The entire scenario around us can seem quite hopeless and suffocating at times. There are times when you feel ashamed to be a part of "the system" that fails to provide basic necessities of life to majority of the population. When that cute little kid with tired eyes asks you to buy balloons while you wait at the traffic stop, when you finish your meal at a restaurant and a small boy comes along to pick your dishes and clean the table, when you see those small rag-pickers going through the garbage- hard at "work" . We actually get to see two faces of life living side by side on a daily basis – the good one and the dreaded one. The rich seem to be getting richer and the poor seem to be getting poorer. Your blood boils. You scream out quite a few names at the government, to the system, console yourself saying that the system cannot be changed by a single idea - single man - single vision, let out a sigh and proceed towards that shopping mall for a good time – the irony of it all!
Quite a few famous names (Gandhi, Nehru, Mandela, Guevara, Hitler et al) walked these very lands, who in their lifetime, made a difference to the world (in a good or a bad way) and whose names remain recorded in the history books till date. Those people sure are important and right in their own way. But, for me, the one person, who personifies the power vested in a single individual, who represents true democracy in it’s purest form is the Tank man. He is some one who continues to intrigue me till date. Nobody knows who he is for sure till date, people still debate about his identity, and people still continue to remain in awe of him.
Till June 5, 1989, he was a nobody, just another face in the crowd, joining protest against his government for a noble cause and suddenly becoming internationally famous during the Tiananmen Square protests. He came, he spoke, he waved his hands around and he disappeared in the crowd again. Those were his five minutes of fame. He never came back to reclaim the fame bestowed upon him. People still are not sure as to who The Unknown Rebel was and that will remain one unanswered question for a long time to come – Deep Throat took 30 odd years to reveal his identity after all! Well, as for me, I respect the fact that he did not falter when it mattered. He spoke his mind out – even if it was for two minutes. He was not just another spectator in that huge crowd, booing and crying out cat calls, while the tanks were driving along. He tried to do something about it – whether it worked or not –well, does not matter. Seriously, how many of us have that sort of guts?
For me, the influence that Tank Man has on people till date is in itself inspiring. At the risk of sounding preachy and cliched, I’ d like to say that this fact somehow reinstalls my faith in the fact that the voice of an individual CAN matter – we don’t have to be just another face in the crowd. We can be heard – we can make a difference –it is totally our choice to remain deaf, dumb and blind to all the atrocities and wrongdoing we see happening around us – we don’t have anyone to blame for that. When did we grow this numb to all of it? When did the system take over? Does none of us want to do anything about it? Do we just want to remain a spectator in the crowd, while some one else decides the way of life for us?
High time, we started speaking out. High time, we start trying to make way for a better tomorrow. At times, myopic vision towards life is good, but the big picture needs to be in sight always. That was the whole purpose (or rather the necessity) behind the conceptualization of the system of democracy – to make individuals matter – to keep the entire process of governance of the country as personal as possible. When did we allow democracy to loose it’s true essence? Do we have some one to blame for that? You don’t know us sir – we, the Indians (like our politicians) love to play the blame game - we are like this only (subtext: and we are proud of it!)
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