Wednesday, June 23, 2010

When innocence is killed...

It is not like I waited for the incidents of the previous post to act as an eye-opener regarding human behavior. But they did set the ball rolling for my current thought process. Whenever I remember how the crows of the entire village swarmed the apartment complex and kept circling it, kaa-ing in the process, in order to protect the tiny baby crows, I keep wondering if human beings would do the same for their fellow beings...

And I must admit with regret that it's not the case always. I've seen that kind of unified support in some cases, especially in the case of accidents when a lot of bystanders rush to the spot to help the victim(s). I also remember a few incidents of theft, and threats, in the colony where I used to stay as a child and how the neighbors mostly kept to themselves for fear of being the next target.

Isn't it the case with terror attacks too? None of us may be able to forget the Mumbai terror attack but how much time does it take for fellow humans to erase the memory of the victims' faces and ignore the loss of life at various places on 26/11? And how difficult is it to engage in an organized counter-attack? Expecting too much, are we?

It doesn't take much time, energy or guts to run to the spot where an accident victim fell injured, and rush the unconscious person to the hospital but it certainly requires a great deal of courage and motivation to stand up to a quarrelsome neighbour, or a thief/ bandit with a weapon. And each time I hear of any such incident I wonder how many people and courageous souls does it take to topple a handful of thieves (in spite of their knives and guns) - 200, 300, 1,000 or more? Maybe I'm really expecting too much from cowards in the country!

One other thought that keeps crossing my mind is had one of the baby crows been killed by the monstrous monkey, would the other two crows remember the violence of their sibling's death? Or are their memories too short-lived and insignificant when compared to other greater mortals? If their memory is good enough to remember the incident for a long while, what about the violence involved in disputes, murders, brutal killings, mass hysteria and terror strikes?

What kind of lessons in humanity are we teaching our children? What kind of violent images are today's children exposed to? And considering their memories are more significant than those of the crows, I'm scared thinking about the impact all these visuals have on a child's mind and the future possibilities...

I still wonder, confused, about protecting S from all these, and more, and let her remain innocent for a little while longer... Protected from ghastly images. Protected from unwanted violence. Protected from pesky people. Protected from unnecessary tensions. Protected from every bad thing I can think of. Is it really possible? Sigh, sigh and more sigh!!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Neah, not possible shanti.. instead teach her to be Jhansi ki rani

I speak my mind ! said...

Shanti , your concerns are valid. Children are indeed being exposed to so much at such ealry stages in their lives. But I don't think they will ponder on these things for too long. The other day ,the kids in my block found a stray pup. All the children loved it instantly, gave it milk and bread , adn each one wanted to take it home. Of course none of the adults would have it( its tough to maintain a pet in an apartment, and then who has the time these days). The caretaker of our building took the pup and left it somewhere. My son was really heart broken that day. He woulndn't eat and cried the whole day. But the very next day , he was fine.That is how all humans work. Everyone is disgusted with terror attacks. But our memories will fade after a while and we move on. But that does not mean that we don't feel for the victims. Of course we do. So take heart. It is not such a bad world afterall.

Usha said...

S is a very smart girl! You should not worry so much about her. She'll be the Phoebe to your Holden if you play Catcher in the Rye with her!

memories said...

@Usha: So true! Why didn't I think of Catcher in the Rye !!