Takht Ya Takhta

There used to be a saying during the Mughal rule in India,"TAKHT YA TAKHTA", which means, "Crown or Coffin". It aptly described the fratricidal wars fought between the Mughal bothers for the prized Kingship which knew no Kinship.  In the end one brother ended up with Crown, the rest of the brothers rested in graves. Fundamentally hardly anything has changed over ages. It is invariably the winner take it all world. Others who lose the battle are destined to be relegated to the backburner of history.

A few days ago there was a severe thunderstorm in the USA Capital of Washington DC. Four persons were taking shelter under a tree right in front of the White House when they were struck by lightning. Three of them died and only one girl survived. The survivor was all over Prime time cable networks on TV describing her ordeal with the lightening strike and how immensely lucky she was to be still alive. She sure was lucky. Those who died faded into oblivion. The one who made it through the lightening strike, struck a goldmine. She crashed into instant limelight as TV cameras followed her around. She lived for another day to bask in glory.

How many remember this incident from the Kargil War in 1999 when two IAF pilots ejected from their fighter planes and landed in the Pakistani territory ? One of the pilots was brutally tortured and killed before his body was returned to India. The other one, named Nachiketa was lucky to return alive in one piece. Not many, including me can remember the dead pilot's name from top of my head. But we remember Nachiketa, who would have been turned into a superstar if social media existed those days.

Fast forward to the Indo-Pak imbroglio of 2019 when social media had established its footsteps world wide. Thankfully, our pilot Abhinandan who ejected and parachuted in Pakistan came back alive and kicking to receive rockstar welcome at home. God forbid, if something bad happened to him there would have been a huge hue and cry. But he would have been forgotten soon from the public memory. Now if he desires, he can join politics and possibly end up as the Defense minister of India.

Tragedies occur all over the globe. Many perish, some survive. The survivors are often treated as heroes earning a new lease of life and a life of celebrity. The rest who perish soon fade into dusk laden horizon. The Pakistani teenager Malala was shot by the Taliban. Luckily she survived. She became an icon of the oppressed girls in that ravaged nation, eventually earning the coveted Nobel Peace Prize. Had the perpetrators succeeded (mercifully they didn't) nobody would be remembering her like many like her killed by Taliban.

There was this incident a few years back involving a boat which went adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. Two survived and the rest didn't. The ones who survived got all the media attention in America. They were shown live on prime time narrating their harrowing experience. Those who drowned were barely remembered. Elizabeth Smart the girl kidnapped in 2002 survived. Now she has written a book and is all over the talk shows on TV minting money. Many kidnapped kids vanished for good never to return. They were soon forgotten. 

Such a thing called destiny. Not many remember Michael Dukakis, Bob Dole or Al Gore, the later who was so near yet so far to the White House. It was because all of them lost their election. It's a cruel world. History is always partial to the winners, with losers destined to its dustbins. Life ain't fair and lovely. Never it was, never it will.