Perpetually Perplexed

The main theme of the book 'Shikari' is fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of vague past. Nagappa is R and D manager in large chemical factory. Having lost his parents in an early age, he has struggled a lot, but has come up in life due to his hard work and intelligence. One fine day suddenly he finds himself suspended from his job. The reason given is that he might be involved in the fire accident which occurred in the factory. And he is asked to go on a leave for a month. An introvert by nature, he is in a turmoil. Along with external problems, he keeps remembering about how his back and stomach were burnt when his shirt catches fire. He doubts the fire might not be accident, but his father might have tried to kill him. He does not know why his father committed suicide and why and how his sister disappeared. His entire childhood is  a fuzzy but scary memory which keeps terrorizing him. He is very conscious about the burn marks on his body, so never removes his shirt.

We all know the unfortunate event in Charlie Hebdo office in Paris. And we all condemned it vociferously. We - all Indians did that. But do we know about a similar incident which happened in our own country. Perumal Murugan a tamil author whose book 'One part woman' has angered the religious fundamentalists is forced to give a written statement that Murugan the author is dead. Even the administration has not helped him. On January 8th, on police advice, he fled his hometown with his family. Perumal Murugan has stated that protest against the book has nothing to do with the book. But the people are trying to settle scores with him for his stand against casteism. Murugan has compiled 32 articles of his students who bore the brunt of casteism and he also has dedicated his latest novel to the victim of casteism. But the literary world of Tamilnadu is expressing its solidarity with Murugan.

You are asking me with anger and with sarcasm;  what happened to 'परित्राणाय साधूनाम विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम '.  What happened to you coming here to save the sadhu people - good people and destroying bad people? You are asking me why am i not protecting good people. But tell me where are the good people. Not in the least the people who have name "sadhu" associated with them. I shiver when I hear their names.  Every one is self centered and don't care a hoot about others. So called philanthropists work for name and fame. The moment cameras are off, they are back to their old unholy ways. I know most of you tell everyone that you will not even hurt an ant (and a cow ;) ) even when a small voice tells you that you will and have hurt others plenty of times.  And bad people. I am not sure about your definition of bad. But if I use earlier concepts for the term bad, then I have to decimate the entire population of your earth. Which means I have to start all over agai