Shahrukh's detention - whom are we fooling?

Believe me! It’s not about Shahrukh. It is about you and me.

Most of the times we give in to the dictates in the name of practicality, without giving a thought to its rhyme or reason. If Shahrukh let an outburst, it was because it happened to him. And I am writing it here, because it also happened to me.

Last year when I was traveling to India, I overheard two gentlemen talking behind my seat in the Inter-Airport Transfer Bus. They were complaining about the over-frisking done to them and their documents and baggage on account of their being Muslims. I felt sorry, but was also indifferent. More so when one of the guys admitted that somewhere the fault lay with the community also for fomenting these problems in the first place. If they are clean, most probably, it will cause just inconvenience but not injustice to them. Quite right, I nodded. Security comes paramount.

I don’t know how life comes full circle in this world. I am subject to the same kind of counter-feeling each time I travel to US. My dossier gets an automatic red-mark, on account of my passport being an Indian, read South Asian, one. At each security point, I am asked to step aside from the queue, and undergo an extra and grilling security-check. Each time, I feel devastated, and lament the fact that despite all my education and good beliefs, I am not above petty suspicion and that too just because of my colour and region. If the check is random, it is perfectly acceptable, but if it happens 9 out of 10 times and also to your friends, you can’t buy this logic of random search. Nevertheless I gather myself up, and let go the feelings smoothen in the name of the current realities of life. The security officers, bounden by duty, are merely doing their job. Period. So, I didn’t complain even if they put me to Second Immigration Check, ala Shahrukh’s, last week on my current trip.

Shahrukh has come out though, because he is a celebrity. I totally agree with the concept of treating celebrities and common people alike. But, here the point is different. If the same Immigration Officer is treated like that in some another country, say ABC, because some fellow Americans blew up ABC’s dome, I am sure, he would be peeved. He would be angered, despite knowing that it is legal and right in every aspect.

We all feel that, because we all know that in the long run, it is not right. This extra security might create a cocoon, but each such act, creates thousands of anti-American thoughts throughout the world. I am in total awe of USA, as no country can boast of such grand achievements based on the ideals of liberty and democracy. But what about the blinkered view in pursuing those objectives?

The above debate doesn’t lead my anywhere, except re-highlighting the universally known fact of ubiquitous prejudiced and racial profiling. So, the only request to everyone-Shahrukh, me, Immigration Officer, Muslim, American, Indian, ABCian- try switching the place for one day or even one such moment, you will get the gist of everything. You will see the world is not what you see, but what you feel.