Monday, May 18, 2009

Another one bites the dust

I was eating lunch today in the cafeteria when I first heard about Prabhakaran’s death. It was on TV, “Prabhakaran Dead”, written in big bold letters. I returned to my desk and immediately logged on to BBC, and there it was – Prabhakaran shot dead. I was not surprised, but I kind of felt sorry for the man and his lost cause. He fought long and hard for 37 years for a cause he truly believed in, and all he got in the end was a gruesome death, “His body was badly burnt when his armour-plated van was hit by a rocket and burst into flames.” – times.co.uk. Died like a true hero, or rather, a true villain. If it was the movies, after making his escape on foot /by car/train/plane he would be pursued by the hero who would eventually catch him and they would fight ferociously and recklessly, and since he was the villain he would die the most horrible and nausea-inducing death, he would fall off a cliff and bounce on the rocks a hundred times/would get his head blown off by a rocket or bomb/would be impaled on a sharp rock/fence/wood that would conveniently be found at the fight scene/ would get crushed by some heavy machinery / or get sucked into a huge rotating fan or wheel and blood would splatter out .... you get the picture.

When we think of LTTE the first thing that might come to our minds is Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination on 21 May 1991. I remember that day, or rather one thing about that day. A neighbor (who at that time was a politician’s wife) came running into our house blabbering “They've killed him, they've killed him.” The whole country mourned, and Rahul Gandhi so young and lighting his father’s funeral pyre must have evoked many tears. Those images and memories came back to me when I first heard of Prabhakaran’s death.

I don’t know if it is an indication of abnormality or strangeness, but dead rebels and captured terrorists/criminals always bring out the sympathizer in me. I hated Saddam Hussein like everyone else did when he was in power and he was the big bad guy, but the guy got captured and photos of him with his unkempt white beard came out, and he looked so pitiful and so like somebody’s father/grandfather. I felt a bit sad the day he was hanged, and the videos made everything somewhat sadder. Kasab, one of the terrorists who attacked Mumbai, got captured, and he looked so young and so vulnerable. He no longer looked like the machine-gun-toting bullets-spraying maniac. He looked like somebody’s son.

A few days ago some photos of Prabhakaran were published in the newspaper; in the swimming pool with his son, with his parents and wife and children. He looked very normal, like any regular family man, and if you’d seen that photo anywhere else you'd probably have thought “Oh just another South Indian family.”

In the end, we all die - no matter how good or bad we are.

7 comments:

  1. "In the end, we all die - no matter how good or bad we are." Sad but true..
    I remembered Rahul Gandhi pouring Ghee over his Dad's pyre, and when he threw the containing vessel, I think the whole country felt his anger too.
    Prabhakaran died an honorable death, fit for a terrorist, swift and quick. But what Saddam endured was immoral on Americans, they paraded him, leaked his prison videos (probably intentionally) and humiliated him in front of the whole world to show American Supremacy.. CRAP!! and then they hung him and shamelessly leaked out the videos for all to see.. I don't think anyone deserves a death like his.. It only begets more anger.

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  2. There was a picture of Charles Anthony's dead body in today's newspaper, and an ex-LTTE member, Mr Siddarthan said Prabhakaran must've tried to save his son. Isn't that truly honourable? He might have been a terrorist, might have been responsible for the death of thousands but he still felt normal human emotions like the love of one's children and the willingness to lay down one's life for them.

    And regarding Saddam and his captivity I completely agree with you. OK the man was a criminal, he was caught, but it was not right to treat him like a common burglar and "leak" his photos and videos. He deserved something better, more respect for his genius. I think in a way criminals and terrorists are far better than us hypocrites, they are not as two-faced as we are and most of them are much more intelligent and smarter than we ever will be.

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  3. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
    I too find it disheartening to har about his death, especially living in Tamil Nadu, one gets a little creeped out thinking of the possibilities of violence and unrest.
    But it also made me think "Had he been chasing a rainbow, had he been chasing the wrong goals?"

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  4. I think his goals were absolutely fine - better treatment of his people. But his modus operandi was violence and terror, and that's where he went wrong and that's where he lost the sympathy vote. The world branded him a terrorist but to his people he was a great freedom fighter. May his soul rest in peace, finally.

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  5. It's sad that the ball of violence keeps rolling. Prabhakaran got thousands and thousands butchered for the 'cause'and caused such horrendous suffering.

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  6. The ends didnt justify the means..so to say
    Again as George Carlin said...military cemeteries all around the world are filled with brainwashed soldiers who believed that they were on the right side.
    Violence is never an option anywhere. Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr had shown the world

    As Calvin (&Hobbes) asked his dad, How do you think adults killing each other with guns are going to solve the worlds problems

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