Mumbai Massacre

By Rang Emei Gonmei *

It's difficult to comprehend the mindlessness of such sinful acts by individuals and groups whose life views are warped by communalism, politics, religion,....... Sometimes I wish there were no religions at all .... after all they are man-made. Religion taints every aspect of life .....

Most ''wise' people say that religions by themselves are altruistic in their goals & purposes. I don't agree at all. Its plain for all to see that feelings of insecurity, contempt & hatred for ''others'' stem from religion. Everyone says all religions lead to the same one universal God.

But in their heart of hearts, no one believes that. They only pretend to. Given a sliver of a chance, most people would sermonize others on how good their own religions are.

I for one, being a Baptist, do not believe that Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism or any other religion advocates the exact same values & life principles as Christianity does. I do not know for sure that being a good Christian will definitely lead me to 'heaven' & ''everlasting life'', though I would like to believe it would..... that's why i'm still a Christian.

It's difficult for me to imagine a scenario wherein I a'm in a 'Christian Heaven''(after life on earth) and I see a fellow Muslim or a Hindu or a Sikh walking into the same Christian heaven! And I don't think any Christian would be able to imagine such a scenario ...... because everyone must come only through Christ......without exceptions whatsoever.

Some may say that there is a heaven for each religion. If so, does it mean that our post-earth life existence will be separated forever .....based on our religious beliefs? How strange religions are. And I a'm sure the same applies to a fellow Hindu or a fellow Muslim ..... they, too, do not know... though they, too, would like to believe that their beliefs will lead them to ''salvation'' or ''heaven' or ''eternal life' or whatever they'd like to call it.

And so ...... the killings go on all across the world ...... holy wars .... jihads ..... to! save ou r religions & brethrens of our faiths ..........to save the world from the ''unholy' influences of other religions..... and to protect our lands from intruders of other faiths (& infidels) & from people of other races.

Well, maybe the Mumbai massacre may not be directly linked to any religious causes ........ it may be an act driven by sheer existential frustration ................ But whatever the motives ........it ultimately comes round to differences in perceptions & beliefs of the unknown.

Its amazing how intelligent, clever & wise we human beings are ........ But at times I think man is so much more stupid than he is intelligent or wise. And I think most human beings are pre-programmed to be drawn more towards destruction than creation. On this, God (the Christian God) himself piloted the trend .... total, absolute destruction.... by causing the great flood that wiped out all life on earth (The Bible : Genesis).

Destructive actions .... explosive violence.... mass killings ..... blood...gore.... the grotesque..... these are exciting, thrilling stuff.... they get the adrenalin rushing inside. All these Hollywood .... & Bollywood movies...... filled with mindless violence.... we revel in it.

Drawing blood .....the sight of blood is... oh so exciting. I think there's a li'l Dracula in all of us! And I think we humans are so very weak & insecure that we constantly need to keep assuring & re-assuring ourselves (albeit falsely) that we are more powerful than others around us .... by inflicting pain/ injury on other men, animals & things around us.

We are so mean & selfish that we have to feel superior, in 'control' .... all the time. This side of human nature is so very ugly...... But most of us are so damn blind to it ...... we just can't look at ourselves from the outside. It's so very difficult to do that.

Almost all of us have a one-way mental vision...... we can look out .... but we just can't look in..... I guess only comedians (those lucky people species with a sense of humor) can do that.... Everyone is relieved that it's finally over.

But it's obvious that those killers got what they came for ...... many innocent lives ..... and the entire world's absolute attention for a full 60 hours. It's so ridiculous .... it took thousands of security personnel just to neutralise 10 killers.

So .......moral of the story? ......there's no room at all for political complacency...... or complacency of any kind, for that matter. That, not even the smallest entity's voice can be left unheard....... Maybe that's what those guys were trying to say ......

Having realised that their voices weren't being properly heard by the powers that be, they let the guns do the talking. ............. The killers may not have won ...... but the fact is... the State lost.

What is the government going to do now? Go on a long, wild goose chase of course...... beating about the bush of the labyrinthine maze of international terror networks of a bewildering magnitude & complexity.....

The mud-slinging has started....as usual......... Rich food for the media....atleast for a couple of weeks... or maybe a couple of months. Soon the incident will fade from public memory (which is usually amazingly short)......

till the next time......