26 July 2007

'They've Forgotten And Moved On'

Back on 31 May, I sent this out to just about everyone on my mailing list:



To All my Cyberfriends and Family:



For the next week or so I will be very busy with Bluestar/ Third Gallaghura activities and will not be readily available. If you do not see me online or if you see a 'do not disturb' red ball on chat, do not worry about me; I am fine, just very busy. Please respect the red ball if it is there unless you have a real emergency. Send an email and I will respond as soon as I can.



I am sending this out individually instead of in one mailing as I know many of you prefer to keep your addresses private.



All of you, please take care.



Talk to you later.



Love and hope,



Mai


Most of the replies I got were along the line of 'yeah, sure, I understand, no problem.' One I got, however, I found very disturbing:

--------
From: (A 23 year old Hindu man in Amritsar)



HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH...................



This response made me angry and I had no intention of continuing the correspondence. But a few days ago, he sent an e-mail and I decided to let him know that he was out-of-bounds, as he didn't seem to realise he'd done anything wrong. (OK, I do tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. I sent him a copy of my note and his response and told him simply that his laughing was highly offensive because 'some things just aren't funny.'



I received this response: (I have changed the form a bit because his style of writing is distinct, and I didn't ask for his permission to reprint it. but it is exactly what he wrote. Highlighting is mine.)





OK, see, this is a very old e-mail, so I don't exactly remember why did I write this...



but maybe because of your obsession with this Bluestar phenomenon...



As such we here [in Amritsar] didn't observe any such day...and you are so far away...not even a citizen of ours considers it important...so I may have laughed...laughed not at the deaths of innocent people...but of your attitude of bringing this thing up every now and then



or maybe I laughed to see that red balls thing you wrote about being busy...



I don't remember...it's got to be one of two reasons...or maybe both...



But as I write I am more convinced it was the former one...



But no offence meant...



Mai, you need a break really about this Bluestar thing...because where it happened...those who suffered...those who were at the forefront... they've forgotten...and moved on...



I saw just today a report on NDTV...couldn't find you a link...They showed how children of former terrorists are becoming doctors and engineers...



Now you take care of your health, OK?



But I meant no offence that day!!...OK, Ji.



Bye bye.







Remember, this is a letter from AMRITSAR. Is it really possible to ignore this bloody massacre in our capital city? Have those demons running the Indian government really done their work so well that this young generation can pretend it never happened and believe that the people it happened to have 'forgotten and moved on'?

Waheguru!


And this young man hasn't an inkling that his whole response is insulting and condescending and offensive in the extreme.


I am publishing this because I think it is important that we have some understanding of the young Hindus today in the Punjab. This deluded young man thinks he is our friend. He has even sent me snaps of himself with arms draped over the shoulders of his turbaned Sikh friends. If this is the attitude the sympathetic ones, one can only imagine what the majority think.


I am sorry to post something so offensive, but I think we need this kind of information. To anyone I have offended, please accept my apology in advance.

3 comments:

  1. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh,


    About our young hindu friend I would say he is under the same misapprehension as a lot of other people when it comes to the issue of bluestar or the wider struggle.They mistakenly beleive what the GOI set out to get them to beleive and that is that thie whole situation was communal, a Sikh/hindu conflict when in fact it was entirely political in nature ostensibly indira playing politics.As had her father before her,this hindu boy sees any mention of bluestar as a threat to what he now perceives is a paeaceful situation he is wrong. A wound left to fester will inevitably one day lead to gangrene and amputation,please forgive the icky nature of my analogy but it is apt. He thinks that all is well, the truth is as a punjabihinu urbanite he is insulated not just from the history but also the reality of the panjab.How can the true feelings of the population be asessed when you can be locked up under sedition laws for merely the use of the word Khalistan. The GOI surpressed the aspirations of true Panjabis with absolute brutality but as we know from gurbani you shall reap what you sow and what our young hindu friend doesnt realise is that saplings can take many years to reach fruition, how many years did it take for us to see the back of the Raj? The GOI have done a very good job of re-writing history after all they had control over all primary sources but look at the drip,drip,drip effect the web has had in only a relatively small number of years in the dispersment of truth regarding 84/bluestar/pogroms/woodrose etc.etc. it has managed to bring the truth to a generation of Sikhs who would otherwise have known little or worse knoen only the lies of the GOI. Imagine as we become a ever more connected world this drip,drip,drip of truth will reach our youth in Panjab it may take time to but the drip,drip,drip of water does over time erode mountains.

    Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

    Sukhbir Singh

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH!!

    Dear Sukhbir Ji,

    Beautifully put. I truly believe, in fact I stake everything I am on it, that eventually, what is good, true, right, moral,etc., will prevail, that the shaheedi of my/our families, all those we love will serve some purpose here on earth, as well as in the spritual realm.

    I personally think this young man lives with a deep fear inside him of a Khalistan movement resurfacing in his hometown, and the certain knowledge, however denied, that it would be justified.

    I do understand, though, the need in him to deny that his own people could possibibly commit such atrocities.

    I believe he has read this. Now CYG, why don't you publicly answer it here?

    (I removed the previous comment; it was this one, only I wanted to add a couple of things.)

    WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH!!

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I LOVE COMMENTS.

Please feel free to speak your mind. Dissension is allowed and welcomed. I only delete illegal comments and spam. OK, maybe obscene, but not usually.

If you want to contact me personally, my address is theroadtokhalistan@gmail.com