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Disconnected?



I was startled to receive an invitation to participate in Egypt's national uprising against their government led by President Hosni Mubarak. What could I, an Indian, do about the issue while sitting at my desk in New Delhi while people continued to bleed to death in Cairo demanding food, a right to better health, jobs and an overall upliftment from poverty? I tried but I simply could get my thoughts in place to get along with my day as if nothing had happened. I started reading up about the situation in Cairo and Suez and as the images began to show me the face of rebellion, I knew that there had to be something, someway to connect.

I write this post on my blog as a beginning, to register my voice along with a million others against violence of any form in any part of the planet. The story of Egypt is not the first I feel deeply connected to right now, I will not forget the riots of Jammu and Kashmir last year. While the rest of the country was basking in the joys of football, an eight-year-old I knew was burnt alive with her family. The shocking realisation of how fragile a life I lead hadn't soaked my soul in completion before I found ways and means to distract myself yet again.

On most occasions I wonder if I am among those very few people who have a serious issue with violence, especially violence towards the generally unconcerned mass. But I also feel that the rage I feel inside me at this moment will soon subside and I will yet again, resign the fate of this world to a higher power - completely overlooking the fact that the higher power installed in me the hope of a better tomorrow. So what will it be? Will I go back to the workstation and forget about the thousands of people who continue their struggle for a dignified life? Will I say my prayers for them so that they may attain peace? What will I do? I do not know... I am yet to understand.


Photos: Mariam Solayman, a member of an Egyptian activist group, shouts anti-government slogans in front of a police cordon during a demonstration outside the press syndicate in central Cairo on January 27, 2011. Demonstrations demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981, have raged since Tuesday in several Egyptian cities, with the biggest clashes in Cairo and Suez. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

A protester runs in front of a burning barricade during a demonstration in Cairo January 28, 2011. Police and demonstrators fought running battles on the streets of Cairo on Friday in a fourth day of unprecedented protests by tens of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

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