On the 10th of February, the media obsessively reported about Malayalam actress Priya Varrier’s wink. Just a few days before this a 22 year old soldier lost his life while defending our country at the border. But the media hardly covered the heroic story of Captain Kapil Kundu.
The media went into a frenzy when the song Manikya Malaraya Poovi from the film Oru Adaar Love was posted on YouTube. The music video features Priya Varrier winking and smiling at a boy. Just the actress’ expressions gave the YouTube video over 500,000 likes and 28 million views in just one week.
The soldier was a few days away from his 23rd birthday when Pakistani soldiers attacked the jawans. Although we live in so much destruction and chaos many refuse to pay attention to the painful side of the things. Instead the media and the audience want to spend their time fixated on materialistic and fun stories.
To what has today’s media come? Why do we feel the need to turn a blind eye to the obvious suffering and sacrifices of these brave soldiers? We need to ask these questions to raise awareness about this harsh reality of life. Only then will there be change as awareness is the first step. If the media avoids reporting these stories then we fail at the very first hurdle to evoke change.
It is our duty as Indian citizens to pay our respects to these soldiers who made the ultimate for our country. The soldiers risk their lives on a daily basis and all we need to do is stand in silence and salute the one’s braver than us. We need to collectively chant Jai Hind to contribute in a small way to the stellar patriotism by the Indian jawans.
Captain Kapil Kundu was a loving son and a dedicated patriot. He loved to write poetry in English and Hindi. Here is one of those poems:
