KEEP THE LIGHT BURNING

A big hello to all of you there ! Yes, I had been away, away for a real long time, atleast by blogging standards! Work kept me occupied for most of these two years, and I guess, I took a writing and intellectual pause as well.All of us who have been in the practice of writing know that writing is a creative process that works and flows at its own speed, in its own whimsical and fanciful manner.You cannot dictate to it.It happens when it has to happen.

Talking of happening, so much has happened in the past two years ever since my pen took a pause. American troops have finally left Iraqi soil, leaving behind a mess whose end is seemingly out of sight. Egypt just saw history, Libya is on the brink of it. Pakistan has moved over from Musharraf’s dictatorship to further deterioration…violence and political assassinations becoming the order of the day. Sri Lanka has seen the end of Prabhakaran and his formidable LTTE, while Nepal still struggles and stumbles unsuccessfully on its obstacle-ridden path to democracy. We have seen China become ever more powerful, economically and militarily, while we see America get more and more jittery with sweeping developments in the Middle East, in China and with growing dissatisfaction on the domestic front with issues like unemployment waning and dipping President Obama’s popularity to an all time low.

In our own country, we saw the monster of corruption take humongous proportions as scandal after scandal emerged out of political and bureaucratic corridors.We saw the 
country lose face internationally in the wake of the skeletons emerging from the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee’s closet.We saw the 2G scandal shake the
very core of our democracy and take the lid off the simmering and burgeoning nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and corporate and media lobbyists. We saw the holder of our democracy, the Prime Minister, become a mute spectator to rampant corruption and scandals in his government, with many of his ministers and chief ministers getting actively embroiled in controversy after controversy.We also saw him meekly utter his apologies and his helplessness at the deeply appalling and disgusting state of affairs in his government. A very bleak and unfortunate scenario indeed, nationally as well as internationally.

So is there no light at the end of the tunnel , no hope, no silver lining? The answer, I strongly feel, lies within ourselves.After all, isn’t it the regular unarmed, Egyptian on the street who became the harbinger of change and revolution in that country? And back home, isn’t it your ordinary RTI activist with extraordinary courage , who, in a quiet and resolute manner, is questioning and probing the very credentials of our corrupt representatives and deeply infected and polluted system ? Needless to write many of these probes have led to some of the most scandalous exposes of our times.And these fearless men and women are doing so without any motive and most of the times, at the cost of their own lives.Killing of such activists had become so common and frequent in Maharashtra that the government there had to actually set up police committees to look into the criminal complaints and requests for security received from these men and women of exemplary courage .Hope other states take a cue from this and follow suit so that these unsung voices continue their journey of courage and social activism undeterredand undaunted.

So my dear friends, as long as these conscientious marshals of social change, whether here or anywhere else in the world, keep the light burning, hope is alive and the future is still there to look forward to!