If it makes any sense, please ponder. If it doesn’t, scroll up :)
Recently, I read this book named ‘Hiroshima’. It’s written by a Marathi writer भा. द. खेर in Marathi. I wish it gets translated in all Indian languages. Reading this book gave me this little understanding about wars—the escalating tensions and accelerating emotions, the falls, the rise, the gains (if any), the loses (many). It was a terrifying experience. But it somehow managed to shape my understanding and is helping me see the current state of affairs in a different light. I might be wrong though.
Okay, now coming to the point. I would like to share a few things with you. Let me state it straightaway:
“THERE SHOULD BE NO WAR.”
It kills innocent people. But if you think you are ready to pay that price, then let me offer you a better reason why you should restrain from war: it kills the innocence in you; it dehumanises you from within.
The United States took revenge for the Pearl Harbor attack by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We all know this. Some of us also have the technical knowledge of what happened, tactical knowledge of how it happened and political knowledge of why it happened and who was responsible for the tragedy. But in the end, it doesn’t matter how it happened and who was responsible. The important question is why it happened.
May be:
Because sometimes we are overambitious,
Because we take peace for granted,
Because we tend to forget history or maybe we lack the courage to read history with an equanimous mind and unbiased eyes.
War is a fanciful thing when we see it in films, but it’s ugly, hideous and dreadful on ground. Yes, we can all imagine that. But it becomes gruesome when you come face-to-face with it. The US then had newly invented atomic bombs. Today, we (India and other countries) have nuclear bombs. We have now advanced in every sector where defense is concerned. Things were different then and things are different now, but to my limited understanding of the book, people were same then and people are same now. Not many evil people died in Hiroshima, people like you and me died, children died, army persons died, laymen died and, most importantly, humans died.
I know death is inevitable. We can escape having a child, a failed relationship but not death. If life is a question (however beautiful), death is an answer (brutal and honest).
So to force death on someone should never be our stand as a country. But to defend our grounds should always be our concern.
And, India has always defended itself in the past and will defend itself in the future. This country has its own intellect. Where it lies I cannot say, but surely not with the journalists of today. I fear that the role Japan’s army played at that time is replayed by our journalists today. Beware of them. Cashing in on emotions has become a business. And we are a fertile country full of emotions and passions.
Our strength is in standing despite the attack, and defending it till we die. Not in counterattacking with more power or more might. Not by killing more people. We become strong when we take a hit and still stand erect.
On an individual level, we are fighting on many fronts—career, family, society, community, to name a few. We all are people with different abilities and capacities, holding different positions. Here, my question is to the collective consciousness of our country: if there are two brothers, and the elder brother is mightier than the younger one, who do you think is in a better position to exercise the art of restrain?
Though it is not a complex mathematical equation, it still is so hard to solve.
Recently, I read this book named ‘Hiroshima’. It’s written by a Marathi writer भा. द. खेर in Marathi. I wish it gets translated in all Indian languages. Reading this book gave me this little understanding about wars—the escalating tensions and accelerating emotions, the falls, the rise, the gains (if any), the loses (many). It was a terrifying experience. But it somehow managed to shape my understanding and is helping me see the current state of affairs in a different light. I might be wrong though.
Okay, now coming to the point. I would like to share a few things with you. Let me state it straightaway:
“THERE SHOULD BE NO WAR.”
It kills innocent people. But if you think you are ready to pay that price, then let me offer you a better reason why you should restrain from war: it kills the innocence in you; it dehumanises you from within.
The United States took revenge for the Pearl Harbor attack by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We all know this. Some of us also have the technical knowledge of what happened, tactical knowledge of how it happened and political knowledge of why it happened and who was responsible for the tragedy. But in the end, it doesn’t matter how it happened and who was responsible. The important question is why it happened.
May be:
Because sometimes we are overambitious,
Because we take peace for granted,
Because we tend to forget history or maybe we lack the courage to read history with an equanimous mind and unbiased eyes.
War is a fanciful thing when we see it in films, but it’s ugly, hideous and dreadful on ground. Yes, we can all imagine that. But it becomes gruesome when you come face-to-face with it. The US then had newly invented atomic bombs. Today, we (India and other countries) have nuclear bombs. We have now advanced in every sector where defense is concerned. Things were different then and things are different now, but to my limited understanding of the book, people were same then and people are same now. Not many evil people died in Hiroshima, people like you and me died, children died, army persons died, laymen died and, most importantly, humans died.
I know death is inevitable. We can escape having a child, a failed relationship but not death. If life is a question (however beautiful), death is an answer (brutal and honest).
So to force death on someone should never be our stand as a country. But to defend our grounds should always be our concern.
And, India has always defended itself in the past and will defend itself in the future. This country has its own intellect. Where it lies I cannot say, but surely not with the journalists of today. I fear that the role Japan’s army played at that time is replayed by our journalists today. Beware of them. Cashing in on emotions has become a business. And we are a fertile country full of emotions and passions.
Our strength is in standing despite the attack, and defending it till we die. Not in counterattacking with more power or more might. Not by killing more people. We become strong when we take a hit and still stand erect.
On an individual level, we are fighting on many fronts—career, family, society, community, to name a few. We all are people with different abilities and capacities, holding different positions. Here, my question is to the collective consciousness of our country: if there are two brothers, and the elder brother is mightier than the younger one, who do you think is in a better position to exercise the art of restrain?
Though it is not a complex mathematical equation, it still is so hard to solve.
