Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Weep

Yes, life is cruel. Yes, it is extra-cruel in India. Where many people die unnecessarily from road accidents and curable diseases, and many children grow up stunted from malnourishment and no education. And there are all the twists of man exploiting man.

But there is an exceptional malice, it seems to me, in the terrorists' bombs.
Here is a glimpse of a life mutilated and snuffed out, in the bomb blast in Pune on February 13. Abhishek Saxena was a junior at engineering college and the hope of his widowed mother. We are told - that he was passionate about cars, with special inclination towards designing , research and mechanism. "Intensivist Vilas Gundecha, of Inlaks and Budhrani Hospital, said, Abhishek was admitted with severe injuries to the right leg, which required immediate amputation. Following that, he continued to bleed profusely and several rounds blood transfusions (25 bottles) had to be conducted over the past two days. As many as 15 students of D Y Patil College of Engineering , Akurdi, were ready to donate blood to save their friend Abhishek Saxena. But their prayers were not answered as he breathed his last on Tuesday."

In India, far too often reduce the victims of terror are reduced to statistics. A billion people, what's a few hundred lost here or there? I always believed, however, that development is the process of conversion of the masses into people. No one should be reduced to a statistic. At least read their names. Indians are typically named with the names of the divine, or else with names of divine attributes. So reading the names will be a form of prayer.