"You can't stay neutral on a moving train"

It has been a rough day.

This morning I woke up to news about terrorist attacks in south Bombay, also known as "my Bombay". I don't know these Bandra-Borivali suburbs, they were not part of my childhood. I know south Bombay. Chowpatty-Girgaum where my relatives live and my parents grew up. Colaba where I drank beer and made desi eyes at a white tourist for the first time (we all remember our first time). CST (or Victoria Terminus, because I am stuck in the past) from where we always caught our train to Gujrat. Nariman Point where we went after dinner sometimes to just listen to the ocean waves mingle with the sound of horns from cars. This was all I knew of India until age 15, and this was the India which was attacked. I don't take it personally, the world doesn't revolve around me, but I'd like to feel like shit about it for 2 seconds.

My other "home" meanwhile is on the brink of anarchy, though it was top story yesterday my place of birth took it over today. As I brace myself for whatever is to come here in Bangkok, be it a coup or be it a bloodbath (most likely, it will be both), I know things have shifted and nothing will ever be the same again. Both cities will have to change, and I with them because I am connected to them as they are to me.

An activist friend said to me yesterday "you can't be neutral on a moving train" and that has repeated itself in my head all day. What does that mean? Many activists who were previously non-aligned have decided to join the reds, who are pro-government, despite being in ideological opposition to them. Their argument is, when faced with a situation where electoral democracy is at stake, the ends justifies the means. Therefore, join the reds, because the reds want to keep electoral democracy.

See, if a crisis were to break out on a moving train and a difference of opinion were to arise, everyone is still on the same fucking train!! We're on the same railway tracks and our fate is shared. If you think about the analogy, it's really not about picking sides, but about working together for the same end result. And so, does the saying make sense? Perhaps it is when you are on a moving train that you should actually be neutral?? Or am I completely misunderstanding the metaphor?

And what do I think of neutrality? In all honesty, neutrality in my chosen feild of work is linked to apathy and indifference. I am never neutral, and I never will be. "Non-aligned" is not the same as "neutral". I remain non-aligned, that is my stance.