9:30 am. wed. 21 dec 2005. road block at tripunitura jn, Kochi. Courtesy: a political rally titled, 'navakerala yatra'

judgement and concept of fairness

a soldier kills and is awarded, not punished for murder. but rewarded. Has the soldier committed murder!!?? technically yes. Has he really committed murder? perhaps not.

not all snuffing out of life is murder. murder, noun 1. the unlawful killing of one human being by another, especially when it is intentional... but communication is not just words it is more complex. not all killings are equal. some have to be rewarded, some have to be punished. that is the law of the society. i am not going to substantiate that.

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location: an electric crematorium in x town. dusk.
"there is a threshold of pain that i could take. beyond that my mind and body gave up. my tolerance was relative. absolutely" - a dead body of abc who was hanged for murder. according to him and some others, wrongfully. according to some others rightfully.

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basic.
survival. of. the. fittest.
physical needs first.
then the well being.
then comes grooming.
then craving for appreciation. (maslow).
then spirituality.

to each of us each stage is relative as well as absolute.

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self. i. me. myself. define it.
self is i.
self is mine.
then there is self which is projected self... the me keeps changing....
eg: my brother. my father. my wife. my nation. my world. my universe. all of which becomes me in different contexts. my brother is me if anyone threatens him, till that point i might have been baying for his blood. my nation is me, i will kill for it when the enemy strikes. survival of 'i' is primal need. But, the needs keeps changing. they are relative.

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location: an air cooled bedroom, close to midnight.
"the definition of me: sub-atomic particle is me. the cosmos is me. me is my community but the outsider: my enemy. mine is my survival. my well being. my grooming. my need for appreciation, my God" - the conscience of a surviving politician who instigated a communal riot.

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judgment is human capacity.
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the 14 year old mother who killed her child and was not punished for murder, the keeper of law looked beyond the law and made a judgement beyond the penal code. a murderer being set free, sounds fair in this context. but a judgment that we face everyday in the society does not always sound fair, eg. the law not applying equally to the civilian murderer and the soldier. sounds unfair?! But then the problem is not with the law. it is with the notion of fairness we are tutored into. in the wild there no mercy. there is another kind of justice. a kind that is beyond our civic understanding. lion kills his cub and sit in the shade and lick clean the last drop of blood from its paws. for many conveniences we are not far from wild. the rule of chances, survival and fate applies to us.
Thus spoke Parashu, there should be law. then there are ones who follow it discreetly. those who bend it without breaking it. That judge who sits under the virtue of words that preach 'truth shall prevail',..even as he orders the house to be seated, knows deep in his heart that justice need not always prevail.

before it rained, the clouds...first black & white then colour...