In the midst of the midnight hour as I walked down the lane to the campus, I was lost in the profound sea of interrogation and the waves of uncertainties. It is not surprising as they often come to me more especially in the times of solitude. I stirred my conscience as I went by and looked at the sky in to the space and gazed the moon. It was bright and beautiful.I wanted to look beyond that brightness but it didn’t really allow me to. Perhaps, the eyes are incompetent to look beyond. Perhaps, they didn’t want me to.But a few drops of dew did add to the sea as those questions visited me again. I felt as if they waited for that particular moment to come. I wondered, who are they, where do they come from? Do they live in the “Dhabas” of the metros where a helpless minor works all day long so that he/she could ensure his bread and butter the next day, or does it come from the pessimism of all those young people who simply try to keep aloof hiding behind the curtain of pragmatism? The youth, who are suppose to be the leaders of tomorrow, who are suppose to shoulder the burden of a Country still struggling to free from the chains of neocolonialism?
“Nothing can be done”, I was shattered and could never dare to forget those haunting words which were not merely words but the hope of a youth from one of the premier Institutions of education. I saw the courage gradually succumbing to the duress of helplessness. Youth; the hope of a nation, of the poor, of the exploited and all those millions of people who believe in their prowess, in their ability to change the status quo and bring about a revolution of the progressive ideology in the society.
Far across the realm of idealism perhaps, the reality is as horrifying as this. The individualism is manifesting itself in the alienation from the society and its values. Is this the kind of society we are aiming for? I don’t know the answer. Do you??
