negative marking
i wake up to the news of my city, mumbai, under attack. the discussion between navin & me and the terrified look on my face while reading the newspaper draws abu to the newspaper too. i try to hide the horrid pictures from him while typing out text messages to friends and family.
abu – mamma, what happened?
me – mmm…
abu – pappa, what happened?
navin – bad uncles are shooting at people and throwing bombs at buildings.
abu – oh…
me (pre-empting his why) – and you know what, we don’t know why (wondering if even they know why)
abu – i know why. they want to kill someone in the building.
me – some times that is not how it is. they do this to scare everybody.
navin – see when you get angry at pappa, you throw a book. you don’t want to really throw a book, you just want to show pappa you are angry. just like that, these people are angry about something and they want everyone to know
me – and neither is a good thing. you shouldn’t throw a book and they shouldn’t be doing this.
navin – yeah, throwing book is -10 (minus 10) points and shooting people is -10,000 (minus ten thousand)
abu (puzzled look) – shooting people is more important than throwing book. it has to be -infinity means -never-ending, means minus till they die, minus when they are reborn also.
you b@$!^*%$, may this 6-year old’s ill-wishes reach you. may you be in the minus till you die and in the after-life too.
and from me – may your death be slow and painful. may the hands that get to torture you be pitiless and the most brutal around.
Afterlife???
Hell is the Taj, Trident, CST, Leopold’s and Mumbai!
To paraphrase Richard Dawkins, The hardest lesson for us to learn is that life is pitilessly indifferent to our suffering.
Also they don’t give a fuck about torture, pain, misery. Its what they expect. Its what they want. Its what they have probably already been through.
[…] negative marking […]
I want to lay my hands on those b*#*@$# even lil Abu agrees… I want to put my hands on those F*#(@
And yet Hans, I want them to suffer, according to what I call ‘suffering’. If that’s what they want, let them be wary of what they wish for. And any day, beats letting them die an easy death.
What they want??? Meeta even after the smoke clears, and despite the news media’s orgasmic coverage of the ‘details’ we will never really know what they want. The response SUFFER YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!!! Is a very real and reponse in the rawness of now… fine. What’s next? What can we as individuals living within our multiple contexts (call it culture, society, religion… etc etc etc) do? What happens once we start to REMEMBER 26/11 post the torrent of emotion… what do we teach our kids… onerous having children today, and my utmost respect and love for how you and navin handle them… what do we teach them? What response – and a response is demanded by Mumbai albeit miniscule – do we advocate for us… evolved, enlightened and base as we are… the search for this response is what fascinates me in the chaos of multiple responses by Govt., politicians and civil society as a whole… is that our response too? is this the way we will continue to respond? Will our response or riposte perpetuate the cycle of madness that exists… or will our response, miniscule as it is, WHERE WE ARE, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi Timbuctoo determine how we live our lives. Determine how our children live theirs… love you. H
of course H, this won’t be the only response. who knows what is the ‘right’ response? i’ve no clue how to react, when almost every morning in the last week, abu has been asking about the terrorists/terror/victims/ and get this – our leaders.
i know, i teach my kids to never start a fight, but slap right back and hard, if someone else tries to hurt you, especially physically. for the mental and emotional hurt caused…no-one can repair the damage done, even revenge doesn’t work. but that doesn’t keep me from showing my anger towards those who cause random terror.
yes, we need to look at the larger picture, we need to take a step back and find long-term solutions. but, when abu gives negative marking to them, i’m surely going to say he’s on the right track.
love you too,
meetu
out of the mouths of babes…
God bless little Abu and Rabad…