By Ramesh Menon

Being an avid surfer of news portals, I stumbled upon one article in www.Chalomumbai.com, (The Mid Day, a Bombay based daily). It was about a 12 year old child, raped by a 22 year man, in a local train in Bombay. I was very saddened by the news, and for a moment, felt very helpless and angry.

I scrolled down the page, and saw another article, related to the same incident, which said "Rape could have been stopped". I opened that link and read it. It seems, there were 10 people, including a couple, and a Times Of India news reporter, inside the compartment when this heinous crime occurred. I was lost for words for a few seconds. How can such an incident, happen in full view of 10 people, and, not one person came to the rescue of the hapless 12 year old deaf and dumb, perhaps mentally retarded child.

I read a few lines more, and also the eye witness account of a 27 year old male, who happens to stay just around 2 kms from my ex-apartments in Borivli, Mumbai. These are his exact words.

"He could have been armed. He could have hurt us if we had stopped him,"

I could read no further. Shell shocked, I went into a state of cogitation. What is that makes, human beings, more so Indians, such cowards and self centered people? What kind of society are we living in, where a 12 year old child is raped by a pervert in full view of 10 people? Have Indians, sold their souls to the asuras? If not , are they in a decaying state? How will these 10 people live the rest of their lives, with the images of the act? How will they feel when they look up to mirror to adore their god given beauty, but the rotten souls within it? Will they feel guilty? Will they ever be ashamed? Or will they just take it as just another incident and live on their lives?

Most probably they will carry on their lives without any remorse or guilt. Just like the women, who did nothing but watch the young college student, Jayabala, robbed and pushed out on the tracks, only to lie there with her legs cut off, waiting for help. The life of a young woman, was turned upside down just because of the indifference of a group of women. I still remember the photograph of the father of Jayabala, crying and telling the reporter, "what will we do with the compensation?"

I was in Dubai when the infamous December Hijacking of the Indian Airlines plain took place. The plane landed in Dubai military airport, and the hijackers dumped the body of a newly wed man, the husband of Rachna Katyal. I seethed in anger, more so, because my colleagues said, the man must have done something wrong to infuriate the hijackers. In contrast, the men of the plain which crashed in Pennsylvania, after the men took on the hijackers, were hailed as heroes by the Americans. I fail to fathom the Indian mentality, which discourages courage, and encourages passive submission.

Now to another example of indifference. Last year, Bharat Shah was arrested for getting his film financed by the goons across the border. If it was anywhere else in the world, the movie would have been an utter flop. But, the Indian public, more so the youngsters, flocked to the theatres to see their favorite actors and actress (who were paid to act by the underworld). Things were not different this year too. This year too, the same producer, got one of his movies (a pretty expensive one), financed by the underworld. Guess what, the movie is a super hit.

Such is the indifference of the Indians, a young girl interviewed by a newspaper, when asked whether she would boycott the movie, said "I go to the movies to see Salman Khan, I don't care who he works for or works with!" Even if he works for Dawood Ibrahim, right?


On one hand, people like Capt. Vijayant Thapar (age 22 when martyred), die for the sake of freedom and sovereignty of the nation, and on the other hand we have such indifferent people.

In a country where the politicians are busy filling their coffers, the bureaucracy is busy plundering and the young generation, busy partying, who cares for the cries of a 12 year old child, who anyways was perhaps an orphan. In a country where movies financed by the underworld are super hits, who cares about the tears of the widow of the slain man in the Indian Airlines Hijacking. Who cares for the tears of the old man whose daughter's legs could have been saved, but for the interference of the indifferent group of women in the compartment. And who cares for Capt. Vijayant Thapar, who in his last letter said that if he was to be born a human being again, he would join the army and fight for his nation. Who cares for the millions drowned in the flood waters of Bihar, or the lacs of women who walk miles to fetch one single bucket of water. Who cares for the thousands killed in militancy related incidents. Who cares for the demographic changes in Assam and West Bengal because of the illegal migrants from West Bengal. Who cares for the millions of children slaving it out in the factories making the rich even richer. Who cares for the lacs of uneducated illiterate Indians duped by the Goodman and swamis. Who cares for the ethnic cleansing in various parts of the country. Who cares for the women raped every hour in India. Who cares for the lacs of child prostitutes in the brothels across the country. Who cares for the inhuman conditions in the hospitals across the country. Who cares for the 16 BSF men killed by a miniscule country, such as Bangladesh. Who cares for anything.


Last week, I listened to Sadhvi Ritambhara's taped speech when she came to New York. She said one thing about Indians. "Hum apne liye nahi, apno ke liye jeete hai". That is, we Indians don't live for ourselves, we live for our people. A country, where a guest is considered God, a country where even animals are worshipped, and almost every temple has at least one female deity, a country where festivals like Raksha Bandhan flourished, a country of Bakt Prahlad, who carried his blind parents on his shoulders for a pilgrimage, a country where compassion and a sense of duty towards society was part of the culture, what has gone wrong so bad, that even basic human compassion is rare?


Perhaps, the souls of Indians are decaying. They have become immune to the dirt and filth around their souls in the form of corruption, nepotism, moral degradation and greed. Perhaps, they have become like the pigs who enjoy eating filth and living in the dirty gutters.

I too, am part of the society, though I don't live in India currently. But it is my motherland, and I am an Indian. "We are busy man. We have our own lives. " was the answer I got from one of my friends when I told him that we should do something to stop this rot. And then, I came to the USA.
Hypocrisy, isn't it?

Yes, I don't claim to be a saint. I have not done anything for my country yet, except for sending some foreign exchange regularly, and I will not be hypocritical about it. I am living a relatively comfortable life in the USA, and making judgments about India and Indians.

But, for sure, if I was one of the 10 people, in that train on that day, that child would not have undergone that trauma. The pervert would have had to get to her on my dead body!

There are a lot of people, who at least have their conscience intact. There are lot of people like me, whose blood boils every time such event occurs. There are a lot of people like me whose heads hang in shame every time these kinds of events happen. And yes, there are a lot of people who want to do something to stop this rot and decay of the souls. I would endeavor, what ever is possible, either by writing, and when opportunity presents itself, to physically and monetarily help build my motherland, and cleanse the decay in our system.


I pray that I get the strength for the same. At least, let not my soul rot, like these people who watched the crime and did nothing.


If that 27 year old man has a sister, I don't know what confidence she will have in this brother of hers to protect her dignity and honor, when the time comes. How will she tie raakhi on his hand?

God, never make me like him.

I sincerely appreciate your feelings Mr Ramesh Menon.
as you are helpless so we Indians residing in India too feel the helplessness.

Our journalism, our secularism, our political dharma, our democracy every thing humbug you know that.

when i read that news item i too was too shocked about the callousness of the co passenger's their attitude of apprehending danger, fear, about the law witness, courts etc. In a recent seminor one of the speakers narrated a story wherein a child rescued another child, from drowning with out minding the danger of such act and got the gallent award. the elders wondered how he dared to do?? the answer is simple - no one said the child that such an act was impossible or danger - so he could do it. We indians are living a life of a selfdefence cautious approach and to be on a safe side syndrome. such a life we are leading till our 80's and 90'S.

If Gandhi were alive he would have been very proud of how well Hindus have imbibed their message. In Bangladesh little girls are being gang raped mercilessly and what do Hardline Hindus like Hajpayee do? They make peace with Pakistan!

If these are the so called hardline Hindus, I shudder to think how cowardly ordinary Hindus would be.