Asra Yousuf

Close your eyes for a moment. Shun away all random thoughts swimming in your head and visualize the face of the vegetable vendor down the street from your house whom you must have visited or at least crossed countless number of times while running errands for your mother. Now ask yourself, does that man, clad in ill-fitting clothes with unkempt hair comes across as a person you would ideally give a second thought. Would you think that poor chap to be capable of anything beyond weighing vegetables on his primitive scale and earning a meager living from his vegetable cart? If no, then think twice because I am going to tell you that that very man has the power of changing the course of history. Shocking, isn’t it?

On 18^th of December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi set rolling the wheels of an uprising which continues to make headlines even to this day, which has challenged the leaders and their governance, which has led the oppressed to revolt and fight for their right and which is currently putting international relations between the world’s superpowers to test, to say the least. How? He set himself on fire in front of the Governor’s office in his town in Sidi Bouzid after the police unjustly confiscated his wares and his repeated plea for justice fell on deaf ears.
 

Mohamed Bouazizi, who again? You might wonder. Doesn’t ring a bell, does it? Well, he isn’t your run of the mill political activist. Rather wasn’t (May he rest in peace). Neither was he a jihadi or a terrorist as is the image that any Muslim name associated with such activities conjures up. He was just the stupid , common man. Oppressed for years by the government, burdened by financial crisis, a victim of corruption; his story was no different from those of his fellow countrymen living in a country where their freedom was curbed, their actions checked and their voices unheard.  Bouazizi was just another regular street vendor with no past revolutionary history or violent record. But what sets him apart was that he chose to act. He chose to stand up and make the world notice that what was happening was wrong and something had to be done about it. May be immolating himself and dying in the process was not the best way to do it but what was needed was definitely more than a protest march. What was needed was an action that could shock the world and make it take notice. What was needed was the one match stick to ignite the fuel. What was needed was an eye-opener- an awakening to what was happening around. And that was exactly what Bouazizi’s self immolation provided. It stirred up protests in the small town of Sidi Bouzid. These demonstrations snowballed into country wide protests across Tunisia and avalanched into a revolution across the Gulf countries from Egypt to Yemen to Libya and now Syria. The revolution has seen governments getting toppled, dictators being banished and more importantly people coming to terms with what’s right and what’s not. And although the unrest and protests continue to this very day with hundreds of innocents being killed on a regular basis, the day is not far when all of it will bear fruit, when the light at the end of the tunnel will shine and the world will emerge to be a better and peaceful place to live in.

The point I am stressing on here is that we as commoners have the mentality that nothing is in our hands and nothing that we do can make a difference. After all who are we but just another stupid, common man whose existence is inconsequential to the world at large? We all are wrong. It’s not that we are powerless and small but simply lethargic and unwilling with a huge I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude. We are victims of our own creation. We all suffer from oppression and wrongdoing in some small way or the other, but we simply ignore it and move on accepting it as a part and parcel of life and assuming that it’s just the way things are supposed to be. We believe that even if we shout, our voices are too meek to be heard. We believe that even if we act, our actions are too small and they will eventually drown in the sea of injustice around us. We fail to realize the power of the stupid, common man in driving the change. One man can ignite the fire, one man can move the masses, and one man can write history. The past has countless instances of the life of such men rising from humble beginnings who have steered the future and yet we fail to find within ourselves the courage to stand for what is ours and fight for it.

A few days back, I missed a train. Ever since childhood, I’ve had this stupid bollywood fantasy of running behind the train and catching it but take my advice it is not at all romantic. I missed it not because I was late, not because I didn’t have a reserved ticket. I missed it because I didn’t wish to be trampled by the crowd which had simply forgotten all norms of civilization. I missed it because I didn’t wish to be pushed and thrown across the platform floor like the 60-year old woman was. After the train had gathered speed and was out of sight, the enormity of the situation struck me. I had just missed my train! Not just that, it struck me that the policeman who was standing a feet away had been simply looking on without even moving an inch. Opposed to my forever calm and composed demeanor, I lost my cool and that was my first public display of rage. And the funny part of it is that, there I was standing shouting at a man in uniform for his callous attitude and his worthlessness in controlling a crowd and all he had for a reply was that it isn’t his job, that his job is to keep a check on thefts and robberies. So you are telling me that people are getting trampled, old women are falling and the crowd is going berserk and your fucking job is to stand there in your khakis and catch thieves. So, tomorrow if a man is murdered or a woman is raped that is what the excuse for your lack of action is going to be? That your supposed job is to catch thieves!! And the sad part is no one listens to you- the crowd has a show to watch, the station master is powerless when it comes to the police and the authorities tell you to watch for yourself, don’t give a damn of what’s happening however wrong it maybe and hop on the next train. That’s exactly how the station master responded- “You are just an individual. Why do you care about setting things right? You can’t do it”.

Change is not a one day thing. It begins from us and has to be propagated by us. We cannot rely on men in authority or men in Khakis to carry the baton for us. What is wrong is wrong! What is unjust is unjust! What is irrational is irrational! It doesn’t mean we succumb to it and make it a way of life. We need to rise from the cacophonies and vagaries of our mundane life and take charge of the happenings around because no one is going to fight our battles for us.

“In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!”

-H.W. Longfellow