A mother attempts to murder her daughter by strangulation because she disapproved of her paramour. A seven year old girl is beaten & branded with hot spoons, tortured by her stepmother for two months running, needing hospitalization. A battered baby lies in AIIMS Delhi, battling for life for more than two weeks, finally succumbing to her injuries. A ninth class student kills his class teacher because she admonished him for his studies in front of the class. Every day, you will find one such piece of news that renders you completely dazed. And these are only some of the incidents of manic rage and the resulting havoc wrought, that we battle with today.
It is an uneasy head that wears such a crown, the crown of boiling fury that allows aggression to translate to bodily harm and a breakdown of all moral barriers – socio-economic, cultural and most heart-wrenching-familial.
I wonder are we even humans? We are known as civilized people observing some norms to co-exist with our society members. Where has the feeling of brotherhood lost? I guess now it’s all limited to the textbooks of school days, we once learned about. Anger has blinded us to the level that killing someone brutally or battering someone just seems like another task, without making our heart wrench even once. Such malice, such anger spewing would annihilate this beautiful place one day where we all live, leaving the heartless monsters to rip off the peace. What have we as a society fallen to? Worse, this aggression, should we say bloodlust, has percolated all levels of society.
Domestic violence is another issue, highlighted by the media every now and then which has become sharp and threatening like never before. I recently read a report that how even children today (as young as three years) need anger management classes and are increasingly being referred to mental health experts to help them tide over their relentless aggression. The innocence of childhood is taken over by the ogre of anger.
What to attribute to this rise in levels of frustration, such that it boils over, why, really, this Kolaveri Di? There are so many possible reasons for the rising frustration and hence aggression, be it at the world stage where the discontented fiscal rumblings in the US and Europe keeps us on the hook, or our local woes like that of intangible monsters like rampant corruption and scams, or the precarious state of the current government, or more tangible civic issues like the dismal state of city roads or lack of basic amenities, to those in need, finding it difficult to make ends meet - where to stop?
But stop it must, this raging fury in our society, before its destruction reaches unimaginable proportions. What we need to introspect on, is how to contain it before it becomes unmanageable, before the social fabric is rent beyond repair, before the nonviolence our country’s founding fathers were so emphatic about, becomes an anachronism to be found only in history texts and nostalgia. Before we kneel down and give up to our cruelty, we need to make ourselves more humane. Because only we can do it!
