Our borders are unsafe - concluding part

The torture starts....
All lowly people were asked to fill up the amphitheatre and all foreigners were dragged away from the maddening crowd to the safety and comfort of the space offered by the BSF jawans. Packed like sardines it was a sight to witness, but, only from a distance. People falling over each other, pushing the person in front, at the back,on the left, on the right and shouting unpleasant words at evey person who returned the favour. All this while the strong BSf 'jawans' were looking after the foreigners, the set of people whose forefathers were the sole reason why Wagha was a border and why 100 meters from my seat was a different country.

Why were the hordes of people not stopped from entering when the arena was already overflowing with people, ill words, sweat and discomfort still escapes me. HAving finally kicked and shoved a dozen people we sat down thinking what else could happen. What else? Fate had a big plan to ruin our day.

A man from the BSF camp holding a microphone came out from a BSF office like structure and greeted everyone.He did not get the response he desired for obvious reasons, so the guy had to repeat his pleasantries 3 more times asking the exhausted crowd to shout 'jai hind'. I wish i could shout or piss in his ears the fact that ' We don't have a mic in our hands and we haven't placed our asses in comfy chairs for over 2 hours'.

Moving on from the shouting display of tired patriotism, our friend with the mic then came out with two big tricolours which was greeted with, yes, loud cheers! The two flags were then passed on to random people who were asked to run with the flags towards the main gate. Why it was done, I have no clue. Young boys, young girls, old women, old men, school kids, two marathi aunties etc all got a chance to run a lap towards Pakistan with Indian national flag. The BSF jawans were still looking while thousands continued to push, shove, kick, punch.
That was not all.There were large speakers playing patriotic songs from yester years. But I guess the BSF jawans who were looking probably had enough of those numbers. So on came songs by Jazzy B, Sukhbir and some other random cheap flicks.Just perfect for the occasion.

To add to the omnipresent commotion the BSF 'jawans' who were still looking, started selling juices and chips.This had a snowball effect on the hunger stricken and thirsty public. People climbed more on other bodies not hungry for chips. More kicks flew, more anonymous punches were thrown, and the people who were supposed to be stopping all this were the instigators.

For the first time and hopefully the last time I wanted to be on the other side of the border. Where there were just a handfull of wise people who had come to watch the famous ceremony. No crowd problem, no ill mannered talk, nothing at all that would upset you on a joyous and happy day.

Banging our concerns on the BSF 'jawans' was as futile as asking Himesh to use his throat to sing/ shout or whatever. So after the 40th time when the BSF 'jawans' overlooked our pleas to ask people to sit down let alone behave, we decided to embark on another journey - that would lead us out of the arena.

My only concern is that a big post of BSF could not manage a simple show that they are running for so many years. People who had good intentions, people who were unarmed, people who came to have a good time can't be so damn difficult to control. The inefficiency and the lack of management or effort was clearly, brutally exposed that day. And like the typical Indian that I am, I promised myself to make all sorts of phone calls, emails or whatever it takes and come again to this place armed with a VIP pass.

AAAHHHH.....big load off my chest. RANT OVER