Sentilong Ozüküm
Late night news is a poor sedative.
All I wanted was the result of the angry crowd behavior at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati where India was scheduled to play visitors England in a one day encounter but was called off due to dampened ground. But to get them I had to encounter the usual misery of usual monologue of national and global misery. And last night the world seemed angrier than ever before. Perhaps it was the shaded angry politician who slammed angry tantrums against the other ruling party. Perhaps it was the battle between the furious party workers and polling enthusiasts which ignited violence in a recently conducted Assembly Polls. Or, the different section of the society in more than a couple of places protesting in thousands and shouting slogans in demand of justice.
Finally the much awaited news came with not so encouraging pictures. The Nehru stadium was filled with the men in Khakis fighting the angry crowd with tear gases. The more than twenty thousand crowds had turned violent when the umpires called off the much awaited match. The sports correspondent captured the image of the ground filled with sticks, stones, thrashes, empty bottles and papers. The crowds had their reason. They had waited more than three years for a match in the ground and they would not take the reason of the dampened ground for an answer.
The situation went out of control when some of the violent crowds went to the height of damaging the TV cameras and inflicting the policemen. I watched with a very heavy heart as the video correspondent captured the image of one of the policeman dragging a young man in blood along the ground……“And that’s the news at the moment, Keep watching Headlines Today….” the well dressed man announced. I still wonder why he was smiling.
The world is heading nowhere. The world loves violence. The world is angry. You don’t have to skim through the news channels to prove these statements. Our everyday taste of TV channels will show us that. We somehow love watching movies where there are bullets, kicks, punches and violence. A kindergarten kid will tell you why he has switched from his usual breakfast of Popeye and Tom & Jerry to watching fanciful wrestling. The reason why movies of violence and sex are continually ruling the box offices is not very hard to explain. People are mad.
People are angry. People are tired. We are tired of being bullied, harassed and intimidated. We are weary of the serial murders, rapists and hired assassins. And when the Rambos and the Arnolds decide to clean things up, We Cheer.
We are angry at someone but we don’t know who. We are scared at something but we don’t know what. We want to fight back but we don’t know how. And when someone steps out and fights the system, we applaud him. “That’s the way to go!” “That’s the way to do it” But is that really? Let’s honestly try to answer some questions.
What good has anger brought about? What hope has anger ever created? What problem has ever been solved by revenge? Is anger the way to reduce crime rates and corruption? Are the streets now free of fear? I ’m afraid no. Anger does not do that. Anger only feeds a primitive lust for revenge that feeds our anger that feeds our revenge that feeds our anger – and you get the picture. Yes! Vigilantes are not the answer. Revenges are not the solution. Then what do we do? I put my money on this that your degree of anger shows your potential and energy to harness it. Harness? Right, you can turn the tables down and harness your anger for good.
How do we do it? By a little understanding! Even though we hate to admit it, we are like a sheep without a shepherd. All we know is that we are born out of one eternity and are frightening close to one another. We play tag with the fuzzy realities of death and pain. We don’t know how to heal our bodies. We don’t know how to get along with our mates. We can’t answer our own questions about love and hurt. We can’t solve the riddle of aging. We can’t keep ourselves out of war. We can’t keep ourselves fed.
The point is –
Uncontrolled anger won’t better our world but sympathetic understanding will. Once we are able to see the world and ourselves for what we are, we will help. Once we are able to understand ourselves then we will act not out of anger but out of compassion and concern. Once we are able to understand the truth we will look at the world not with bitter frown but with extended arms.
Let us realize that the world is dark. Lights are out and the people are stumbling in the darkness. Let us light candles.
Anger?
Anger never did anyone good.
Understanding?
Well, the result will not be as quick as the vigilante’s bullets or as simple as the result of the West Bengal Assembly elections. But they will be certainly much more constructive.
