26th November is a date we should not forget easily, and India should not spring back to normalcy .. a word which often connotes that we have forgotten the pain, the sorrow and the fear rooted in all our hearts.
At this point in time, we need to know very well who the enemy is. The enemy is not the devout Muslim neighbour you have or the man who visits a Hindu temple without fail everyday.
They are as innocent and as victimized by this tragedy as we all are.
This is not the time to point fingers at every Khan, Abdullah and Yusuf, rather it is time to look at what our leaders are doing to keep us safe.
Can we afford to go on quiet, voiceless and scared for our lives anymore than we have? Why are we letting the people we 'chose', to keep burying thoughts of our safety and dignity of life under their sacks of gold?
We need to protest now, more than ever.
The attacks on the south, elite Mumbai has now awaked the section of society which thought they could never be un-safe. It has closed the gap between those who strut on Page 3 and those people nobody knows and cares for. A socialite having a meal at Wasabi is now as vulnerable as a rickshaw puller in the middle of a crowded market.
This awakening has done the fine job of stirring those who very well could but wouldn't do a thing to talk about terror, to raise questions to our government and to protest this way of life.
We need to shake our leadership now.. the one that dismisses such acts of gruesome violence as a "chhoti ghatna".
We must let our prime ministers who read out speeches echoing their "heartfelt pain" (from notes prepared by their undersecretaries) know.. that they will need to do more.
Leadership needs to realise that they exist because we chose for them to stay there and it is high time we remind them that we are who they need to serve before they serve themselves. We are not hostages to our government and will not be hostages to any terrorist from now on.
Be the Change you want to See... something I read somewhere and something that I couldnt get out of my head. We need to be that Change now.. more than ever before...
