Today as I was writing this, I paused for a minute. A sound was annoying me from outside my window. I strained to hear - and I could just about discern some slogan chanting. "Wow", I thought to myself. "The protest march has reached Irla outside my house! Not bad!" Distracted from my writing, I returned to the Facebook newsfeed to see some recent pictures of an ex-colleagues baby shower. I laughed at some witty status messages and pondered at recent developments in my friend circle. And then I went over my busy social schedule for the next day: lunch at Indigo - check, yoga - check, Elbo Room - check.
As I returned to write this, the feeling washed over me even more strongly than it had earlier. I belong to that strata of society. Yes that one. The strata that is born in one large cocoon and shielded in that cocoon for most of its life. The truly untouched.
Right from politics, to terrorism, to the state of affairs to even economics, precious little can touch our lives. Yes, we read the newspapers and follow the news channels and spew our views across dinner tables and in lawns in Khandala. But does it really affect us - and will it ever?
The sad, yet extremely true fact of the matter is that it won't. A terrorist attack, after the first 2 hours of frantic phone calls, ceases to be even a fleeting thought in our minds unless it's a matter of our own safety - or our near one's safety. Granted, if we're in an airport or a crowded place, we look around furtively for signs of terror. But it fails to leave an impression. Anna's fight against corruption is always in the background in our surroundings, in the form of tweets, facebook statuses, notes like this one, headlines, photos and for some a memory of a rousing walk chanting slogans. But it's like the rain. You know it's raining. You're aware of it - it's there somewhere at the back of your mind, but your thoughts still comprise of where to go for lunch with your friend, why a certain someone is ignoring you, how that sprained neck is still hurting, how you might miss the gym today, what you could be doing this weekend, why your boss is suddenly late today, why your cook can't learn how to make a new vegetable, why people keep writing annoying notes on facebook, how you must remember to get your cavity checked, how you have to remember to clock those air miles, how you have to serve new fun snacks at this Friday's poker party, how this new shampoo is making you lose hair, what you're going to give your husband for his birthday, how you should charge more for this job, how you should subtly get your boss to notice that you're doing all the work, how you should remember to show off to your friends about your appraisal, how they're replacing Two and Half Men with Rules of Engagement, how you have to book your tickets for Metallica and the F1 race, how you need a manicure, how you're going to suggest a counselor to your friend who is under depression, how you're going to give it back to that rude colleague next time, and really why is he acting like this???
No matter how many rousing slogans we read, how many articles about common people sparking change, about masses bringing about a revolution - nothing is going to stir us out of the beautiful bubbles we've so carefully built around ourselves. This wonderful cocoon spun so painstakingly to keep ourselves out of the world we live in.
And it's only when someone is torn out of that cocoon, forcefully, by an attack against himself, his own family - his business or his home - when corruption or terror or poverty come and hit HIM directly in the face. Only then will he behold that hell which lies beyond the cocoon. That demonic world of intangible wrongs, which we view from our ivory towers.......wondering where we'll have lunch today.
Posts
