A Tale Of Two Cities

A city rejoiced...a city wept.Thousands of people went berserk with glee while thousands others suffered in mute agony.Two cities.Separated by a few hundred kilometres.And yet,a world apart tonight.
It was about seven thirty in the evening when I switched on the television and was horrified,albeit for a minute,at the gruesome deaths caused due to the serial blasts in Jaipur.The news channels reported in sickening unison and enthusiasm that there had been a stampede in the walled city area and an "unknown" number of people were dead.The macabre images showed pools of blood on the streets,mangled bodies heaped up on the sides and crushed vehicles and debris of shops....a normal evening when something had gone horribly,horribly wrong.

I didn't however,have time to watch the coverage or express anguish,if only to myself...I had finer things to do.I had to cheer on SRK's Knight Riders as they took on a highly fancied side at the Eden Gardens...ironic name!It was "my" city playing against "their" city.And we were baying for blood.The match was touted as the "clash of the titans" and there wasn't a soul in this bustling metropolis who wasn't shouting their heart out.The match,as the commentators said,was a matter of "life and death"!

For the whole 4 hours of the match,I sat glued to the television,not for one moment thinking about catching the news about the victims of the dastardly attack.Saurav's spell or Shoaib's speed was way more important....Kolkata won the duel.We all were elated...The city rejoiced.Kolkata had won..."Our"city had won...We partied,we danced,some of us even drank to the victory.

That didn't bother me...what bothered me,although in hindsight,was my response.I had chanced a glance at the news bar that proclaimed that 50 were dead in the attacks..and I had instantly thought.."Oh well,it isn't a major attack,so few are killed...we'll catch it later".What bothered me was every one's response...The people at Eden,to be fair,were in the dark.But had they known,would it have mattered?After all,most news channels seemed more intent on knowing whether Jaipur would host the next IPL match,keeping in view,the crucial standings on the league table...
What bothered me was my exasperation at seeing every channel covering the attacks and not one praising my Saurav.I was frankly vexed...

But I needn't have worried.India is far too smart to get entwined in emotional matters for too long...withing an hour of the attack,channels broadcasting out of Calcutta had switched over to Eden and the national channels followed suit after another hour.Jaipur was reduced to just a footnote....Celebration attracted much more TRPs than weeping grandmothers lamenting the death of their only grandson.
Bombay in 1993 was different.We were shocked then.we are indifferent now.The fact that people used bombs to kill others and mutilate their own brethren was nauseating to us.Now,the fact that so "few" people were killed amazes us.As one correspondent said,it was another pearl in a string of terrorist strikes...we have grown so thick skinned and insensitive that the loss of human life doesn't bother us anymore...it is more of a statistic."Oh,only 10000 killed in China?That is less than Myanmar,isn't it?"we judge tragedies by the number of casualties.And we excel in forgetting the victims,leaving them on the way,helpless and smartly moving on.

The New India has arrived,ladies and gentlemen.And so have the new Indians.Where one city's devastation is second hand news in another...Where deaths do not qualify for attention over celebrities...where our lives can do without these sombre moments of sorrow.As I had said earlier,one city rejoiced while one wept...and the sad thing is that the nation rejoiced with the city of joy and told Jaipur to weep alone.