Its gonna be a long night

There is this movie, Raavan, a story loosely based on Hindu mythology, except that its written from the villain's end. If the story is stripped out of all nouns, it becomes, " Bad guy's sister commits suicide because of good guy's men. Bad guy kidnaps good guy's wife, but falls in love with her. And then they fight and good guy wins". The thing is that its written from the bad guy's angle. That by the end you are tempted to change sides and feel for the bad guy. That good is not flawless and bad is not all sin. Not anymore for sure.

When there is any conflict, any bloodshed, it ends only in dispair and sadness. Its only the starting of war that may have a right and wrong, moral and immoral attached to it. Quoting Shantaram, "Men wage wars for profit and principle, but they fight them for land and women. " and adding to it, "Men wage wars for profit and principle, they fight them for land and women and with all possible arms" . What if you have missed starting of the scene or you don't trust the version told to you. What if you don't know who stuck the first blow? And all you know is that wrong is being done from both sides. Can you pick sides then?

Isn't it so for most of the war stories told to us? Winner gets to write the history and hence becomes the good guy. Nazis were bad because they killed Jews, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were just two honest mistakes? And more recently, Naxals are killing Indian policemen and centre is thinking about involving army, using more force to end this once and for ever. Nobody can listen the call for peace amongst the war drum rolls. Who is right and who is wrong? As of now, Naxals are not ready for peace negotiations and centre is not ready to drop arms either. The beginning seems to be missing from the story.

Once, the enemies have been identified and blows are struck, all sense of right and wrong dissolve. He killed an innocent guy from your village, you kill another one from his side. The loot is given to the winner and survivors live happily ever after. Nobody represents the innocent by the time war ends. Welcome to the real world.