Irresponsibles … 101 lessons from Mumbai.

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Am I glad that I’m not a PR-ofessional. The physical destruction we saw through 26/11 will not only be mended, even the scars will fade. Those that lost their near and dear will learn to handle their emotional crises. The politicians will do what they’re best at – hide behind/beside/despite their ideologies. Things will go on. And we’ll wait for the next strikes for the above pattern to repeat itself. While the terror mongers are being incisively innovative, we’ll do what we’re best at – shout/scream/criticise/blame despite ourselves.

I’m not about to list 101 lessons I learnt in the wake of terror. There aren’t that many anyway. In my view there’s only one lesson that I call “Irresponsibility 101″ which simply speaks of the basics of irresponsible thoughts/ideologies/action/behaviour.

Here’s my unqualified and unresearched list of Irresponsibles (a la Incredibles).

1. Politicians – whose primary responsibilities have been reduced to providing basic infrastructure, roads, power, water, transportation, security. I met an interesting and accomplished gentleman this morning, Professor A K Puri whose words I paraphrase here – ‘the government of India has become redundant and they cannot even fulfill their diminished responsibilities. No power so the genset industry thrives. No water so people drill their own bore wells. Even the private security industry is booming since nobody has the confidence that the government will go beyond protecting their own ilk (Z-cover). Public transport needs no mention, nor do roads’.
2. India’s hand-in-glovers – India Inc. in glove with celebrity personalities from the elite sections of society, both of whom include/own/influence/in glove with media. Media, the perfect vehicle for PR-ofessionals to reach the masses.
3. Endorsers – the aam aadmi, RK Laxman’s common man who’s silent/bewildered/helpless/victimised and whose main fault is that he tolerates eternally.

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Mumbai Siege – Terrorism 2.0

All of last weekend I resisted the urge to jump into the conversations about India’s 9/11. The TV channels were doing their bit about being irresponsible as were politicos. The Junta also contributed to the mayhem. Well, why not? It’s an opportunity for everyone to get noticed, make some noise and add the terror attacks to their social resumes. So they can go, “I started a group on this-great-social-networking-site and invited everybody from my network to start talking about how to make India a better place, and how we will not tolerate terror any longer”.

I love these holier-than-thou guys that blame the politicians, the system, the world at large. They think they’re better at being President of the United States than anybody who ever ran for the post. It’s just that they’re not interested. Such armchair activism is an art by itself. These are the same guys who find it difficult to make a success of their own careers.

I wonder whether the siege of the Taj Mahal Hotel by terrorists is as dangerous as the siege by the people who want to derive mileage for themselves using any hook for self promotion. Your guess is as good as mine.

Will I not get mileage for writing this? Sure!

The Mumbai brand of terrorism is part of a larger design – to destabilise India by creating disturbance in the region to curb the potential rise of India as an economic superpower. To prevent India from getting to that position by default; India has stayed somehow unaffected by the current global meltdown/crisis/recession/downturn.