On a cold, wet afternoon in Brussels a 17yr old girl walked into a chocolate store absolutely awestruck at the mouthwatering array displayed.
Chocolatiers such as Godiva, Neuhaus, Leonidas were only names in foreign magazines & here she was actually taking in the aroma…!
This, this & this she said, savouring every moment of the selection while a young man carefully placed her pieces into a box, which in itself was a beauty.
Till she stopped at a tray of beautiful chocolate hands. Hands?
Why hands? She asked the young man.
It’s a Belgian - how do you say - he turned to an elderly man at the till - a Belgian delicacy.
But what is the significance of hands? persisted the young girl.
I will find out & tell you when you come the next time.
The old man kept his eyes at the till.
37yrs later, while browsing on social media for something entirely unrelated she learnt about those Belgian chocolate hands.
From deep within her gut, she retched & retched in repentance for that barbaric savageness moulded to such finesse & perfection…that she had so enjoyed unknowingly.
Many of us have friends & extended family members of other faiths who have for long participated & enjoyed our celebrations as we have reciprocated theirs.
However, this sudden interest in #GarbaNight & this push that it should be open to all by the very people who through
the year mock every belief, tradition & ritual & till last week were happily posting on social media with the same toxicity…has been a surprise.
So it is not without reason that we, who once took great pride in sharing with openness our culture & festivities are now wary
& distrustful of these new enthusiasts.
We would then naturally prefer they stay afar than mar a happy time & leave a bitter taste.
It must be said however, that anywhere in the world, music concerts, shows, establishments of repute hold the right to deny admission.
Today any chavvani worth politician, activist, political analyst doesn’t think twice before cursing & abusing PM Modi night after night on Prime Time TV & they say democracy is dead in India.
Two bit journalists have made a livelihood on malicious lies & falsehoods & they say there is no freedom of speech.
Forget about authoritarian regimes like China or military-run Pakistan where they would disappear in a jiffy for a even hint of what they do here.
In western democratic countries the State would come down with an investigation, immediate incarceration, destroying reputation, career, personal life.
What is particularly interesting in this interview is the
length & effort taken to explain how the recent spate of FIRs filed by sections of the majority community are due to the machinations of a vested interest in cahoots with the police & other govt agencies.
In this entire exercise of obfuscation there is no place to recognise or address the fact that there might be genuine feelings of being hurt, offended, or even insulted.
In fact, the matter of feeling offended is made out to be a recent problem & laid entirely at the door of the
majority community when we all know that this section is very new to giving voice to their hurt sentiments having taken it on the chin for forever.
Over the years we have witnessed books, films, free speech & opinion banned or censored because the largest “Minority” community
We must never forget that India was this vast, hot, barren, dust bowl, devoid of art, culture, history, cuisine, architecture.
All those warlords who rode across the Hindu Kush, risking life & limb to capture Hindustan were so, so disappointed!
What!
No marble to build mausoleums, no rice for biryani, coffee, kulfi, kulchas & chikankari to dress up in.
So barely unpacked they returned to their own glorious lands to enjoy the pleasures of civilised life they had left behind so foolishly.
To think they had believed all those Sone ki Chidya tales!
But one day, after a finger licking meal of Biryani cooked with heavenly spices & sucking at a sweet, cold kulfi poring over a beautifully bound book from a nearby library they were struck by guilt!
There is a pattern to this violence & rioting that we have come to recognise.
It has little to do w/a democratic right to register protest against a Reform, Bill or scheme but more to do w/people who have lost power & are willing to burn the country w/their mercenary sidekicks.
Some pieces of the jigsaw:
#FarmersProtest that held the Capital & NCR region to ransom for a year
A motley crowd of goons, rented protestors & worse found favour with our Opposition parties, Rihanna,Mia,Greta,YoYa of coordinated gamcha fame, Khalistanis & their Canadian PM.