Wars

Ive always been appalled at wars as a firm believer in Ahimsai, Gandhiji's policy. Regardless of whatever my cousins claim about Gandhiji not being as gr8 as he is proclaimed to be, the policy is fabulous. If only everyone where to follow it, wouldn't the world be a more peaceful place.

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. Two wrongs do not make a right. And the list goes on. Violence never achieves anything.

But try telling that to a nation whose just had two of its trade centres collapse. A nation with the poorest of people. A society segregated by castes. A history of discrimination. A decade of territorial unrest. A lifetime of harassment. Then things are looking widely different.

But Gandhiji grew up in a period like this. He had firsthand experience. Yet he didn't feel the need to succumb to violence. Its all personal choice. Which mother or father wants their child to die at war. When has a farewell ever been anything happy, when your son or daughter is going to war. When has a politician been free of criticism, tension when his country is at war?

Recently i saw a Hindi movie. I have no idea what the name is, or for that matter who the actors are. All I know is that I found the mentality of the soldier in the movie highly disturbing. He was portrayed as a brave soldier who went to seek repentance at the foot of the family in whihc he killed a civilian by accident. The disturbing part was, he distinguished a soldier's death as distinct from a civilians death. A civilians life was held to have higher priority than a soldiers life. Have we forgotten that we all are human? Or does being a soldier strip that humanity from you? I don't understand. If soldiers cannot be human, why do we need soldiers?

Yet in the very same movie, another interesting thought occurred. The bride and groom challenge each other to a shoot out. And then the twist in the bollywood movie. And it happens to be a a computer game where you shoot each other. That sparked a thought in me. If we still need to fight wars, as some believe, why don't we do it through some high tech video game. Lives would not need to be lost, and we can still have 'wars'. Seems like an incredible idea to me!