I went through the troubling and traumatic description of the events that happened to our community before, during and after 1984. I share the trauma on the loss of human life and dignity. What happened was unjust, unfair and unfortunate. They were and are acts of barbaric, inhuman lust directed against a particular community, which happened to be the community that I belong to, unfortunately. Even if it was directed towards any other community, which has been the case in India for times immemorial, it would have been as traumatic.

The Bombay riots in which thousands of Muslims were killed is equally troubling and unfortunate for me. As are any riots in India or elsewhere in the world. Any form of misery. Whether it is the middle east conflict in which scores of people are dying everyday including women and children, or whether it is 20 years of drought and famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, where mothers who don't have food to even produce milk in their bodies to feed their infants watch them die a slow death in front of their own eyes. There is a whole bunch of misery in this world that just getting such things into your mind's vision shakes your heart dry.

Coming back to India. The country is made of the people that live there. What kind of country is a good country?? What kind of government is a good government?? Which country would you say has been successful as a nation?? Has India been successful as a nation??

There are numerous such questions that we can test India with. And more often than not India will come out without passing. But the fundamentals of this country are strong. The fundamentals on which this country was founded are the fundamentals that I would like to be associated with. Of democracy, of secularism, of equality of status and opportunity. JUSTICE, social, economic and political... LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship...

These are the fundamentals mentioned in the preamble of our constitution. This makes me an Indian. These fundamentals I like and make India my own country. Now that India is my own country, has it been successful in executing this vision mentioned in its constitution? No. Far from it. And it has been frustrating and emotionally draining at times. When the country cannot ensure and live up to the standards its people are expecting out of it, it is frustrating. But what is a country?? Is it the landmass? Or is it the people living in it??? I think we have failed ourselves as a nation. We have failed to ensure the execution of the aforementioned in our constitution.

What do we do about it?? Should we quit the realm of our country and try to pound it from outside or try to break it and extract our portion because we think that as a portion we get we will be better off?? Or should we stay within and work to remove the illnesses plaguing OUR country. Which is the easier way?? I think breaking up is the easier way. What did we end up with in the formation of Pakistan??? It was based on a religious principle. Jinnah wanted a separate homeland for the Muslims because Muslims being a minority were an oppressed community in India. India has more Muslims than Pakistan right now. Which of them is in a better state? Was Pakistan successful as a nation in ensuring that its people get what they expected out of this separation?

It is so easy to bring down a building. But constructing one takes a long time and sweat and blood. We have a building standing and lots of time, sweat and blood has gone into erecting this structure. It's haggard, it's languishing, and it's ugly from quite a few sides. But its up and we have to beautify it.

What do we do when we have a headache?? We ask somebody to press it right?? It spreads out the pain and we feel better... That's what we have to do to - spread out the pain in our community or ourselves. If we do not press it by looking at other miseries and events and instances, we concentrate it so much that our head explodes with extreme views and ideas, the sparks of fundamentalism.