Prologue
What happened in a bus in Delhi shook the conscious of the peoples of India. It also moved every sensitive soul on the Earth. Barbaric is the closest English word to describe the act, but it is nowhere near what actually happened. My friend Jaggi Oberoi was moved beyond tears. He was reminded of horror Movie, “The silence of the Lamb” It is based on a novel of the same title published in 1991. For those, who may not have read the book and also not seen the film, it is the story of a detective from the FBI who is tasked to study a psychic who is a serial killer. It is a chilling story with a moving climax. For those who may like to know more about the film, a link to the review is given below”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(film)

The promo of the film was depicted by the following picture,

Now, over to Jaggi Oberoi…

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS  -        JS Oberoi

The Mayan calendar said that the world would end on the 21 Dec 2012 – it didn’t. It ended on 23 Dec 2012 – at least for one young woman inIndia. Call her “Nirbhaya”, “Damini’, “Amanat” or “brave heart and a daughter ofIndia–Indiahas to hang its head in shame. Not because one young girl was brutally raped and murdered but because we are a hypocritical society – we have to look inwards and we know that is true. Recently I was asked to look at the world – indeed nature and God itself on relativistic scale. So let me address God in the first person – the views are personal to me.

I was very little when I first heard of you. The mother who carried me from your arms and delivered me to this world fondly looked upon me one day and said, “You are God’s miracle”. My baby heart merely saw the tenderness in her eye. I gurgled and gave her a toothless smile in acknowledgment.

My adolescent years in my family were filled with your stories. Stories that wove more magic for me than any fairy tale could. Story of an elephant whose impassioned cry had you running to save him from the jaws of a crocodile. Of a Draupadi who sought ultimate refuge in you to save her honour and your gift of the endless robe to her. Of little Prahlad whose innocent faith compelled you to take the form of Narasimha, the half-man half-lion.

The entire world was your creation, I was told. You, the cosmic dancer, and the Universe, your eternal dance. Right from the little ant to the mighty mountain, a tiny trembling leaf to the deep forests, the bubbling brooks, to the hushed deserts, the silent stones, to the chirping birds, the skies, the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, women and children – they were all fragments of your dance. That you longed for it, and delighted in it.

I wanted to see you – to hear you. I could, they said. Hear a bird sing, they said, or the wind whistle. See a flower bloom, they said, or a star twinkle – and you could be seen – you could be heard. For starters, said the Mother: “Love all and beloved yourself. Give your all so you are never wanting. Be kind and the world’s compassion will fill you. You will see him then”.

The child’s heart believed all. I grew up in faith. Got on with life. And the innocent toothless smile was lost in the furrows of hope and despair – of depression and delight. Alas the world was not all about stars and flowers. It was about power. Of pelf, politics, polemics. I had read in school of your promise that the meek shall inherit the earth – I saw instead the powerful hijack the earth. The meek simply perished.

I heard them wage wars in your name and slaughter your creation. Tyrants, thinkers, theologists, politicians, scientists, ideologists – they came in as many garbs as you had names – they christened you and rechristened you as and when it suited them. They chained you to the temple and pulled down the mosque. Fettered you to the mosque and marauded a temple.

I saw the magic of your stories turn black as they butchered innocent people in selfish wars. Exploded bombs to bargain and blackmail. Consigned widows to the funeral pyres of their husbands. Killed little girls in the womb of life.

I am told again and again that positive thoughts bring about positive action – perhaps that is true for there are still many stories not covered by our media where people have devoted their entire lives for the good of others – for just causes. About 300 plus years ago the ninth Guru of the Sikhs Teg Bahadur and the tenth Guru Gobind Singh sacrificed their lives and much more for the just and righteous causes – much like what we need to do now in our society. The bird still sings – then why don’t we hear you in the song. The star too twinkles in the sky – but why don’t we see you in the sparkle.

I am sure you’re still there just like you have been over the eons – they say so in the Vedas, the puranic verses extol your virtues – why do we miss your song and music in our everyday lives. I am sure some wise minds amongst our readers will be able to explain it in the “Kalyug” and “Karma” theories. I can only think of one response – when will we start to let our voice be heard -  the silence of the lambs has become a deafening shriek.

“When all else has been tried, and yet justice is not in sight;

It is right to pick up the sword, and it is right, then, to fight.

The time, to come out against this evil that has corroded every string of our moral fibre, has come – every one of us has to take action as he deems fit to fight against evil.

Epilogue

Countless men and women are murdered in the world. Thousands of women are molested and assaulted. The difference in this case is that the braveheart (whatever be her name) did not give up. She went down fighting, till the very end. An immortal composition by Guru Gobind Singh expresses this spirit exactly:

Deh Shiva bar mohe ihai                             (Grant me this boon, O Shiva!)
shubh karman the kabhu na taroo         (May I never shy away from righteousness)
Na daroo ar siyoo jab jah laroon            (Without fear, when I go to fight a war)
Nischai kar apni jeet koroon                    (With resolute determination, claim victory)
Ar Sikh hao apne hi mum ko                    (May Thy glory be ingrained in my mind)
Eh lalch hou guna tau uchroo                  (My greatest ambition is to sing Thy praise)
Jab aav ki audh nidhann banay               (When this mortal life is threatened at last)

At hi rann me tab joojh maroo                (May I die fighting with limitless courage)

These epochal words have been rendered by Jagjit Singh in his absolutely inimitable voice and musical composition. Click below, if you have two minutes to spare.