2024 : Let sanity prevail

Kajal Chatterjee *

As a parent, I am aware of the feelings and internal turmoil which all fathers and mothers have to undergo while bidding goodbye to their child after admitting him/her to college hostel!

On the one hand there exists a feeling of joy that the child has got a platform to receive quality education and build up a professional career to ensure a bright secured future. On the other hand a gloom descends upon the heart as the child has left the nest by leaving memories in every corner.

Still parents try to stabilise themselves for the sake of the greater good of the child and look forward for his/her next visit home with silent prayer for the welfare of the physically far-distant son/daughter.

Now what's the definition of "goodness" which parents harbor for the child ! It depends upon the social/economic condition of the family concerned ! So for a set of parents, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard remain the "dream destination" where they want to see their offspring !

For another set of hapless parents, a "job" of a "petty" dish-washer in a nondescript road-side restaurant in a far away place form the "ultimate destination" which they dream about their child!

But at the end of the day, one aspect is absolutely common--love, affection, emotion which parents possess towards their children irrespective of social status, economy, geographical location or family background!

No wonder why Mini's Bengali Bhadra-lok middle class father (about to marry off his daughter) felt no hesitation in sharing the same platform with the poor Afghan trader Rahmat (just released from jail) on learning about his emotion towards the long unseen daughter back in Kabul (Rabindranath Tagore's "Kabuliwala").

So I can clearly envisage the gloom within the hearts of the parents of Swapna-deep Kundu who had met his artificial death.

Did the parents of Swapnadeep raise their child with lot of love and sacrifice to send him to "gallows" ie hostel of Jadavpur University where his "Swapna" (dream) and "Jibondeep" (the flame of life) can be extinguished brutally by the merchants of death or sponsors of ragging !

Today as the father of an 19-year-old son, I can understand what a razing storm is blowing through the devastated hearts of the parents of Swapnadeep !

Or the eternal plight of the inconsolable parents of Abbachuddin Sheikh! Son of a poor mason in the West Bengal district of South 24 Parganas ! In this commercialised society where basic amenity as education need to be purchased from the market, the boy had to pursue masonry only as means of survival in this brute crude barbaric environment of "Survival of the fittest" or "Might is Right"!

So when Abbachuddin got a window of opportunity in far-off Chennai as a member of the masonry team from his village, his joy knew no bound ! The parents were also delighted about the opening which their son had received!

With much pleasure and joy did Abbachuddin start for South India with his parting words to his father Ebadall being being "Abba, stay well. Pray that I do good in Chennai"! Did the poor father envisage that his well-wisher son is soon to go beyond all boundaries of prayer with the Coromandel Express soon getting to be crushed at Bahanaga Bazar Odisha !

Searching all hospitals and morgues in Balasore Bhadrak Cuttack Bhubaneswar yielded no result with the father returning by providing blood sample! Months later the unrecognisable charred body of Abbachuddin got identified through DNA matching with the father bringing the body home! Could the father of Swapnadeep or Abbachu-ddin ever dream during physical separation with their happy children in step of new life that they would next meet their son as corpse in bleeding or charred state!

It is time stern question needs to be asked- - -Do the parents admit their children to the colleges to get physically abused by the uncivilized brute "brilliant" students who form the "future of the society" ? The menace of ragging is indeed increasing by leaps and bounds. However, it is natural because far from awarding severe punishments to the offenders, they actually escape scot-free on most occasions.

This is the very reason why the vulgar lot continue to torture innocent juniors without a bit of hesitation. Ragging not only physically endangers the victim, but also leaves a permanent mark on his/her psyche also. Their career also gets nipped in the bud. Less said about the agony of the parents and economic losses of the less privileged families the better who send their children to institutions with a lot of hope and financial hardship.

Also it must be asked which should be the greatest priority - -Flagging off high-end luxurious glamorous trains to play to the gallery or ensuring foolproof security to the trains with liberal investment in accident prevention technology and mass recruitment instead of wasting precious wealth of the State in conquering Moon and erecting statues and temples!

On the dawn of 1st January 2023, did the parents of Swapnadeep and Abbachuddin envisage what the New Year is bringing in their lives ! Of what use are such Universities which might feature in top ranks as per infrastructure and result, but snatch lives of innocent students through barbaric Ragging in hostels!

How can the concerned authorities "celebrate" the resumption of train movement with crude slogans of a particular ecosystem instead of admitting it's failure in preventing one of the greatest accidents in the railway history of India!

In this context, my earnest prayer remains that 2024 may bring a bit of sanity in India where innocent souls do not have to meet their end through artificial developments of Ragging or Avoidable accidents, Riots and pogroms, Wars and battles. Else there lies hardly any significance to celebrate the incoming of a fresh New Year if it remains bereft of humanity, rationality and accountability!