“See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil”

The phrase “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” seems to have a different meaning in context to India’s present conditions and environment. Blind yourself to the horrifying pictures which circulate in media, lend a deaf ear to the disturbing stories and quarantine your tongue for it won’t matter.

1. Let your elder sister, who looks wheatish brown, faint in her wedding while you have fair skin. She is embarrassed by the black stubborn spectacle marks which others see as some melted kajal under her eyes. Let the customs of a big parade wedding hide how she doesn’t feel alright about this life-changing decision, but she still has to marry someone as she is 24.
2. Let your younger sister be slut-shamed while you cage your sensory organs and let her ex-boyfriend write the number on an electric pole with a tag of “Randi“. After all, losing virginity to a man requires consent. She might not sit for her graduation exams.
3. Let your brother know that choosing Physics over Music and Mathematics over Arts will help him achieve a good CGPA score and build an intelligent profile on a Matrimonial website as life is too short to follow your dreams. Relatives might not understand that government jobs aren’t the measure of happiness.
4. Let your colleague feel insecure of his overextended forehead while you watch your seniors make fun of the way he sits on a chair with his legs crossed. Let them torture him as sexual orientation and gender identity are the important criterion for discrimination and abuse in a queerphobic society. He doesn’t have a selfie to compete with your Pinterest-perfect profile. This might not matter because being authentic isn’t pretty. After all, we judge everybody at the end of the day.
5. Let your best friend be an emotional fool and let his gold digger boyfriend loot her. Let her make portraits of him while you provide your shoulder to her tears because he forgot to check her email. Let her join a call centre and ask her to walk from Iffco Chowk to Huda City Centre to save ₹10 and kill her hunger because what breaks you makes you stronger.
6. Let your teachers in Kashmir suffer severe security issues while you watch your friends troll them on Instagram pages. All they expect from you is being kiddish enough to hack into meetings during online schooling. Teachers might receive their termination letters digitally. This might not be exploitation.
7. Let a bird pick the disposed of masks from the lake which burns in Mehrauli’s archaeological park while you offer your gratitude that you didn’t go to Kedarnath. But how would you lead the drive to find the missing bodies from the 2013 tragedy and share some devastating picture to be used to create awareness for foreign bushfires?
8. Let the news of a 15-year-old stranger die behind your screen while you watch the convicted men file a curative petition to the court, asking it to reexamine the decision for the rape never happened. You are free to forget humanity asap. Judiciary might sell justice if you dare to buy.
9. Let a fellow writer be disrespected for his knowledge of poems and art while you support #ArtIsArt and preach that reach should not be the only reason to worry after creating art. Let the poem “हिन्दू,मुस्लिम,सिख,ईसाई सब है भाई भाई ” unlearn your elementary education while Twitter bifurcates the audience for some Mandir while you celebrate Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October by doing the so-called story-sharing formalities.
10. Wear thy “mask” properly. Beware of a new virus — the new normal.