Suyash BirjeJust between the North Pole and the Equator lied a beautiful town named Hypocricity. The people of this town were as warm as the weather here, or at least they thought so. It was a town based on community feeling. Four major communities who were identified by their last names lived together happily, or, they pretended to live happily. They always tried to be inclusive and lived in a bubble of idealism, but the reality was different.
One community that went by the last name Politician pretended to care about everyone and anyone in the town. They were the decision-makers, and any decision they ever took would only benefit them. Then there were the Bandwagoner’s, this community just jumped ship on whatever was trending that week, but all the while they would pretend to show empathy. They could be easily manipulated or rather they were just in it for the fun and fame. Religion, on the other hand, was a community of believers. They believed in different faiths and followed different leaders. They were in it for peace, for an ideal world full of kindness and gratitude. But all this was in theory, they were the polar opposites in reality. They were all about proving how their beliefs are superior and they would stoop down to any level to prove it, disrupting the peace which they claim to wish for this world. Maybe that’s how the town was named. Hypocricity – the town of the biggest hypocrites in the world!
But, like all classic movies, the story isn’t complete without the villains having a toy to oppress just for fun. There was an entire community who was oppressed by the three others in Hypocricity – the Agenda community! Over the years, members of the Agenda community have been stabbed in the back by people from the rest of the communities. It started when someone decided to build colonies around the world, and hasn’t stopped even today.
Hypocricity had seen some good days too. Like the past two weeks, full of hope and sunshine. But today, it was different. The conditions were overcast with the skies covered with the faintest shade of grey clouds. Looking up you’d feel like the artist had gone for a walk after painting the canvas with one light stroke of grey. Maybe the artist will return and paint a brighter picture, full of hope. But, right now, the gloom had spread all over the canvas, and quite sadly all around this little town.
Something really tragic had happened in the wee hours of the morning. The town was ready to face yet another beautiful dawn, another day of sunshine and hope, just like it had in the past week, but instead, they woke up to a piece of rather grim news. Blake Agenda had breathed his last at dawn.
Last night the entire town went to sleep reassuring him that he mattered and they all loved him regardless of his caste or creed. In fact, they had gone a step further and raised their voices to let the world know how everyone mattered and not just Blake. To which, a battered and bruised Blake, could only smile. One of the reasons for that heart-wrenching and gutted smile was that he knew he won’t be seeing the next dawn, and the people who were reassuring him were the reason for it.
Blake had seen many of his family members die at the hands of these people from the town of Hypocricity! Every time someone from his family had tried to achieve what was rightfully theirs, they were knowingly or unknowingly killed by the community of Bandwagoners, Politicians and Religions. And the biggest problem here was that they never realised that they were the ones killing the Agenda family, one person at a time!
Blake was fighting for his basic human right to equality for the past two weeks. Growing up he was discriminated against at every stage, be it at his school, his college or at work or even at a supermarket. He was a victim of social injustice. And two weeks ago he decided he had enough. He raised his voice against the social injustice and all the discrimination he had faced. The sudden outrage, though it seemed like it was because he was denied entry in a supermarket, it was because of the years and years of pent-up anger and frustration.
One’s Agenda was set to finally break through all barriers and muster up the courage to fight the system, he garnered support from all walks of life. Everyone from the Politicians to Bandwagoners to the Religious Community – stood by him in his fight which gave him enormous strength and hopes that finally, he will be able to breathe like a normal person. But little did he know. The Politicians, Bandwagoners and Religions started showing their true colours like they always do. The hypocrisy had begun to take over the movement that Blake had started against injustice. Everyone had started bringing in their own thoughts and tweaked his movement the way it deemed fit for their own benefit or musing. The Bandwagoner’s made it about themselves. For some reason they deemed it fit to switch it to Everyone Matters from Blake Matters! The Politicians saw it has an attack on the system and ordered to shut things down, while they stood in solidarity with Blake. Religion, well, they put their hands up and did nothing. Just watched. Why would they? The fight wasn’t for a make-belief reason, it was for justice! Suddenly the movement started by Blake seemed pointless and one more Agenda failed to survive the hypocrisy just weeks after starting a movement for change.
In recent times, these three hypocritical communities have killed more Agendas than a pandemic ever will. To address the Elephant in the room, quite literally, the Bandwagoners did everything in their power to voice their opinions against animal cruelty – all for two long days! On the third day, another Agenda was killed just because of the fact that these Bandwagoner’s got bored.
Politicians have more blood on their hands than the other two communities. Well actually, Religions might have spilt an equal amount of blood. While the town was facing a life and death situation, the Politicians decided to play with one young bloke from the Agenda community called Career. They might kill this young lad with a lot of potential just because they cannot live without being spiteful and self-centred focusing on their own political benefits out of it.
And talking about Religion… let’s not! Let’s stick to something more real.
The human tendency to make things about themselves has almost vanquished the entire Agenda community. Blake was just another victim of the ruthless oppression carried out in Hypocricity. One would hope that like in movies, there’ll be a hero that’ll come around to make things right. But for now, that seems impossible because heroes do not exist in this town. The greatest trick that the devil ever pulled is that he made everyone believe that he didn’t exist! These communities are not the heroes, they are the devils. And in desperate times, every time an Agenda takes off, they slowly and precisely slit their throat, leaving them to die!
If these communities wish to be the heroes they claim to be, for once they have to let an Agenda breathe. They have to support it for what it is and not tweak it the way they want. You don’t get to tell the oppressed that everyone matters, they probably have learned it the hardest way possible. Politicians, Bandwagoners and Religions have to make sure that when people like Blake speak up, they amplify his voice.
The gloom over the town will pass only when people start caring for each other than caring for themselves.
Hopefully, the death of Blake will not be a waste.