On the Death of a Visionary

When the world stood still to watch the demise of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, we the Shillongites - with our fancy cellphone cameras and loud mouths created a celebration of the sad moment. Yes, I was there and this, out of utter disgust, is what I have to say. 

At least, the crowd, gathered outside the hospital, where our beloved ex-president breathed his last, were present there and that is the least amount of satisfaction that I can get out of it. 

The only contention that has remained with me even after a year of the passing of such a great visionary is the fact that - we as humans of Shillong couldn't give him the fair amount of respect that he undoubtedly deserved, even at his death.

We shamed the memory of the man by sticking out those fancy cellphones and recording the entire event with flash lights on. Where was then, the civility and the mannerisms that we Shillongites, so astoundingly boast of?

Yet again when the world mourned the death of the great soul - there was yet another man who stood right beside me and was constantly engaged in exchanging verbal abuse and that too of a racist origin. A Journalist, who was the victim of the incident was being continuously harassed owing to the race he belonged to. All this, at the last journey of a man who was an epitome of national integration and unity. 

The country lost a great man and NO, climbing walls and pillars to record a video of his last journey cannot be accepted under any circumstances. A moments silence would be the least that we could have done. 

It's been a year now and you - Kalam Sir live in the hearts of all Indians. Seeking forgiveness is the least I can do, for I was also in that same crowd. Someday I believe we will change.   

 On the death of a visionary, died all civility but yes, I hope, I still hope for hoping for change is all I can do. 

This work by Subhajit Paul is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.