"Sometimes the truth is not enough, sometimes the people deserve better." These words by batman at the very end of The Dark Knight just don't leave me. For the past hour or so, I'm thinking about them, non-stop. You know, I watched this movie for the first time today. Ever since it has been released, people have been asking me if i have watched. I would reply no, rather shame-facedly.
Everyone would talk about how good the movie is, its action sequences, Heath Ledger's acting, the gadgets etc. What nobody mentions is the ideas, the image it portrays of our society. The facts that we so easily forget. Sure, i liked all these things, the special effects the acting. But what touches me most about the movie are these final lines. They are the true spirit of the story. We just can't appreciate how condescending we as a society are. What we all think together, we deem it right undeservingly. Mostly, we take these decisions in our selfishness, or our greed. Who gave us the right to decide for ourselves what's right and what's wrong. What we have the right to do is to learn.
This movie also reminds me how fickle we are in our beliefs. One moment we deem someone a hero, the other we deem him to be the cause of all trouble. How quickly, we change. Its almost amazing how hypocritical we are. Look at our parents, one moment they'll be preaching honesty the next you can hear them telling their bosses that they aren't well. In school we're taught not to break laws, on our way home our parents jump the red light. Why can't we be better ? If not for ourselves, then for our children. But this plea has been made thousands, no millions of times in the past. To what effect ?? We, humans are still where we started. Many inspirational people have come and gone, but we as a race of intelligent beings are still there. If we can't learn from our mistakes, our faulty decisions, then we have no right to call ourselves intelligent.
I'll give you an example. All through our lives, we are asked "what ambition do you have in life ??". All through our childhood, we are made to swear by God. More correctly to swear by religion. Yet all the religions in this world ask us to leave worldly pleasure. Read the writings of any prominent religions. In each of them you'll find our Gods preaching simplicity, non-attachment, non-violence. But we don't seem to have learnt anything.
This brings me to another question. Are all these religions a facade ?? Were these people like Jesus Christ, Gautam Buddha or Mahavira all fraud ?? Perhaps, they were more like us than we think. Perhaps they were all motivated by just one goal - power. You can't deny that these people were the most powerful people in their times. Jesus Christ is arguably, but undeniably the most famous person to ever walk this planet. His legacy lives on till today. Perhaps they manipulated the masses into believing something that wasn't true. But i don't believe that. I believe that these people were the real thing, whose teachings have been lost in the sands of time, perhaps because of people who saw their own power over the masses deplete. But whatever may be the reason, these religions have no relevance today. They are well past their expiry date. If any of these individuals would have saw the things that are being done in their name, they would lose their sanity, suffer nervous breakdowns and i don't know what else.
Again its our fickle mentality at work. One century Jesus Christ is termed a messiah, the next century, in the same land he is termed a heretic. This is all too relevant in today's world. People in Iraq or Afghanistan welcomed the armies with open arms when they liberated these countries. Now, they blame them for their misery. They blame the armies for the communal hatred prevalent in these countries. The public memory is so short lived that nothing good can happen anywhere. As soon as an event becomes a month old, we forget all about it. Then how can we learn ?? What's worse is that the people who first supported the invasions claiming them to be victories of democracy, now denounce them. Are we so fickle that we can't stand by our own principles ??
A very big debate in our times has been that we don't have any heroes. We don't have anyone to look upto. To be inspired by. Well, we do have heroes, we just don't recognise them. Even when we do recognise them, we forget the reasons due to which we considered them heroes.
Look at Gandhiji, look at Bhagat Singh. There are countless others. They were all heroes in their time. They were all messiahs but we forget. Now all we do to remember them is drag them into controversies, just for our own 15 minutes of fame and forget the good they have done, no matter how different their methods were. Then we say we don't have heroes. They are all around us. Look at even someone as "inconsequential" as Sachin Tendulkar. He is a hero to every wannabe cricketer. Everyone admires how he plays fearlessly, not at all afraid of the cricket ball. Not afraid that he might die if he is hit in the wrong place. You know what, he probably is afraid in the back of his mind. But he has learnt to be not afraid. He has learnt to face every ball and has worked hard to get an amount of skill so that he doesn't get hurt. He is probably afraid that he would let down a billion people if he gets out on a duck but still he plays. This is why we all like him. Not because he has gotten so many runs, but the way he has got them. We also forget that when he's on 99, the whole country is united in praying for his hundred. You see ?? He has managed to do what no other person throughout the history of mankind has been able to do, he has united India physically and mentally. You still think he isn't a hero ??
In Hover Car Racer, Matthew Reilly says, "A hero is not someone who isn't afraid, a hero is someone who does his job even while he's afraid and does it wonderfully. He has loads of expectations, loads of pressure but his feet don't crumble under him. Thats what makes him a hero....". So all we need to do is find our heroes and follow their paths. They are all around us, if we care to find them. Look at our Prime Minister for example, or at the President of the United States. They've got loads of people who are criticising them, calling them incompetent, calling them weak, calling them wimps. All they have to do is say, "i've had enough let somebody else run this country", and give in their resignations. But they don't, only because they believe they can change something, and not because they like people at their beck and call. They still hold on, and they try to do the best they can. And yes, its none of their own fault that their plans or their ideas don't see the light of day, its because of lesser souls who don't understand the number of people they have to keep happy. Its because of lesser souls who want nothing but power, and those who don't give a damn about the country, just give a damn about ruling it. Ask any of these people to step in these chairs, they will find out how difficult these jobs are. They'll find it how hard it is to keep a billion people happy. These people are heroes. Just as Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh and Jesus Christ were. We may not accept it but in these people we place our hope for a change for the better.So, i say hats off to you guys, you are the real heroes.
See, how it is. See how batman is connected to our lives. He is not a figment of our imaginations, he represents hope. Every superhero represents hope, every one of them represents a messiah. No matter how wrong their methods are, they give us hope that there is a God somewhere and he cares for us. He sends us heroes who we can follow and be inspired by. And our leaders are these heroes(some of them). They may not have super powers, they may make mistakes, but they are still heroes. So, we don't ever have the right to say we need heroes, they are all around us, we just need to find them.
*I'd love to read somebody's anybody's views on this. Please comment. And add yourselves as followers if you like what you read.
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