“An old man shivered in the dark/Who had no bread to eat/Echoed the watchman’s cry/”All’s well”.
Along the empty street/The watchman passed a silent house/Wherein a child had died/A candle burned against the pane/”All’s well!”, the watchman cried”.
Through Miriam Vedder’s classic early 20th century poem “The Watchman” (highly relevant in India of “Good Days”), we have come to know that even if an old man shivers in the dark without any bread to eat or the home has fallen silent following the death of their child; the watchman of the neighbourhood will continue to announce with deep conviction “All’s well”! “Mere” hunger and vulnerability of the poor hungry old man or owes of the bereaved family hardly move the watchman; he is only interested in imposing a sense of “wellness” upon all by sweeping all miseries and plight of common human beings under the carpet!
But will such one-sided announcement of “All’s well” indeed land all things or persons in the state of wellness! Certainly not. It is not possible.
In the same vein, just bold bombardment of “Good Days” and forced discovery of India’s “enviable growth” “progress” and “international respect” will not magically vanish the hard tough reality of unfathomable helplessness and miseries of billions of Indians! Just “elitism” of attaining Mars orbit/”might” of performing mass Yoga on streets/”pride” of hosting giant statues/”glamour” of Bullet trains can never allow the innumerable hapless jobless hungry poverty-stricken malnourished unhealthy unsecured homeless speechless(when freedom of expression gets throttled) Indians to respond joyously to the heartless slogan of “All’s well”! All ills can be cleverly swept under the “nationalist” carpet; but how can the pangs of hunger and untreated physical/psychological wounds be healed from body and heart of the suffering lot day in and day out that includes the victims of trafficking as well as child and bonded labour!
And this is the reason why in last 5 years of much zealously projected “Good Days”, India has dropped from 117th to disastrous 140th out of 156 nations in World Happiness Report released by UN! Loss of 23 points in 5 “golden” years!
What a fall! What a fall! Yet “all’s well that’s what the watchman said in the Miriam Vedder poem!
If authorities are indeed serious to make India a nation of happy people; then it should devote maximum resource energy and time to create jobs, make education and health people-friendly from current status of “business opportunities”, ensure absolute freedom of speech as well as linguistic rights instead of scandalously immersing in pro-rich Bullet train projects, meaningless statue and flag construction and rabid communalism.
Let Finland, Denmark, Norway be our ideal; not Yemen, Syria or Botswana. Let India be a happy nation where all languages and religions are accorded equal honour, respect and opportunities of growth; where people can freely exercise their mind without fear of getting branded “anti-national” and where all people are accorded all basic necessities of life with security and dignity.
