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Being Heard

Following the horribly sad events unfolding in Ukraine from afar made me think of my first time watching Rashomon and then a few times thereafter in different points of time in life. Each time it became more evident that there is no single truth in the telling of history even if relatively recent. Events come to be seen in very different light as time passes and new perspectives emerge. 

The further we are from the place, time and people who are impacted or actors in the the story, the harder it is to understand what is going on. The question of who is at fault for what is going on today can provide much more than Rashomon's four perspectives on the same event. I have friends and colleagues who are native to either side and some whose families have roots that go across both. Depending on who you ask there is a different answer - it is a factor of their age, the strength of their connections to the home country and how their lives in America have shaped up to be.

My friend C wrote an impassioned note to people at her workplace - as a Russian, she felt compelled to separate herself from what is being done in Ukraine the name of that country. That reminded me of the riots in Gujarat in 2002, News traveled world-wide and in America those that were aware expressed concern about what this meant for the future of India as secular country; why more was not being done to make the madness stop. 

At the time, the average person from India when quizzed about events in Gujarat felt much like C does now, yet there was not much we could do. In a far more hyper-connected and always on world two decades later, there is this naïve presumption that the voice and aspirations of the average citizen matters specially when it is at complete odds with that of the powers that be.  
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