I've been reading comments from SRK fans who're calling out to other fans to do something tweetily nasty to a journalist over his/her comments on SRK's detainment issue.
I don't do tweet so I didn't get the lingo he/she was using. But thing is, that's as bad as an anti-SRK person calling out to people who don't like him to write nasty comments in every article in the news on the incident.
You gals/guys just missed the point, didn't you?
I know everyone feels like he/she has to do something about it.. but don't go over the top with this just on Shah Rukh. What happened to him had probably happened to your next door muslim neighbours, see. Do you care to find out more about what has happened if they had told you about it? Do you care enough to spread the awareness about those injustices .. not just about what happened to your muslim neighbours, but also to other members of minority communities that have been treated unjustly by the authorities or by the society you're living in?
It's easier to fight for Shah Rukh's cause since he's so far away and we're not personally responsible for his well being. Our anger over his incident can flare up so magnificently in a month and die a quick and painless death the moment another controversial issue pops up. Our violent reaction towards the issue allows us the illusion of doing something useful while leaving us a way out in order to not be held accountable for our actions.
Look at the muslim groups who burnt Shah Rukh's effigies and were so ready to pronounce him an apostate just how many months back. Last Sunday, some of them were probably there during the burning of President Obama's effigy as a protest towards SRK's detainment (
link). And they were probably there too during the staging of that demo outside Salman Khan's house protesting over his flippant comment published last Monday (
link).
I hate mob mentality as much as I hate sweeping generalization. I don't remember in what movie where a character says, "A person thinks, people don't!", which I found was a bizarre statement at the time, but now I'm getting it.
A mob is like a fickle stream. It goes meandering every which way it feels like going. It has no scruple, principle, conscience, empathy or compassion. In the disguise of struggling for righteousness, it gives itself absolute justification and complete absolution over whatever atrocities it wants to commit during the fight for its cause. Most of the time, by the end of it, it's forgotten what's the cause it's fighting for in the first place. I doubt there's any way to stop a mob. You simply can't argue with it. It's created without an organ for hearing or thinking or seeing.
I tell you frankly one thing. I'm a person who's scared of authorities too, just like SRK, and I'm very law-abiding. To be pulled up for extra questioning while knowing that you haven't consciously done anything wrong as your papers have all checked out and to be told it's because your name pops up on their computer... lemme tell you, that kind of horror will haunt you everytime you want to enter the gates of that country in the future. What if his family were with him? Would they have been taken to a different room for 'questioning' too? It's a good thing he has friends in the consulate whom he could call for help. What if he doesn't? How many hours would he have languished there?
For those who are certain that they'll never be prejudiced against, you have no idea what Shah Rukh's incident has made us, the muslims, feel personally... inside our hearts. We know that a lot of other muslims have gone through the same experience, just like Salman Khan said. What is not a big deal to Salman may be a big deal to somebody else, I mean come on.. this is a guy who has gone to jail several times and once publicly stated that he doesn't mind going to jail again in the future, okay. So what's a little secondary inspection at an airport to him? I've been to America post 9/11, and I'm saying here that it's an experience I'm sooo not eager to go through again. The difference is, the media is willing to give SRK a platform for which he could tell the world in detail what had happened. Most of us will never be given that kind of a chance.
We re-lived our past experiences through his report and we remember our fears at the time. Can anyone of you who've never been through the same ordeal truly tell us that you understand the situation? If you don't understand it, then please shut up and just empathize. That's all we need from you, an awareness of what's happening around you to one part of the minority communities who have been subjected to humiliating treatments at the hands of the authorities you have elected. Where's the need to be sarcastic or cynical about it?
And to those who're angry about the incident, react only in a way that is honest and true to the feelings in your heart. Don't react just coz you think you're expected to react since you're an SRK fan. You're not a mindless slave to those irresponsible instigators. You're not simply a number in the crowd. You're a thinking person. Act accordingly.
I dunno what else to say about this incident, and I think I've said too much for a usually silent person when amongst strangers, which is essentially what the visitors to this blog are to me. We are strangers to each other, you and I. I wish the world could be a perfect place where everyone just loves one another and strife doesn't butt into anyone's life. However...
The Matrix says that people thrive on conflict and they're absolutely miserable in a utopian setting. Maybe that's true, I mean.. look at us now as opposed to us in history. We haven't changed one bit when it comes to our grumpy, warring ways. We don't want to learn the lessons from the past coz we're so adamant on re-inventing the wheel and learning it the hard way. We're hopelessly hell-bent on destroying this planet with nuclear weapons trained at every other country to prevent the other guy from firing first.
Maybe because I'm a cynic and a nihilist that it prompts me to see things from every angle I can, even from the most depressing one. I can go on and on but what's the point. This is the last post I'll be writing about this issue. Nabil, a popular comedian in our country, has this tagline for one of his shows that goes, "Lu pikir la sendiri!" (the pronunciation is as it's spelt), which means 'You gotta think for yerself, bro' ...and I really like that tagline. It's quite deep despite it being so abrupt.
Anyway, I found this video and I thought it's uproariously funny. Those who don't have a sense of humor, you'd better not watch this though. Don't say I didn't warn you. And with that, I'm off...
Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!