just watched the documentary 'While We Watched' (2022), directed by Vinay Shukla, which, if you didn't know, is about Ravish Kumar as an NDTV reporter —with the increasing bias, sensationalism, divisiveness, populism in general news reporting of Indian media as the backdrop— and how do i put in words the anxiety and despair i feel every moment as i look at the state we're heading towards as a country. i love the people of this land, i do not need to know their surnames —their religion, their caste— to love them, i love them as one countrywoman loves another, and i feel joy for their wins and my heart cries for their losses; i do not know how to distract myself from thinking about the numerous women and girls who are raped, the farmers who reckon it wiser to take their own lives when their crop flops, the journalists who get shot in broad daylight, the women and men who have long graduated college and still have no job, the dalits who are murdered for crossing into the areas of the upper castes — this list could go on for as long as i have words. if this country and its people know no boundaries to come out and celebrate when our cricket teams win a match, then why can we not come out in the same manner to vote a government out of power? roti, kapda, makaan, aur sach, it's really that simple
