Krishna Ni Begane Baaro!

This devotional song in Kannada has been playing in my head all day today....

Krishna Ni Begane Baaro!
Begane Baaro, Nina Mukhavane tooro!

Loosely translated in English this means, Krishna please come fast... please come fast and show me your face...

Here the Lord Krishna's mother is calling her child to come to her fast, stop hiding and show his face. Given the scenario in our country, the context in which I would like to use this, is the one role played by Krishna in Mahabharata...he became "Saarathi" or charioteer to Arjuna and guided him when he lost his will to fight in the battle field. The need of the hour is a Krishna who will help is find our way in this battlefield at a time when we are slowly losing our will to fight in the face of the degeneracy of politics, apathy, rampant corruption...each one of us at the moment is like Arjuna who has lost his will to fight...we do not vote because we think "Oh, what is the point, we have to choose between two crooks, anyways!!!"...we do not stand up for our rights...just bow our heads and look the other way when we see something wrong. Gandhiji’s principles have been badly distorted out of context. I am sure he meant well when he said, “Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil”...but the way things are progressing is taking it a bit too far!!!

Take what is happening in Mumbai at the moment...I have been following it closely on TV all day...this entire thing is like a badly made Bollywood potboiler...bad guys come by boat...take hostages in the poshest hotels...good cops die...governments silent, there was not a peep from the state government till sometime in the afternoon....news channel having a field day, disclosing all the strategic plans and giving a live telecast of what our police and commandos are doing and while they are at it reminding the viewer that "we got this information first"...the world shocked at the way things are being handled...England's Cricket team gets an excuse to rat it from the country after the Indian Team beat the crap out of them and they are citing "security reasons" whilst trying to cancel the rest of the tour...

The Chief Minister holds a press conference and sleep-walks his way through it mumbling something about there being no hostage situation, claiming that the people have just locked themselves into the rooms...all this when the news channels have been screaming themselves hoarse since last night that the terrorists have taken 40 foreign nationals hostage...then our PM comes on AIR around five in the evening...what in heaven’s name has he been doing all day!!!...this address should have come last night... latest by the early hours of morning!!!!...the address should have been something on the lines of boosting the sagging morale of not only our heroes (the army, police and NSG) who were fighting for our safety inspite of the loss of their chief officers, but also to the nation as a whole...but what do we get out of him...he goes on to condemn the attacks...some more incoherent mumbling about reforms on some crap policies....saluting our fallen heroes, stricter Anti-terrorism laws... but no talk as to what is he going to do next...the whole thing proceeded from him like he was talking about some blasts that have happened in another part of the world!!!

This is what is missing in us at the moment...the passion...but, I refuse to lose faith in the Indianess that is an unshakeable part of our mental make-up...one day or the other this Indianess which is hiding behind cowardice and apathy will come to the fore and I know in my heart that day is not far...it is in desperate times like this that a HERO emerges...This is why I say what we want now is not only a HERO but a "Saarathi" like Krishna... who will guide the HERO in the right direction... and lead India to her rightful place in the world scene!!!

Jai Hind!!!