Jan-March 2006 - Institute of Sikh Studies

A TALE OF HELPLESSNESS85This awareness in a 32-year-old was an eye-opener!Today there are no jobs to rehabilitate those graduates orprofessionals who undergo de-addiction and want to lead a normallife. After drifting in a void for some months, without anything toexhaust their energies, these youth go back to being addicts. Whenthey run out of money, they become peddlers. I feel helpless, for Statepolicies are not what they should be, and one can do nothing about it.On the one hand, I see the youth of my state killing themselvesand, on the other, I see unaccounted poppy blooming in theneighbouring Rajasthan, UP and MP, and I feel helpless that the powersthat matter cannot see where Punjab is heading! Where is the Stateconsciousness?Young Megha, who has been my companion for some hours, says,“Maybe because we have become used to this extensive drug abuse,your reaction seems strange!”Harnek, who has been driving me around, comments, “There areparents, who will fall before you and beg you to get their sons cured,but there are also others for whom peddling is the only means oflivelihood.”What had started for me as a recce for my next documentary,has become an ordeal and a tale of helplessness. Would making a filmhelp wipe out the agony and tears of thousands of mothers, fathers,wives and sisters? Is someone out there listening to what has gonewrong with my Punjab?¤By joining the society of saints Man’s soul is illumined for ever,And he obtains a dwelling at God’s feet.O my soul, daily repeat the Name of the Omnipresent Lord.My soul, by this, thou shalt always obtain coolness, tranquilityand peace, and all thine sins shall depart.– Guru Granth Sahib, p 378sdw sdw Awqm prgwsu ] swDsMgiq hir crx invwsu ]rwm nwm iniq jip mn myry ]sIql sWiq sdw suK pwvih iklivK jwih sBy mn qyry ]