The Pickle Post

by Suhel Seth on 21 Nov 2009

On November 26, 2008, a billion people felt the helplessness and vulnerability of the kind we have never experienced ever. When 10 misguided young men held an entire nation to ransom and there was nothing the nation could do except live in disbelief and post that, in denial.

There was an outpouring of anger and much dismay at the ‘system’: most of us raved and ranted and when our turn came, we left for salubrious climes instead of voting for the right person. The elections which were going to be manna from heaven threw up the same rogues, many of whom are back in the very offices they were shamed to give up in the aftermath of 26/11.

Almost twelve months later, we are still quite befuddled. By the David Headleys of the world and their impunity and at the lack of any co-ordinated intelligence gathering system that ideally should have been in place by now. But then as in Shakespeare’s words, the fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves and that is the real point. We have sadly become a nation that is Teflon-coated because we genuinely believe this intangible ‘system’ is demonic and there is nothing we as common men and women can do. This is perhaps the best way of perpetrating the evil of the system. It is only the citizen that can effect change but for that we need to be engaged with India the nation-state and in order for that to happen, India the nation-state concept must invite loyalty and pride from each one of us. In many cases, it doesn’t because of the quality of people we have governing us.

So where do we go from here? Shall we give up and wait for the next catastrophe to befall us? Should we send out armies of young men and women to light symbolic candles? Where neither the light illuminates nor the fire stokes our imagination into moving forward? Or should we decide that this nation as an integrated entity, cannot forget 26/11. Not because it was 26/11 but because it exposed every facet of our governance and security architecture and all the talk of GDP growth figures and economic superpower sounded not just hollow but self-laudatory and nothing more.

I was in Bombay when 26/11 happened. And at the Taj nonetheless. I was saved by a text message from the concierge asking me not to return to the Taj that night from a wedding reception that I had gone to. The concierge that evening wasn’t doing his duty. He was doing his dharma. There is an essential difference between the two and while the concierge got it so easily, those running both the country and the state didn’t. That’s because the concierge at the Taj was engaged. With his guests. He was passionate. About taking care and delighting them with service. And more importantly he wasn’t doing it for effect. He believed in doing this because this is what he was trained to do. Sadly, these facets escape those who are in positions of power only because power blinds them from seeing the realities of a frail nation. Where even to this day, a policeman cannot survive on the salary he earns; where his superior officers have to wear bullet-proof jackets that in fact welcome bullets and where public memory is woefully short and the Karkares and the Kamtes will be footnotes as we approach the first anniversary of the attack on Bombay’s soul and India’s armour.

But I guess the time now is for anger. If people are not engaged then one way of getting them engaged is by getting them enraged: and here I propose positive anger which in essence is the inability to tolerate injustice and deceit and the complete abhorrence of both in our daily lives. The sad part is that tolerance is good in most areas but terrible when it comes to accepting lives being lost only because we as a nation didn’t care (and even today perhaps don’t as much) about lives being lost. About children being orphaned and women being widowed. We as a nation are so numb to Indian citizens dying that we need to bring that sensitivity back and only then will the candles we light shed any light.

26/11 in many ways was not a wake-up call just for the Indian security system. Nor a show to expose the porosity of our security system but in real terms was a reminder of the disengagement of the average Indian from India the nation-state. That is the lesson we should have learnt. And we still have time to learn it. It is this engagement that needs to occupy our hearts and minds. We need to fight for every Indian to live with dignity. We need to fight against being taken for granted. We need to fight for the memories of the Kangs, the Kamtes and the Karkares. We need to ensure they live in our hearts and minds because in a quaint way, it was their sacrifices that allowed many of our brethren to live at the end of that 36 hour ordeal. It is this fight within that needs to be spurred. The candle needs to be lit in our hearts and homes. Not at the Gateway of India. That will be our true salute to the heroes of 26/11 and a lesson for those who may even harbour at getting at our soul again.