EXTRA ORDINARY ISSUE
Keeping the faith
Ihave often wondered why I accept so many invitations to travel and speak overseas. Yet I turn down invitations that come from many parts of India where I have never been and would love to go. I am in Paris now, enjoying my most precocious season. Next month I attend an event in London. In December I will be in Brussels for an award and, later, in Vienna for another. I know it is an insane amount of travelling but the truth is I love going away because it makes me love India more.
The nicest thing about travelling overseas is that there is very little news about India in the media. There may be the odd mention in a newspaper or the occasional reference in TV news. But that’s about it. And I simply adore that. It allows me to escape the scary overdose of bad news that we get in India, the daily screaming and ranting on our TV channels on issues that could be debated with far less emotion and infinitely more wisdom. In fact, there is no news in India that is not bad news. Any news even remotely good is suspect.
It is also impossible to avoid the bad news in India. You walk into it as you would walk into a lamp post. The FAQs I most often face always relate to it. When do I think they will hang Kasab instead of feeding him biryani? When will the midterm poll happen? Did Arushi’s parents kill her? Will Rahul be the next PM? Is Didi gone for good? Will the Pedder Road flyover be built against the wishes of citizens? Will Vijay Mallya lose his liquor business trying to save his airline? Will Prithviraj Chavan survive Pawar’s machinations? Will India win the T20 World Cup? Having been in media for three decades, I am expected to have all the answers.
But the funny thing is: No one wants to know my answers. The questions are only rhetorical, an opportunity for those who ask them to give me their opinions. And thus begin long, boring political debates which will not stop till I throw in the towel and say: Yes, you are right. As Amartya Sen so succinctly points out, we love arguing. And we argue over everything under the sun. That’s why astrologers, palmists, tarot card readers have such a field day. Even before we finish asking them a question, we are ready to argue with them over what the answer must be.
We are a news hungry nation. We are also strongly opinionated. And the truth is: We love to believe the worst of ourselves. Have you met a single person till now who has told you that Suresh Kalmadi may not actually be as black as he is made out to be? Or that Kanimozi did not deserve her months in jail even before the case against her has been tried? Or that Shahid Balwa is no heinous criminal. He is just an ordinary businessman trying to fall in line with the way business is done in India every day, where the politicians make all the money long before business even commences? Or that the evidence against the Talwars is not strong enough to hang them for murder? Or that some of the army guys who bought flats in Adarsh may not have known they were part of a scam? We love pre-judging people. We love finding them guilty of every despicable crime. We enjoy witch hunts. We adore the idea of discovering that everyone around us is wicked, corrupt, manipulative, and hugely deserving of punishment. If we had our way, we would put them all behind bars. Or better still, sentence them to death. We love playing judge, jury, hangman. It makes us feel redeemed in a strange kind of way.
My problem is I love India. I also love the people of my country and refuse to believe that they are all bad. By sidestepping the news, as I do while travelling overseas, I find it that much easier to keep my faith.
(Views expressed by columnists in Bombay Times are their own.)
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