The Girl in Red Coat
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and for you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed the day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people passing by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
But what they’re really saying is I love you.I hear baby’s crying and I watched them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
Yes, I think to myself what a wonderful world.~ What a Wonderful World
Rendered ever so soulfully by Louis Armstrong, this song has a hopeful, optimistic tone with regard to the future, with reference to a child being born into the world and having much to look forward to.
It has been quite a while since I last took to blogging. But the human tragedy which unfolded today in Peshawar forced me to extricate myself from this self-imposed ghost protocol.
Ironically, just last week I had changed my profile picture to one that celebrated the cause espoused by this year’s joint Noble laureates Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzay , that of eradicating oppression against children and upholding their fundamental right to education.
We didn’t start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning.
We didn’t start the fire,
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it.~ Billy Joel – “We Didn’t Start The Fire”.
In 2014’s sci-fi movie Interstellar, the director Christopher Nolan directs a scene where low on fuel, the space-ship Endurance can only visit one more planet before returning to Earth. After a tense vote, the team selects Mann’s planet, as Mann is still transmitting. However, they find it to be icy and inhospitable; Mann (Matt Damon) always knew Plan B (start humanity anew) was the mission’s true goal, and faked data about his planet’s viability so Endurance would rescue him. Mann breaks Cooper’s spacesuit visor and leaves him to die, and flees to Endurance on a shuttle. How can a man of Mann’s stature and intellect and refined sensibilities, try to kill a fellow cosmonaut without batting an eye-lid. The survival instinct or is it an inherent strain of DNA which can explain such an act, dormant in some while active in others …
Today’s dastardly act is once again a chilling reminder that the world we inhabit has become more violent than ever. I find myself asking this question over and over again .. Is it in our nature to commit such terrible acts without an iota of remorse? Shooting down children at point-blank range , can it get any worse .. hang on .. Peshawar is just another blot on what can be considered a never-ending saga of mindless acts of barbarity which have been perpetrated with cold-blooded precision since we don’t know when. The same scene unfolds in Palestine every now and then or in Ukraine where a Malaysian Airlines passenger plane is shot down or in Swat Valley where a child is shot because she stood for girl’s education. That girl became the world’s youngest Noble laureate and continues her fight undeterred.
Or is it a different strain of human reaction, when a father kills her daughter, a Delhi University student who dared to tarnish the family’s honour by marrying a boy from a different caste. Or when a policeman pumps multiple bullets into an unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson , Missouri. Or when Nirbhaya pays the ultimate price with her life in the nation’s capital on another December 16, exactly 2 years back. Is it not the same mindset that made Baby Moshe an orphan when his parents were gunned down at the Chabad house during the nightmare of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Recently read a moving article published in the NY Times about a person who protested against Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza strip, by actually giving up all the laurels that Israel had bestowed upon him as a mark of gratitude for his role in saving Jews during the Holocaust.
Of-course strategic analysts, experts and the Haryana khaps will very well explain these horrific incidents with theories ranging from Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory to the CIA funding of Mujahideen to counter Soviet occupation of Afghanistan or for that matter wearing jeans to rising incidents of extreme brutality against women in a country which actually worships the Divine Mother as Adi Shakti. In an air-conditioned television studio, some retired Pakistani general will blame today’s massacre on non-state actors.But these theories simply don’t add up. Do they ??
Filmmaker Michael Moore, in his award-winning documentary film Bowling for Columbine , explores the circumstances that lead to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and, more broadly, the proliferation of guns and the high homicide rate in America. Early in the film, Moore links the violent behavior of the Columbine shooters to the presence of a large defense establishment manufacturing rocket technology in Littleton. It is implied that the presence of this facility within the community, and the acceptance of institutionalized violence as a solution to conflict, contributed to the mindset that led to the massacre.
As the new TV channel on air, Zindagi has shown, people on the other side of the border are almost our mirror images. They speak almost the same language and face the same issues in their daily grind for survival. The 132 children who died today in that army school in Peshawar , had the same aspirations like any school-going kid in my own country.
The world has failed its children, I dare say. What is the use of teaching Gandhi , Khan Abdul Gaffer Khan and Martin Luther King in classrooms when coffins have to be carried out of a school’s premise.
That brings me again to the question. Why were these children snuffed out of their lives ? Still don’t have the answer. Are the Malalas and the Satyarthis of this world fighting a losing battle.
An eye for an eye …. the MAHATMA had said, but the narrative hasn’t changed a bit. Of-course we did reach MARS and discover the GOD particle somewhere in-between all this but we never stopped being violent, did we? Blood will be spilled , in the name of honour, in the name of race, in the name of unearthing imaginary Mass Weapons of Destruction, and of-course in the name of religion !!
As I came back from office today, with all these disturbing thoughts hovering in my mind, I noticed my neighbour’s 2-year-old daughter playing in their courtyard. Seeing her, I could only manage a wry smile. For she is blissfully unaware of how admirably the so-called adults conduct their worldly affairs or growing up what kind of strife-torn world she would inherit..
Maybe it is futile to look for answers, my guess .. it is human nature , maybe something else which made sure that 132 flowers were nipped in the bud.
I usually end my musings on a slightly positive note. But today it is hard to betray the emotions , ok .. maybe a tad optimistic by quoting the song that Haider’s doctor father used to hymn amidst all the gloom and doom that surrounded his beautiful valley.
~ Chale bhi aao ke gulshan ka kaarobaar chale
Gulon mein rang bhare baad-e-naubahaar chale ~
In the Picture: Schindler’s List: While the film is shot primarily in black and white, a red coat is used to distinguish a little girl in the scene depicting the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto.
Calcutta Chromosome 