LEARNING LESSONS

There are days in history which are painful.
Yet if we learn from our mistakes,
we can ensure we are not revisited by
the same painful history and its accompanying hurt…

It is been two years since Goa joined the mainstream of the organised communal violence. After the riots, there was more shock than outrage, because Goans had actually relied on the myth that their famed communal harmony could never succumb to such brutal violence. The smug belief, that peaceful Goa could never be synonymous with hateful agendas, came crashing down.

The seed of hate gets planted in the fields of prejudice. And these prejudices are ploughed by the divisions of religion, ethnic, regional, economic and every divide that sees one human being as lesser than oneself. And when, this hate in full bloom is harvested, the community sees the final manifestation of communal politics which is communal violence.

In the aftermath of any riot, as peace returns, everyone, save the brutalised victims, starts getting complacent. And the vested interests, on all sides, start planting the seeds of hate again, under the garb of nationalism, religion, ethnic pride and the like. These messengers of hate talk about “teaching them a lesson”. And they forget that lessons are not meant to be taught. Lessons are meant to be learnt.

To BE BETTER is to have learnt from the lessons. We must learn the lessons for ourselves. We need to sift the grain from the chaff. We have to begin with cleansing our own minds of prejudice and hate. We need to initiate and participate in dialogues to undo the divisions within human beings. We must strive to BE BETTER as human beings by actualizing the humane values of sensitivity, tolerance and peace.

The lessons of history are meant for learning, not fighting…
Prejudice can never be the path to BE BETTER as a human being.

yours-in-hope
Pravin-da