Quiet that rings louder...

Its not long ago that we were hearing a lot of noise on the injustice that Union Carbide did to the people of Bhopal, killing innocent people and maiming their gen next by criminal oversight. Facts were dug out of dusty files, people were chased, point of views flashed and "new perspectives" on the entire episode were found, displayed, discussed, debated.... For a while now there is quiet. A quiet very similar to what was there for almost one quarter of the century- pregnant and holding on to hope amidst overwhelming despair. And now, the quiet rings loud, much louder than the humdrum of all the voices across media - broadcast, print, web and otherwise- that collectively made a din of noise.
And, this is not the first time that this quiet is heard. Quiet is as compelling, or even more, than all the noise ever can be. We have been witness to the quiet after every "high profile" story. A quiet that is sometimes a relief from fatigue of witnessing whipping of a story till all we can see is froth. When the froth spills and the glass falls empty, the "eye ball" catchers move on and so do we.
We are used to quiet as we are used to the noise. Both trigger conditioned response from us - some "sms" sympathy or rage as the case may be, hot and juicy discussions over a drink, posting a few blogs, some "status updates" in social media network and then... the quiet seeps in.
Like a multi-tasking OS, our minds have become accustomed to keeping a number of windows open simultaneously, albeit most of them have long gone into sleeping mode. We are used to non-closure. We can live with inconclusiveness. We have strong belief in justice of time (if it ever came)...
Lalit Modi, Ruchika Ghelotra, Union Carbide, A Raja... all these windows are still open, though gone to the sleeping mode. We have moved on to Dhoni's marriage, the breaking news around 10 pm tonight was "varmala exchanged : MSD and Sakshi Rawat exchange varmala"... nothing can get any sharper than that! We have minute by minute update - from varmala to bidai and beyond... We consume all information, required, not required, with gusto and fill the eerie quiet with noise that really does not matter.
Shuttling between noise and quiet, shifting between windows on a lappy or now on a mobile, we pride ourselves on being the "multi-tasking" generation. We pride ourselves in starting off early, but reaching a conclusive state - well there is time for it.
Right now the noise is from sports - Football, tennis, our own Dhoni being stumped for life! Tomorrow we will be crying hoarse on life coming to a standstill in opposition ruled states and how the ruling coalition fares under the collective attack. Tomorrow we would hear a lot of noise on whether the ruling coalition partners gave in to their local priorities and supported the bandh. There will be huge demand for spokesperson from political parties, NGOs and intelligensia. A ritual peeling off of all posturing on live TV! But we will be witnessing a very loud quiet on the issue of bandh itself  - the price rise.
So, we are used to selective noise and inevitable quiet. A quiet that rings louder than noise, and a quiet that affords us the luxury to look the other way and gives us a break from all the lip service we do during the noise period.
Well, now that I have made all this noise, its time I kept quiet!