Collateral Damage

I just caught some bits of the “Remembrance: Kargil” on a national television. And I was so shocked that I decided to check the entire show online to make sure that what I was hearing was just an unintentional slip. Alas! That is not the case here.

The entire show is despicable. And I am filled with this loathsome disgust which I normally feel these days when I watch any news channel. The de-humanization, the absence of any depth whatsoever, no argument, no logic, no essence, no point of view, and a pitifully hollow shell with no substance is what these programs have become today.

What is the one photograph that never goes away?

What about the smell of death?

Isn’t it ironical that you still love the mountains that so many soldiers died on?

There were no satellite uplinks and mobile phones then…how have the times changed…

The questions above are what this extremely popular TV anchor deemed fit to ask the soldiers who had fought during the Kargil war. The last one takes the cake – really – all that has changed from then to now is the availability of mobile phones?

And furthermore, she asks –

Has it been a difficult memory to live with?

Daaaaaaaaa…people died in front of him…by what stretch of imagination can that be an easy memory to live with.

I imagined soldiers to be brave creatures.

Creatures - really?

The woman did not ask even a single question which will tell the audience that she had any presence of mind.

And it goes on, the slew of inane, insensitive words pouring out of her mouth –

What do you think Vikram thinks when he hears you…twins have that thing no that they can hear each other even when not present

…is there any other synonym for “loathsome disgust” I can use here?

And this one leaves me completely speechless –

Now we approach tiger hill…would it have caught the public imagination in the same way had it been called rabbit hill…

And since when was this program about this anchor. I thought it was about the lives of these men and many more who lived, died and survived through the war. What about how their families have changed or their colleagues, or who came after them and heard of these heroes. The woman completely failed to bring forth the idea of how the war changed them as people.

There is a term we so loosely use in popular conversation these days Collateral Damage. To me it is the epitome of injustice that gets inflicted on humanity in the name of collateral damage.

But here watching this show all I can think is that the collateral damage in this day and age is the thinking power, the ability to feel pain, the sense of justice and the ability to reason.