I admire wit and satire. I am a great fan of anybody who is able to poke fun at others and at the same time take the same back in his/her stride when being given the same medicine. And yet, I must admit that I had not heard of Charlie Hebdo till yesterday. Sad comment on someone like me who takes pride in his ability to see the world with a different eye and tries to get people to see logic through his writings, arguments and often his satire-filled words. And, yet, I can also be human and fail at times in noticing those who are holding the flag for democratic thought through wit and satire. I bow to Chalie Hebdo and all its team members as I mourn the gruesome killing of 12 peace-loving humans in Paris and the murder of democratic thought in the world. I may not have known you earlier folks, but my admiration for your courage comes straight from my heart. I am one to express my views strongly, and my friends like Varun Khanna, Garima Goyal - who I quite admire for their intelligence - are both known to either empathize with my thoughts or to condemn them outright. I value their opinion a lot and respect their views always, without having to agree with them all the time. That, in my very humble opinion, is what defines the basis of our friendship - being able to speak out loud despite at times having a difference of opinion, vehemently defend our perspective and yet being open enough to hear the other persons views and either being swayed by the same or making the other one go with you. At times, neither may happen, and we finally agree to disagree. That is the crux of free thought and that I what I am going to dwell upon now. I have been taught - and I firmly believe in the same as well - that the pen is mightier than the sword. That is what came out strongly in France yesterday, when the extremists felt so badly pained by the cartoons that they could not take the blow from the mighty pen anymore and decided that the only way to silence such thought was to exterminate the very root of it. The terrorists may think otherwise, but they actually lost out to the pen in this war. And that is why they went on to commit such a heinous crime against those innocent people who did not post any personal risk to them and did not mean them or their religion any harm. And all this was done in the name of defending their religion and taking revenge for an insult to the Prophet Mohammed. Do these terrorists - who did not have the courage to even reveal their faces - believe that they did any good to their religion through this act of theirs? Obviously, they did not. Sadly, they forgot that such bigotry only evokes even more powerful reactions, and gets people united against such despots. What came out strongly in these terrorists was not only their desperation to make their mark on perpetuators of violent aggression in their religion, but also their utter disdain for free thought and other religions. If, as Islam preaches, there is One God only - and I agree with the same despite following my own religion, Hinduism - then how come your God is bigger than mine? Isnt He the same, called by different names, loved in different forms and prayed through different means? How come you defended your Gods honour while killing His own innocent 12 children? Does He - the Almighty - need us humans to defend him? Especially when we - mere mortals - rush to ask for his benevolence and mercy for even the smallest of things, even more so when faced with the possibility of danger and death of self or a loved one! Does God actually need you and me to protect Him, or is he capable of doing so Himself? Does He need protection from His own children in the first place, and would He order their killings, in the name of saving Him and His religion? Would God Almighty - yours, mine, ours, whosoever He may be - actually ever forgive such killings and bless and honour the killers? Would He? I do not think that these terrorists are doing any good to their religion or their cause or their brethren. What these terrorists have done is further vitiate an atmosphere where the world is beginning to become cynical of their religion. They are only helping alienate the right-thinking Muslims, who I believe far outnumber such rogue elements in their religion. Yet, such right-thinking Muslims are left to face the consequences of such acts, and bear the wrath of the whole world. That is the sad reality, and that is what happens when you murder people in cold blood and kill free thought, murder free spirit and annihilate free bonhomie. I am not a cynic as yet and firmly believe that while many are astray, not all Muslims are terrorists. This is my firm belief despite many of my friends condemning me and saying that I am not secular but sickular, and despite my wife Anshu Nigam fearing for me because of my free-spirited ways and my fearlessness in calling a spade a spade. I have been labelled non-mainstream-Hindu by some including those within my family, and I have no qualms about being labelled such. I would much rather be non-mainstream than be spiteful, narrow-minded, self-centered, mean, abusive, divisive and violent. Guess, I am stupid enough not to be afraid of my own ilk who claim to be out to protect me and my religion. But then, arent they also following the same path of intolerance and hatred that we all need to stand up against. I implore my Muslims friends here - who I would like to believe are sick of this menace of terrorism and of being eyed suspiciously by others every time such incidents happen - to openly come out and condemn this attack. You may do so by sharing this post on your wall for an hour, or you may do so by just liking/commenting on this post. To my other religions friends - Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, and all others - I implore you to do the same to show that we condemn such attacks and we care enough to not to paint everyone with the same brush.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 06:40:11 +0000
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