India Awakening?

I watched No One Killed Jessica today. It was a brilliant movie and quite honestly it surpassed my expectations. The acting lacked the usual Bollywood melodrama (thankfully) and the story hadn’t been morphed to suit the so called “Indian sensibility”. Both Rani Mukherjee and Vidya Balan did a fantastic job. It was very close to the truth, and extremely hard hitting.

Of course, I knew about the Jessica Lal murder case and was enraged every time a development (usually a disappointing one) took place over the past many years. Manu Sharma’s conviction was a relief to all those who raised their voice against his acquittal, and most of all to Sabrina Lal and her family, I’m sure. However, the fact that it took our judicial system over 6 years to finally prove him “guilty” despite the glaring evidence is extremely disheartening, to say the least. So much effort and energy went into getting the “authorities” to do what they should’ve in the first place. Is that how it is then? For every case that arouses the “democratic” sentiment of the country and pressurizes the legal system, (delayed) justice is delivered. Aside from that, every other such case must include a prolonged trial, coupled with lakhs and crores of bribe money, ending in one party, naturally the weaker (read: poorer, less connected) one accepting defeat.

All through the movie I felt saddened, frustrated and helpless. I’m ashamed that it took a movie to stir these feelings and remind me of the state our country is in, but I admit that’s how it is. Once the anger and frustration subsided, I began thinking along other lines.

I realized that we live in our own diminutive oyster, so hassled by petty inconsequential matters that we almost always forget the bigger picture. The fact that we are fortunate enough to have a good education, a level headed, logical mind and a life with our loved ones, is something that should be celebrated every day. This seems very idealistic, and maybe it is. Maybe it’s human nature to be consumed by our own trivial issues. Maybe these trivial issues aren’t trivial at all. Maybe they are the biggest and the worst things happening to us at that point.

But then you have a day like today. A day that reminds you that problems aren’t measured relatively, but perhaps they should be. We play a much bigger role in our society, in our world, than we give ourselves credit for. Maybe if we start being accountable for more than just our immediate concerns, we might one day rid this country of the rampant corruption and hypocrisy it currently stands for. At the end of the day, it’s the least we owe our country. It’s the least we owe humanity.