your inaction is breeding new future battlegrounds right along your water pipelines and conditioned air.
Wish you cared for your children. You wouldn't have let the world go on as it is. They will breathe fear and uncertainty before they would know what breathing is.
That's your legacy. Fear, uncertainty, hatred, bigotry.
Jana Gana mana will become the anthem of suspicion. your india, my india. There will be a race to un-belong and then to belong. The abstract is already larger than the real people. It will get even more imaginary. What started as a dream of equality, will now become a cynical joke. nation. India. unity.
About time you set your karma right. Neither I nor you want the children's neck at the mercy of red scythe. The only way to that is to play the game alongside the aam aadmi. to enter the playground. That's all you need to do. enter.
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