We are sad but United – Jai Hind!

During the last three days we have witnessed the gruesome and dastardly terrorist acts that took 180 innocent lives in Mumbai. Did they deserve to die..? Did their families deserve the sadness and the unexpected void that would continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives..? Did those innocent children who lost their parents deserve the loneliness these cruel animals handed over to them? No. they didn’t..! There were Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Parsis, and Sikhs amidst the dead and the bereaved? It is time we realized that sorrow like joy has no religion but a deep sense of irreparable loss….and the eternal silence that it creates in a family which is forced to live with that silence..Like all of us, they too deserved a life of joy, of peace and of harmony and like us, they too desired to live life to its full and not to be deprived of it suddenly. Did they deserve it..? No. They didn’t..!

We are a nation of 1 Billion people! 1 Billion Minds and 1 billion ideas and more. We speak over 250 languages between us yet today the only language we speak is that of undiluted sorrow. My dear friends, the time has come for us to grow up beyond our religions and our political faiths. Now is the time to react and respond to the global menace which is all set to envelop our country, our rich and proud country whose diversity is its religion and its imperfections, its perfections, its cosmopolitan and coexistent ideologies, its binding forces, its volume, its strength and we, its people the most treasured of all treasures! Can we shred off our faiths to mourn for our countrymen whose lives were snatched off them by the terrorists whose determination to break us apart has to be dealt with together..

Can we wriggle out of our nonchalant approaches to shed a tear or two for our valiant soldiers who laid down their proud lives to safeguard us…Can we think of ways and means to speak to the world and especially the forces who believe that destruction is the only way they can spoil our harmony, our coveted national pride and above all our oneness as Indians. We need to rise above the ordinary to create a feeling of togetherness among us. Let us on this day pledge that we will never discriminate our fellow human beings in the name of caste, creed or religion. Let us today decide to stand united in our struggle to achieve what our forefathers dreamt of in a united India…an India that is all poised to become a super power. Let our togetherness begin a thought stream that would ignite the fire of patriotism amongst our peers and let us together make our dreams of a building a modern, united progressive, economically and socially independent India, a reality.

Let us on this day salute the spirit of being a truly nationalist Indian. Let us bear the colors of our tricolors in our heart and believe that the blood of innocents are our own….Jai Hind!