Saw Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron again last night. Curiously, even though I was in splits watching Satish Shah as a dead body, Om Puri's drunk antics, and last but not the least that genius of a Draupadi scene, what hit me the most was the angst. I was surprised that this aspect had completely escaped me on previous viewings. The feeling of desperation that the youth feel when up against the powers that be was epitomized by one of the scenes in which Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Baswani are at the railway station, their cash being snatched off by a hawaldar, are left without any money to go home. The look that Naseeruddin Shah gives as he asks, " Without ticket?", captures it all.
That got me thinking. We are currently one of the youngest countries in the world. Similar demographic points in the history of nations have coincided with major civil unrests. France had May '68, USA had its whole 1960s counterculture thing going, China had Tianamen. These civil unrests have more often than not led to laws being formed in favour of civil liberty, women and youth empowerment, and not to mention have been times of unparalleled artistic achievements.
For a nation which has more than 600 million citizens under the age of 30 and an equal number under the poverty line, we sure are a quiet lot.
Or did you mean 'quite a lot'? :-P
ReplyDelete@sunny
ReplyDeletec.f. my comment on dash's latest blog
@zhandy:
ReplyDeletec.f. my comment on dash's latest blog
(treads lightly into the war zone...Sunny and Sandy - Sahara desert yaad aa gaya - khatam mera PJ!)
ReplyDeleteGood point regarding counter-culture - we get satisfied pretty easily as long as we are able to survive. The whole Renaissance thingy was based on counter-culture - questioning boundaries has never been our strength...which is sad.
In terms of constitutional rights and national ideology, I really don't think we have much to revolt or fight for. We are a nation where the constitution grants equal rights to all citizens regardless of race, culture, religion, gender. Whereas America got its first colored president now, we have had presidents and prime ministers from almost all religious, ethnic, social backgrounds since we got our independence. Unlike most countries in the world we did not have to fight for Woman's suffrage. Unlike many developed nations, we do not have one national religion. And unlike many other countries we are not plagued by some stringent national ideology that stifles people and takes away their personal and social freedoms. All this certainly does not mean that we do not have issues. What I mean to say is we have the blueprint of a great nation, laid down in ink. Its true, that we did not have to come up with our own great ideas, we just had to incorporate all those great ideas that made some nations what they are today, and some more from our own history. But certainly that leaves us with few things to have an uprising for.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with us is not that we are a quiet lot, but that we are a lazy lot. Lazy to the point of being escapists. Or maybe the other way round. We don't need uprisings, we need work, we need all the young ppl out there to start working, to build the nation. And its not that we are not doing a good job. The other day during a lab meet my professor remarked, 'the best papers in this field come from India'. Well for a moment I regretted leaving my country, because it showed that I could have had good if not the best opportunities in India as well. But then the fact is that we are a very enterprising sort, we like to take on the world, which certainly is one of our strengths. The point I want to make is, we will get there, we need some time, and we need to think, like you do, why we are this quiet lot. And then maybe we realize that its not noise that we need.
Fingers crossed as of now.
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