14th february, that ubiquitous international day of organized commercial love sponsored by the card and chocolate people.
meanwhile, out in bombay (or mumbai) the sena bigots are getting ready for another annual day of mindless timewaste, bigotry and venom, all in an attempt to tear down the real or imagined western assault on the crystalline virtue of indian youth.
ah, what would we do without these self-annointed guardians and protectors of our 'way of life'? like saying "no sex please, we're british", the sena motto could well prescribe "no love please, we're mumbaikers first and indians second..."
robert kennedy, announcing the death of martin luther king and his fear of what lay ahead, makes a plea to "tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of the world." many have tried; they award nobel prizes for failure.
if vusumzi mcongo, interrogated, tortured and imprisoned on robben island for participating in the school boycotts of the mid 1970s can be sanguine about the mountain to conquer, so can we. "we cannot", he says, "live with broken hearts. in time we have to accept that these things have happened to us, that those years have been wasted. to stay with the past will only bring you into turmoil. no nation can survive without forgiveness."
no man (or woman) alive today can speak with greater moral authority than that wily and ancient warrior of reconciliation: nelson mandela once said,
"no one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. people must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."
so, as the wrath-driven mobs that are the sena hone their message of a new apartheid and sharpen their arrows of poison, gift them a card and a box of candy; for even the bitterness of dark chocolate is sweeter than hate.
