Snow gods have planned to carpet bomb Kashmir this winter. With the valley already crushed under man-made troubles, nature’s fury comes as another turn of the screw. What they call `National’ highway sings some terrible songs of nationalism these days. As all natural routes are barred, we are confined to this unnatural link to the rest of the world which gets even more unnatural as the cold wave grips us tight. Humans – like cattle – are caught in the middle. Left to their own mercy, all they can do is to wait for the next announcement. Like many other typical features we only own, this one too is unique to us. Does it happen elsewhere that the government is just confined to announcements? Our whole system has been reduced to a mere computer app. All it does is to get you the information about the hell waiting to break loose, without doing anything about it. The whole government machinery is too crippled to push their people out of a life-threatening situation. Accidents do happen everywhere, but exigencies are met differently. If human life counts, hierarchies and protocols will wait. It’s all the question of priorities. Where the first thing is to choke the entire city days before a prime minister’s visit, human lives figure second. No matter what happens to passengers facing hell on the highway, all state machinery is deployed to ensure a full security cover. In any developed system, you won’t wait for avalanches to swallow people trapped below. They will be air-lifted, not left to fend for themselves. They need a little more than a `Road Close’ or `Road Open’ announcement.
The second part is even more terrifying than the first. Highways are notorious for thieves and looters. It explains how humans feed on humans in a state of utter desperation. They say when a bus skids and passengers fall into a deep dark gorge, some roadside robbers faking to rescue the injured, rob them of all they carry. They steal whatever they come upon. Whatever. Wallets, watches, necklaces, rings, even clothes and shoes. Whether it happens or not we don’t know but what we know is happening. What airline companies do these days reminds us of the same ghoulish tradition. All old stories of exploitation pale when compared to the open market loot we witness here. Pickpockets still run the risk of being caught, but these white-collar looters do it openly and honestly. Imagine the level of exploitation and impunity. A normal ticket costing less than two thousand rupees suddenly shoots to thirty thousand or more. Wonder what logic this airline business runs on? We don’t know how markets operate, but we know how common sense and moral sense operates and it defies both. When it rains, it pours for them. If administration cracks down on a chicken-seller for overpricing his product by a penny, what about these civilized, sophisticated blood-suckers who multiply their rates overnight. If the former is black-marketing what is the latter. These Thugs of Hindostan too merit a movie. To them everything is fair in love, war and winters.