Resilience may not be a Virtue!

So, what is different this time other than the magnitude of the tragedy and the targets? White collared elite and Westerners got caught in the ire of the heinous act of terror that ravaged high-end hotels rather than the usual crowded market places. So, instead of the hue and cry from hapless shop-keepers, middle-class citizens and office goers, thanks to the media that has almost converted this national tragedy into 24x7 soap opera, we got to hear the accented voices of convent educated, Versace shades clad citizens, corporate and tinsel horde, who suddenly appear to have every possible solution to root-out the menace of terror.

Our Attitude – the primary culprit!
Bomb the neighbor, shun away from politics, blame the intelligence agencies, don’t pay taxes, kick the bureaucrats – just a few of the solutions offered!
We as a nation, are increasingly shifting our locus of control to factors external to us, rather than looking inwards. It is always him or them and not me or us! External factors do not even mean the forces across the border, be it tasteful or stateless, and seldom do we ever realize that, it is our own Self that is responsible for anything that has happened to us or that is knocking at our doors.

Not a surprise, even a modest and highly sensible person like our prime minister, for obvious political compulsions, could not fall into the trap of pointing fingers across the borders, within hours the incident happened. Not to renounce the fact that, there is every possible reason to believe that it is the forces across the borders that caused this massacre. But, we have been doing this blame game for nearly 60 years with zilch a result.

Even if the neighbor honors our demarche, how assertive is our legal system and our political will to reign-in justice on the culprits?

Now some hard facts.
Think of us measly souls who would do anything to outsmart each other – to jump a traffic light, to venture into the wrong side of the road. Bribe to get anything done - to jump a line anywhere, be it cinema halls, government offices, ticket reservations or even in a temple, to see Mr. God - all in the mad rush to be the First. Be the First to shoot ourselves on the foot and thereby, we have a built a system that now breeds itself on corruption in every walk of life.

When was the last time we willingly offered to wait in a gate to be frisked or to display our id cards for verification? We all want security, but seldom do we realize it is all-pervasive and seldom are we ready to compromise even an inch of the comfort we enjoy.

Whatever security cover we have is merely symbolic. Remember the scenes during the parliament attack, when our poor security guards were fighting the terrorists with guns from World War 1 period. When was the last time we patiently let the security guards examine our baggage at the airport? The metal detectors put up in many railway stations, temples and malls; either does not function or keeps beeping all the time. God knows what they are detecting. Most of us would prefer to give it a skip, with no one forcing us to get thru the detectors.

When have we seriously paid respect to any policeman or security guard on the road or how much pride do they carry on their job? We still carry forward the colonial tradition, where the policeman was used for tasks other than policing – to help the master with his domestic chores. More often, the puny cop thinks he gets paid to get dressed-up and watch the world pass by, from where he stands on the streets.

More happily do we run away from the customs authorities, when we cross the airport or ready with our own payments to make a safe exit? Why are we then surprised, when the terrorists managed to smuggle so much of ammunition into the country? If you can pay, so can anyone! How reasonably possible it is to watch every inch of a coast, especially in a country like ours with so much of porous borders we share with enemies across the borders, which are increasingly becoming unstable by the day.

Look at the way the media reported the entire episode and thereby competing to be the First to disclose the operational procedures of an army, all in the disguise of bringing it live to the people? It was an appalling scene to see even responsible news anchors, emotionally charged up and running around the crime scene, even amidst the shoo-shooing of the security guards at the Taj. That’s how much we respect our Security Guards. Given the economic compulsions of running a successful news channel these days and with TRP Ratings in mind, given an opportunity, the media did not fail to stoop down to these pitiful levels of exploiting the Freedom of Press.

Just paying taxes does not absolve us from all our duties as a model citizen. It is easier to blame others and the system, when we least realize WE are the system and WE shy away from our basic civic responsibilities. Mere posturing alone would not lead us anywhere and we go in circles, waiting for another tragedy that might have already lined-up on our nook.

Post 9/11, it was a lifestyle change for the Americans, to add additional hours to your travel plans, to be ready to open and repack your baggage at multiple places and on the way, one got ready to be strip-searched at the airports. People got used to the painful frustration, all done in the need of a better protection against the enemy, who continues to out-smart us at a faster pace, both in technology and motivation. Agreed, dubiety and austerity in a hospitality industry is a misnomer. But, unprecedented events like these mandate unprecedented changes and we better get used to this.

As being widely acclaimed, Resilience is not a virtue anymore; rather it symbolizes resistance to change. Change from our age old beliefs, lifestyle, comforts and idiosyncrasies. What 11/26 could usher-in from all of us is to look more inwards, to bring in more civic sense and we become more responsible for our own actions, all for one important reason – that is our own existence!