Living and chasing dreams, is the way life goes for ambitious people. I thought about this seriously for the first time after my high school, when I somehow exceeded my own expectations. I passed my Board examinations with "so called" flying colors and (though on a local level) came in the limelight of aunties and oldies who (for no reason) thought of me as someone extra-terrestrial who knew far more than those on earth. Well, they hardly knew that scoring good marks in a board exam don't mean much in this competitive "today". Well, on the positive side though, this increased my self -confidence immensely. Well, the next two years ended up quite well with me ending up in a good engineering college, to add to the happiness of me and my family(the later part being very special to me).Now that I am in BITS-Pilani, I am dealing with an all together different crowd. My dreams are also bigger now and so are my ambitions. Coming to the point now, we have a Music Club here in Bits-Pilani. It's the cream of our college. Only the most talented artists can make it to this club. And it's quite obvious that they are the most respected and known personalities in the college. Well, I am also kinda into Music and after watching the Music club perform in the college for the first time, I decided that I am gonna land up in there. I tried my luck in the 2nd sem but failed to reach their standards. Still, it was quite a great learning experience and it made me even more passionate and desperate in getting into the music club. I started practicing and also learned some basics of classical music (vocals) in my summer holidays back in nagpur. Then the 3rd sem started.I had already planned and practiced the songs that I was to sing in the auditions. But special things just don't remain special if they come by easily. Just about 2-3 days before the auditions , I fell sick badly and had to be admitted to the only hospital in pilani. All my hopes got crushed when I expectantly asked the doctor about my discharge on the morning of the auditions and he smiled and said that I was too fragile to be discharged this early. That was the longest day of my life. But as the dialogue goes, "picture abhi baki hai mere dost". Though this sickness has delayed my goal by a semester, next time it will be all the more fierce and tough from my side. The ant that had fallen midway on the hill, is ready to climb it once again, more cautiously this time.
It was the midnight of 2nd December, 1984 that proved to be a nightmare for those living in Bhopal. Around the intervening night of 2-3 December, 1984 a pesticide plant established on the outskirts of Bhopal leaked methyl isocyanate(MIC), a toxic gas was released that massacred around 20,000 people and maimed lakhs.
Around 25 years after this dreadful disaster, the government and the court have something to say for the public. All eight accused in the case have been convicted by the Bhopal High Court. It’s a shame that to convict 8 people for a case that resulted in the death of 20,000 people, it took 26 years. Even after these many years, victims are still suffering. This time it’s the worst consequences of corporate phlegm, judicial sluggishness and a society that simply failed to formulate a satisfying response to the tragedy. The charges with which the accused have been convicted with, leaves them with a crime comparable to a petty thief. People responsible for the killings of thousands of innocent people, physically impairing lakhs and fiddling with the life of millions will be sentenced to 2 years imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 rupees! Moreover, the chief criminal, CEO ofUnion Carbides (UCC) is still absconding!
Can we call it justice? No, it’s rather a spitting on the face of the victims. It’s like making them feel that they were fools to have believed till now that they might get justice. If only time can heal such great wounds on the hearts of the victims, even that is denied. The execution of this case is just rubbing salt into those healing wounds.
On the wee hours of 3rd December, 1984, the victims were taken to the hospital, dead bodies were lying like autumn leaves fallen on the ground, a mother was crying beside her son’s body, people were running away from their homes with their families in confusion and in the middle of this chaos, a police loudspeaker broadcasted: “Everything is normal”! ………..Was it normal? Can it ever be?
