So poor Veer had to carry all the dirty linen to foreign shores to scrub it clean and righteously air it. Incidentally, this entire business of rather intimate and embarrassing washing and airing happened in public domain, naturally not being a storm in a tea cup, it triggered a massive furore and frenzy on the net for the netizens that is yet to die down. Eyeballs and tongues rolled mercilessly, different perspectives floated, countered, crashed, and this fruitless exercise lumbers on and yet in all this chaos comedy stands supreme.
For isn’t it funny how conveniently and collectively, we fail to acknowledge our flaws and we have plenty mind you, whether we are speaking of one India or two Indias or multiple Indias… yet, seriously show me one nation on this earth that’s perfect, that’s sans issues? Be it social, political, cultural you name it and these problems are probably there in varying intensity and degree, manifesting in different ‘avatars’. Certainly, I’m not adopting an ostrich approach to the problems on hand but, that does not obliviate the fact that each country has its pet peeves which it has to address and move forward.
This entire episode somehow reminds me of the words of Jesus, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone…” yes, we’re all in this together whether we like it or not, we mankind across geo-political lines have messed up and have miserably failed on multiple counts. Nonetheless, how many foreign nationals or artistes deem it fit to come to India to tell us their sob stories, in a rather ironically non comically comical manner… not many I suppose suffer from this acute urge to confess and seek validation from others. Yet, there will be exceptions.
However, now that we stand exposed, naked and made to feel small and impotent in the eyes of world, we once again reinforce the belief that we continue to be the ‘White man’s burden’ that as a nation we have failed to control and harness our innate sexual perversions, our inexplicable passions that only spells trouble and moreover our way of life that is obsolete, irrational and certainly a compelling reason for our collective failure that have reduced us to be a mere ’apology’ in the eyes of the world. His sense of comedy has in a way instantly invalided us; nonetheless he’s the ‘Veer, the Braveheart’ whose narrative has to be digested with a pinch nay oodles of salt.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, what is the outcome? Instant popularity for the comedian; an offer in some Hollywood movie or a jump in eyeballs? But what happens to the problems he highlighted apart from heated debates, disputes…? The urgency to address the same will die a natural death? The fact that we have innumerable laws and statutes, National and State Commissions, legal bodies and authorities do not absolve us from owing up to our failures, embracing the lack and working out the possibilities in reducing if not eliminating the woes plaguing our society. Let us stop judging, complaining and take up what the Father of our great nation advised ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’.
