Are we in an Emergency?

For someone who is decidedly uninformed about politics - I don't even read newspapers - it was more with curiosity that I took up to read Kuldeep Nayar's account of the Indian Emergency - the behind the scenes, blow by blow of what really triggered it, who gained, and who lost through it. No wonder the book was banned and he was jailed at the time...

That slim volume hardly enables me to comment knowledgeably about Mrs. Gandhi and the demon she unleashed, but I do remember thinking with a "There, but for the grace of God..." on my lips, that I'm glad like hell to not have been born then. By a weird coincidence I had just before finished reading Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance"*, which tells the haunting tale of two tailors and how the Emergency forever modifies the path of their lives. For the definite worse.

The thought of the mindlessness of large canvas events and how they impact our lives has not left me since. Wars, terrorist attacks, political pogroms...they've only taken innocents while the masterminds move on to the next big game. And since I am essentially an individualist, I'm grappling with it.

I think one can, with applied thought and awareness, learn to manage and balance conflicts that exist within ourselves, and in close relationships. One can make it a point to craft actions around our beliefs - duty, success or love...or nothing. But how does one deal with getting steamrolled? With doing our damnedest best and still being taken unawares by a tide in an ocean that we haven't even heard of...

We're already living in a world focused on taking us away from our internal world...our thougts, actions are all sought to be governed. Newspapers, movies, advertising...all propagating the latest way to live. Is our giving in to this, then, the reason we get swept away? Or would we still be elements of probability no matter what we do? Has the die been cast and have we already given away the key to volition?

No answers yet...don't know if answers would even help. We're already overwhelmed with "secrets of good living"...how will we distinguish!

Good night, and good luck!

*Lovely, lovely book. Took away my sleep with the heartache it caused, but very well-written!