The ironies of Bangladesh are very entertaining when observed
from the outside. I previously posted a satire, proposing re-coloring our flag
into black and white to show the constant efforts in always partitioning ourselves into two clubs.
This blog post is probably along those lines with the Shahbagh movement in mind, where
the nation has truly been divided in various parts. Event after event, twist
after twist, after a month the feared and inevitable has happened - its nation vs. religion -
two fundamental faiths and alliances that each individual holds dear to his
heart and difficult to part with either.
The current theme I seem to read out is – If you have been
to Shahbagh, you are patriotic and as far as ‘Mullas’ are concerned, you are a
Kafir/Atheist. If you didn’t go to Shahbagh, then you are a non-patriotic and
as far as ‘Buddhijibis’ are concerned, you are Razakaar and have roots that did
not support the liberation / collaborated with West Pakistan.
But here is the irony - the grey zone.
We have a class who are so called
patriotic and nation loving. Come to our houses between 8pm - 11pm when there
isn’t a blackout. You will find women with undisputed control over the remote
and Hindi soaps fueling the life blood of the household entertainment. New age
parents who salute the Bangla language have their kids singing Bollywood songs
before learning to speak the mother tongue. And few on the extreme go to the
lengths of publicly insulting the religion they were born to, and defend their
stand point by glamorizing themselves as 'high end thinkers' and practitioners of Atheism.
The other side of the fence is equally as bad - if not worse - a measly
screenshot of words against the holy prophet will provoke us to go out into the
streets and spend the whole day burning things in their sight - but the regular
Azaan won't inspire us to pray for 5 minutes. Our scholarly examples in this
club memorize the Holy Quran without knowing its true meaning or applying it to
life. Confusing Islam with Arabic culture and using the religion as a trade to
run the show. They capitalize on the ignorance by raising Fatwas, Jihadee
morals and what not.
We do have something in common though - majority of us fall
within the 'swing vote' population. We will change our thought process
depending on the political climate. So why even bother partitioning into clubs
when neither party is a true example of either?
Going back to the satire, the flag should actually be a
gradient of colours - starting from white to black with shades of grey in
between to choose your stand point from. End of the day, people choose clubs to
save their back side - not because they have any true attachment. For those who do have a true attachment, if your team loses, you have two options:-
- Change your jersey and throw away the old for good
- Keep your jersey and leave the stadium for good.
The smart guys did just that after liberation in 71 and are now reaping benefits.
