Ours is a nation beseiged by numerous evils and plagued by unspeakable horrors masquerading in the name of good governance, industrial growth, religion, quality education and so forth.
Historically, we are known to be the country who has never once invaded any other country. But this non-greedy tactic has made us slave to dynasties and even mere merchants and traders for years.
Every generation has it’s own hurdles to cross and it’s own crises points to overcome. For my generation, most of these obstacles are self-created. Wallowing in self-pity and moaning over the myriad ways in which life has chosen to be unfair to us, it is as if we invite mental disorders.
Talking to an octogenarian and hearing her recount the horrors of Partition was an experience in itself. How during the Bangladesh War of 1971 she and her friends would sneak off across the border to help people flee and how they would go into the refugee camps to take them rations to survive. She spoke of lying flat in paddy fields while enemy planes flew above. She mentioned the famine-ridden souls who used to come begging for just the liquid starch leftover from boiling rice.
And I thought of my generation. A generation that has neither seen war, nor famine, nor any military uprising or real crisis of any sort. A generation that has not even known fear or what true cruelty looks like. They say that the stress remains in the system and gets passed down via generations. What we have not inherited in grit we have inherited in anxiety and depression. No wonder we make up our own issues and want to kill ourselves before our time.
I don’t blame us……or maybe I do!