Das auto(wallah)
When was the last time you stood for something? No, not the usual verbal bullshit. I stand with this. I stand with that. Nope. Like literally stood for something? No, no, not national anthem either. It takes a little more than courage to take a stand nowadays. It’s very easy to sit in a comfortable room and hide behind one’s laptop or a smartphone. In the real world, where the temperature hits north of 40 degrees, anything can get messy.
Actually, anything does get messy.
While growing up, we were nurtured with endless stories of how brave folks accomplished a lot on the strength of their conviction. The idea behind these indoctrination/inculcation was to motivate us towards greater things in life. Whether they succeeded or not is a matter of individual assessment but one factor is for certain: We are seldom brave. That’s a sweeping generalization on my part but the more i rubberneck, the more i am convinced that we are slowly moving towards a generation that practically doesn’t give a fuck. Too busy typing.
It’s a good sign, no? Well. Going by the track record of the previous generations who did give a fuck and the damage they fomented by giving all those fucks, maybe the future generations will assist returning the world to a calmer zone — not by design but by chance. If that happens, there’s not much to complain about. We’ve perpetrated massive injuries on other species. Maybe the future lot will damage themselves and coincidentally end up saving others. We can only speculate and it’s a Sunday and i don’t have anything better to do. No one can say what will happen.
What we can say though is we are in 2017 and there aren’t many examples of people standing up for what they are truly invested in, not just emotionally, existentially too. Online-wise, it’d be nice to see Indians sharing viral videos featuring India—instead of foreign countries — as a societal examples of inspiration. The stuff that goes viral from our country, if at all, are usually way too embarrassing for our own good. How about a viral video wherein an Indian demonstrates how honking can be arrested at traffic signals? Or something like that. Remember that South Korean video showing how the citizens made way for an ambulance to pass through? Expecting that to happen in Gurgaon might be too much to ask for but we can start somewhere. Something positive, man. Something that makes you believe in real heroism with a hint of wit.
Not so sure about wit but i can be a hero someday provided i boost the required amount of courage. We all know how badly the auto-rickshaws are treated in India. It’s as if the road belongs to everyone — including the two-wheelers — except the three-wheelers. Can’t always blame others though because the autowallahs can be assholes too. But for example’s sake, if a larger person from a larger vehicle misbehaved with my puny autowallah, i’d get out of the auto and protect my charioteer the way Arjuna never got to protect Krishna. In the process, i might end up losing my life but that’d be alright because somebody will be recording the event on their retarted ASUS phone before sharing it on WhatsApp. The sad part being it would go viral only at district level.
