The Seventh Circle

Scene from 'A Hetadik Kor’ (The Seventh Circle).

Inferno or hell

Its seventh circle is based on the pillar of violence. I knew nothing about all these till I watched a Hungarian movie ‘A Hetadik Kor’ (The Seventh Circle).

Stunned and Saddened by the movie I was sleepless and afraid of going to bed in packed hotel.

It was late November –Goa, 2009.IFFI

Why so much of pain in some creative work? That too using few innocent children as protagonist?

Distressed and restless by all I went to the sea shore and met one person I befriended two days back in the film festival arena.

We started the topic and he took an opposite point of view –‘why not pain? The genesis of these middle European countries is based on pain; look back at the holocaust, the devastation and the national pain arising out of it.’

He said –‘As a result of all this pain has mutated into each and every individuals living in those area. So pain is used catharsis or as prophylaxis so that such kinds of holocaust never resurface.’

He said these countries were destroyed completely by the holocaust but now?’

I  didn’t had the answer  except my little knowledge from art work of my favourite writers and movie maker from those place I had  didn’t had a grip over the middle Europe .

He said ‘Pain serves as a fuel for progressive genesis.’

To check the truth I goggled and tabulated something like this 

	Population	Noble prize	Literacy rate	Maternal Mortality rate	Olympic gold  2012
Poland	38,511,824	12	99.3%	8 per 100,000	10(2 gold)
Hungary	9 946 282	12	99.4%	15 per 100,000	17(gold 8)
Austria	8,419,000	19	99%	5 deaths/100,000	o
Chech	10,562,214	5		9 per 100,000	10( 4 gold)
Germany	81,726,000	102	99.0%	8 per 100,000	44(11 gold)
India	1,210,193,422	7(except Tagore,and Raman all were either  born or worked outside)	74.04%	540 per 100,000	6 (Gold 0)

My new friend question was what have Indian contributed in original after zero.

I was petrified because I also found that Assam is having a population of around three crore, with literacy rate and maternal mortality rate among worst in Indian state and yet to have a Nobel laureate or Olympic winner?

I asked myself –are we lacking in national pain?

I looked back at Assam history –

1769-1783 The Moamoria revolt

Because of internal feuds (among the becurocrtaes, among different sect 600 year old Ahom dynasty whom Mohugal could never invade was destroyed in internal feud due to this Moamoria revolt

Can’t we call it pain?

But the result of all the revolt leads to the Burmese invasion

Burmese invasion 1817-1825 –the worst days of Assam history.

There were death, mass migration, rape, famine; people who survived saw it all. 

Can’t we call it a national pain?

But what was the result? The English invasion (1825-1947) –for the first time there was victory for western invader in Assam.

Wasn’t it a national pain?

English gave us education, progress, mode of communication, oil tea and we continued the way it always has been –indifferent!

Intoxicated with opium induced plethora we continue to fighting for language, infiltrator, so called independence, State and what not? We saw our land divided into many, we saw mistrust among our self. We lost thousands of people for those reason, missed a university calendar.

We stopped discriminating between martyrs as there are so much of them.

Aren’t these our national pain?

That night my new found friend was saying ‘Pain serves as a fuel for progressive genesis.’

The question in my mind was inst so much of pain over three hundred years not enough?

I felt like the child trapped in self indulged   hanging noose in the movie ‘A Hetadik Kor’.

As if we the people of Assam are trapped inside the seventh circle of violence and there is no chance of reversal.