THE SONG OF THE SENSIBLE
by Gorakh Pandey
What way the winds blow, I can understand
Why we show our backs to it, I can understand
I understand the meaning of blood
The value of money I understand
What is for and what is against, I can understand
I even understand this
We are scared to be able to understand, and remain silent.
I can understand the meaning of remaining quiet
When we speak we speak with thinking and understanding
The freedom to speak
Its meaning, I can understand
For a pathetic and measly employment
To sell our freedom, the meaning of that I can understand
But what can we do
When unemployment
Rises faster than the injustice
The dangers of freedom and unemployment, I understand
We narrowly escape the dangers of terror
I can understand
Why we escape and get saved, this too I can understand.
We remain disappointed and are pained by the Almighty if he does not just remain an imagination
We remain disappointed and are pained by the Government why it does not understand
We remain disappointed and pained by the common man because it succumbs to a herd mentality.
We remain pained by the pain of the entire world
I can understand
But how much we remain pained by this pain this too
I can understand
That opposition is the desired step to take
I can understand
At every step we make compromising understandings
I can understand
We make deep commitments for this understanding
Every deep commitment we present in ambiguous language
I can understand
The reason for this ambiguous language also
I understand.
Incidently, we do not consider ourselves
Less than anyone, I can understand
Every black to white
And white to black we are capable of converting
We are capable of creating a storm in a tea cup
If we want we can start a revolution also
If the Government is weak and the common man understanding
But I can understand
That there is nothing that we can do
Why there is nothing that we can do
This too I can understand.
The above a poem by poet Gorakh Pandey and my very inept translation. It was given to me by a journalist of a Hindi Daily, when he came to interview me on the occasion of my Father’s Birthday. My Father’s Birthday is today, November 27th. He would have been 101 years old.
The poet was a troubled human. Intelligent and anguished by the state of the nation. He had wanted to inspire with his writing and the strength of his thinking. When he failed he committed suicide. He was a brilliant student from the Benares Hindu University and later was with JNU - Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.
The entire day has been spent in front of the TV and watching in anguish and in anger the proceedings on the streets of Mumbai. I have been riveted to Times Now and to the incredible anchoring of Arnab. He has been at it non stop for almost 24 hrs; reporting, discussing, interviewing, taking opinion, tirelessly.
My pain has been the sight and plight of my innocent and vulnerable and completely insecure countrymen, facing the wrath of this terror attack. And my anger has been at the ineptitude of the authorities that have been ordained to look after us. I have simply loved and endorsed the sentiments expressed by one of those that came on for comments on the Arnab reportage, Suhel Seth. They were strong, precise and most apt. And of course I have had the greatest pride in those from the forces that have and continue to fight for our freedom. Brilliant officers and police personnel have laid down their lives for us. I can only but salute them and respect their sincerity in the call of duty.
I have been at the receiving end of a million calls and an equal number of sms’s the whole day to come live on TV or on the print media to express my views on the current situation and am being lured by words such as ’we need you to speak to express solidarity and for the people to maintain their calm’.
This is disgusting !! I will NOT do that. TELL ME AND ORDER ME INSTEAD THAT WE REQUIRE FOR EVERY INDIAN TO GET UP AND WALK INTO THE FACILITIES WHERE THE ACTION IS ON AND I WILL BE THE FIRST TO WALK. But, please do not ask me to come and make sloppy statements that will do nothing more than create viewer interest in said particular channel ! I respect what the media is doing in serving the nation with its continuous information bulletins and I admire the brave and diligent manner in which they have devoted themselves to the cause. But what they expect me do I find against my ethics and want to be excused from it.
And for God’s sake, let us stop reiterating that cliched ”Sprit of Mumbai” retort. Yes Mumbai is strong and resilient and shall not be cowed down by any such occurrence. But let us not conveniently use it as our cover sheet, pull it over our heads and go off to sleep. Because that is what has been happening every time. Incidents of grave disaster have continued to be camouflaged with ‘oh, this is Mumbai, we have a great spirit, we will spring back’. Fine, we will, of course. But who is assuring us that the disaster will not !!
As an Indian, I need to live in my own land, on my own soil with dignity and without fear. And I need an assurance on that.
I am ashamed to say this and not afraid to share this now with the rest of the cyber world, that last night, as the events of the terror attack unfolded in front of me I did something for the first time and one that I had hoped never ever to be in a situation to do.
Before retiring for the night, I pulled out my licensed .32 revolver, loaded it and put it under my pillow. For a very disturbed sleep.
Amitabh Bachchan
