Lets forget about 26/11

I know that on reading the topic of this post a lot of people will brand me unpatriotic, heartless, and what not. For these people, the post ends here. I do not give a hoot about what they think and feel, and so if you are one of them, you are not welcome here. But if you are not among those who judge the book by its cover or the post by its title, read on.

We recently "celebrated" the second anniversary of the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. The people held candle light vigils which was covered by the media, which spent the whole day deciding where did the responsibility of the attacks lie. The politicians held innumerable shok sabhas, where they gave speeches about how India will never forget about the day and how sad they were for the terrible losses and the lives lost. For a better measure, they even went ahead and abused the neighbouring country for harbouring terrorists and threatened it with dire consequences lest anything like this happens again.

While all this happened, the families of Major Unnikrishnan, Hawaldar Gajendra Singh, SI Tukaram Omble, ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, ACP Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar, and Shashank Shinde and nameless other victims (for a complete list of victims, please visit here) tried to come to terms with their loss. Ajmal Kasab enjoyed another three meals while his appeal lies in the court, people went about their business as usual, and the zealots across the border kept planning on how to break our country down.

And once the date changed, all this was packed - the programs, the speeches, the candles - all went into packing, to be brought out again the next year. 26/11 has now become a "national holiday" in our country, almost like 30th January, 14th November, 5th September etc., where we have forgotten the meaning of why we do it, but we still do the same thing every year.

It is a shame that this red day in the history of our country has come down to this. I mean, haven't we been able to analyse what went srong in the last two years? Do we actually need the politicians, the media, and the candles to remind us of what had happened? If so, then well, there is no point in remembering this day at all. Seems we all have moved on.

And if not, then why do we need all this? In my opinion, one should not try to show the world that s/he is grieveing. It is supposed to be a private emotion. And, if you want to give a warning to somebody, please be ready to back your words with action. Otherwise they are Geedad Bhabhki as they say in Hindi - plain words that have no value what so ever.

But it seems to me that we all are hell bent on creating another holiday out of this date, so it is my humble request to all of you out there to please - forget about 26/11.

This is Hashir, signing off

Over and out