i am blood

A trickle of blood
drained, castrated,
of life.
Flows towards me
to suck me in.

To eat into
another life.

Blood inside me,
outside me,
around me.

I flail.

Then

I drown.

Then

I am red.

Bloody red.
I am blood.

Rang de Basanti

Fresh blood of India is asking.

“The truth must come out, and if it has to come out this way, then let it be. We are ready for it.” a young girl says belligerently in the end.

“This is India, and it works like this. You can’t change it.” denies a voice.

“If we got to change the system, we need to change ourselves first. Who are the politicians? Where do they come from? We elect them. From among ourselves. We too are corrupt.” provokes another young man.

“We will change it; will join police, IAS, politics, and would change the system.” exclaims someone.

“They have ignited it, and we would not let it fuss out like this.” charges another boy.

And then, a storm takes shape that would now change the shape of India. Yeah. This is how “Rang de basansti” comes to my mind.

This is a movie, not about any social reforms, or revolution, or anything. Rather it’s a typical selfish, buoyant, and individualistic movie, where men have few personal grievances that they must score even. And if in that path, something of national importance comes in – that’s added gravy, a purely un-thought bonus.

They fought a vicious fight against the people because of whom one of their friends was killed. (un)fortunately, those people happened to be our politicians. They killed one minister and then thought that people would come to know about the truth. But things didn’t go their way.

The minister became an Icon and the forces that assassinated him were euphemized as “foreign terrorists.”

So these boys went to All India Radio and enamored its late night program where they confessed about their deeds and expected (naïve innocence) that at least then the people would see the facts.

But, again things went differently. They were attacked by armed forces and were all killed in the radio station.

The whole episode leaves us with two questions.

1. Which is supreme – a personal (selfish) cause or a social (unselfish) cause? For what a man can rise beyond fear, death… beyond everything?

2. Does it really need a bomb to make a deaf listen to you?

What do you ask?

Questions, questions?