For the last two days, I am in deep shock and turmoil.

Try as much as I can, the images of two women from the Kuki tribe in Manipur, India being dragged naked and molested all the way by tens, nay hundreds of Metei men in the name of teaching them and their tribe a lesson is flashing in my eyes every moment. They were abused, stripped naked, molested and then one of them, just twenty years of age was brutally raped in the fields while her protesting father and brother were killed in front of her eyes.

Something has broken inside me. Torn to the core! I want to cry and scream at the same time but nothing is coming out as I am totally choked. How low can humanity get?

Today for me is not a day to blame the parties involved. We must come down to the bottom of this and isolate  not just the culprits who carried this heinous act but also the ones who used these people as tools to propagate their agenda of hate and violence to gain power. But that later!

Today it is about us. Ordinary humans! Ordinary citizens! You and I!

When did we allow ourselves to become bottomless vessels of hate and anger? Is it the infinite information dump available from all sides which is affecting us and putting us in a pressure cooker situation, one that we are not able to deal with? Or simply, we were always like that- primitive men with raw edges willing to explode at every given moment, hiding behind the masks of the modern society.

Over the last decade since the time I have been actively involved in my activism and writings, I have seen hate building up like a crescendo in the society.

But what has been sadder to see is that even if people are pulled away from an environment where political and religious polarizations are rupturing the bonds to more calm surroundings, wherever these people go, they carry their hate with them. As if they thrive on it and would never let it go!

I live in Canada, a country where my presence itself indicates that the country has welcomed people of all color, class, caste, region, religion, gender and by law we are all treated as equal citizens. And whether we are a freshly naturalized citizen or one who has roots going for generations, we all enjoy the same benefits and expect to be treated equally without any discrimination.

Then why do Indo-Canadians when referring to sub-groups between them, are ready to discriminate and build hate? Why do they carry baggage of India with them and are not ready to embrace the same Canadian values in the Indian context? How come they expect to be treated as equal citizens in Canada on the very first day when they become citizens and yet at the same time in case of India, refer religious and regional groups as outsiders whose generations have lived in India for centuries and centuries?

Over the last one year I have stood up to the extremist views amongst the Sikh separatists and at the same time the extremist views amongst the Hindutava brigade screaming hoarse that India should at the earliest denounce secularism/inclusiveness and clearly identity itself as a Hindu nation or Rashtra. From both sides, I have faced constant abuse, ridicule and hate of the worst type, almost every day!

It is as if people are willing to join and become part of a ferocious mob in person or in the various What’s app groups floating around and strike at the person who differs with their view. The discussion is no longer about an ideology and the rule of the majority, howsoever wrong, must hold true.

These are not leaders or political parties or religious groups. These are ordinary citizens like you and I. Us.

There are days and nights when I have gone into deep depression just thinking about why I chose this path and whether it is worth to stand up to people who have nothing but hate in their minds.

I have continued with the hope that truth matters and that positivity is what lets the world spin forward.

But today, breaks and shatters my heart. What pain those ladies must have gone through and must be still residing in their hearts? How can we ever see them in their eyes even while asking for forgiveness as a society?

My head hangs in shame.

I hope that their courage to speak and to stand up for justice, will somehow give a ray of hope to the humanity to continue further.

But today, I cry and I cry for thee humanity and for India, a country that is hell bent on once again groveling in the lowly dust & go down the path of destruction just because the cup of hate and anger in our heats runneth over!