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| The dumb and the dumbers |
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Samosa, chutney, Samsung mobiles, black leather purse- these are just a few
of the long list of items that are meant to help the people in distress. Yes,
you no longer need traits like honesty, hard work and confidence to fight the
problems. You no longer need the belief in god and his strange ways to overcome
the grief and sorrow that has hit you hard. You no longer need medicines and a
good doctor to cure the disease that has been plaguing you or your near and
dear ones. No, you do not.
Confused? Thinking why?
Well apparently because, India has suddenly become a swarg, a Valhalla, a
mount Olympus sort of place where gods are descending in droves to take care of
their poor followers.
Great, isn’t it?
But here is the catch. In today’s materialistic society, even gods have
turned capitalist. Now you will not be saved just because you need to be. Help
comes at a price too. You need to shelve out atrocious charges just to see your
gods, solutions to your problems cost extra.
Welcome to the world of Nirmal baba & Radhey maa.
Born normal, fed normal and grown normal, they lived a normal life until one
day their inner gods were awakened by some sort of unexplainable phenomenon.
And lo and behold, began the business of help. One morning they were nothing,
just another face in the crowd and BANG!! The next you know their faces were
all over the world media.
Why? Because people apparently are so desperate and idiotic at the same
time, that if someone were to tell them that the only solution to their problem
was to donate all their property to the trust of a said god, they will happily
do so. And it is not just the poor and middle class who fall prey to them. Even
so called celebrities, the upper echelon of the society bow down in front of
them (though I can understand their fascination for Radhey maa, she comes with
makeup and all and dances around with her disciples but Nirmaljeet sure is no
Hercules). People are so fooled by them that they do not even bother to think
about the modus operandi of these ‘gods’.
Let us see. Nirmal baba books an air conditioned auditorium, charges 2000
Indian rupees as entry pass, arrives in a luxury car, walks over a carpet, sits
on a throne(a lavish one) and speaks whatever the hell he wants to. And people
go all teary eyed and choke as they listen to him blabber like an idiot.
Radhey maa, on the other hand, is an interesting one. All she does is dance and dance,
while his followers take turns lifting her up in their embrace. Wait, am I
talking about a so called incarnation of Durgaa maa? ‘Cause it sure looks like
I am talking about some cheap dance bar, like they show in movies. Yes, she
actually does that and even celebs throng to her cheap show to get her
blessings. (Where the hell is bajrang sena and vishwa Hindu parishad now? Are
their culture policing restricted only to 14
th Feb?).
These 2 are just the tip of an iceberg and definitely the sleaziest ones in
the market. There are many more who claim to have forsaken all the
materialistic pleasures, claim to have gods on hotline, some even claiming to
be gods themselves.
Aasaram bapu, Narayan sai, mata jasjeet, mata amritanandmayi, the list is
just endless.
But the big question that comes to mind is ‘WHY?’ Why are these people so
successful? Why are masses still falling in their trap?
And the more I think, the more I observe people, the more I listen to them
in real and on TV(excluding dolly bindra because trust me she is a publicity
seeker.), the more I read about them in newspapers there is one and only one
explanation. Only one inference I can come to and that is ‘we are sick’.
Yes we Indians are mentally sick, we are depressed and disappointed. We have
no hopes and no way out of the situation we are in. all the stories of growth
and GDP mean zilch to us because we are degrading. As a country we are failing.
There is so much corruption, crime, exploitation around that we cling on to any
straw that we think can keep us from drowning, only problem is what we perceive
as a straw is a ruse. It is an iron weight about to drown; we cling to it and
go down with it, deeper and deeper. We have lost all hopes in seeing the
glorious past, we all read in history books about, getting resurrected. We know
deep within that we are doomed and we are now just going through motions of
life like dead men walking. No, we Indians are not idiots,
au contraire, we are
exact opposites. It’s just that we have lost hope. Hope in all things good.
HOPE IN HOPE ITSELF.
