Saugata Chatterjee, Bangalore, February 6, 2009

"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." Julius Caesar, Act I, Scn II.

On February 6, 2009, Saugata and his friends were brutally assaulted by a group of goons who specifically targeted the women among the persons present. Saugata and his friends were standing outside a pub in the evening when the - feeble word - incident occurred. The women were verbally abused and struck in the belly, breasts and kicked in the groin. The men trying to defend them were mercilessly beaten. Predictably, the assailants turned out to be on first name terms with the police, and it was the victims, not the criminals, who were arrested. Although they were subsequently released and not detained in custody, the police proved - again predictably - reluctant to register a complaint, citing reasons as laughable as Saugata not being fluent in Kannada, even though the report was to be written in English.

What can one say in a commentary on a situation - again, feeble word! - like this? I am outraged. I am furious. But there is more - there is a desire to say the most brutal things as frankly as possible, to use words like fists and nails and swords, smashing and clawing at the armour of complacency that we have worn for so long. There is the desire repeatedly to expose the rot within, till the stench assails our inured senses, till our stomachs heave, till it becomes impossible to live within the putrefying bubble of our own indifference. We have ceased to feel the bile in our throats at such injustice; we have learned to live finished, glossy lives where all that is ugly and real is deemed not to exist.

Please, no more.

Our politicians are criminals - sometimes they win elections from jail cells.

Our police force is a joke, a brigade of Bozos, a body of men - mostly of men - who are feared by the common people for very real reasons. No-one in her right mind would ever approach the Indian police for protection.

Women in our country have been second-class citizens for as long as I can remember.

The rule of law in our country is evocative of nothing but laughter.

We are a disengaged, craven nation, a consumerist zombiehood that is impervious to most things that don't offer immediate gratification.

Eliot knew what he was talking about when he spoke of "the hollow men."

It is true that one cannot continue to function in a white heat of anger at injustices like the one mentioned above. Very well, then - let the heat be replaced by a cold fury, a clenched determination to do everything in our power - and our power is considerable - to ensure that there is not a repeat of February 6, that people can stand in a public road with their friends without fearing attacks for which the law, the government, the state, offers no remedy but mockery and indifference.

Write letters, form groups, post on blogs, email your friends. Send chappals to the elected officials of Karnataka with a note to hang them around their necks when they go to work.

Throw your shoes. It could be done to Bush, and it can be done to these travesties of humanity who rule us.

http://vishshanker.sulekha.com/blog/post/2009/02/this-happened-in-bangalore-bengaluru-shocking.htm