January 8, 2013

Of innocence and the loss of it…

I read this somewhere recently: “People are terrible things. Put enough of them together and havoc will be wreaked” Until recently, I would have vehemently defended the fact that there are good people, good always wins over bad, people get what they deserve et al. I have spent a considerable time arguing with my better half, who insists that most people on this earth are morons, who will screw you over every time they get a chance, and that you are supposed to protect yourself from the dark underbelly of humanity that they form. I had this belief that people usually pay for what actions they take on this earth; they cannot leave without receiving the suitable punishment for evil they have perpetrated during their lifetime. I used to imagine different scenarios for all the rascals out there: getting disabled in accidents, suffering a long bed-ridden life before eventually dying with no one at their side, etc. etc…

However, recent phenomena have changed my belief. I know a lot has been written about the horrific Delhi rape and murder case, so wont be going into too much detail. My purpose is not to provide graphic details to an incident, which I cannot even imagine happening with anyone remotely connected to me. My purpose is to decry the happenings of today, and mourn what some of our species are capable of.

Hearing the details of what happened to that girl in 40 minutes—I keep imagining what I was doing in that time… probably some mundane activity like having dinner, watching TV or just messing around with my sister—is more than horrifying… If just hearing the gruesome details makes our stomachs turn, what would the poor girl have gone through? And more importantly, if the people who perpetrated the crime were lower middle class people, similar to people who work in our homes, guard them, drive us around and do chores, who is to differentiate the monsters from the good people?

That is not to say that such people come from a particular class. In the weeks after the rape and eventual death of the extraordinarily courageous girl, the newspapers were full of similar cases all around the country. Maybe such incidents were going on since quite some time; however, the national outcry that resulted post this particularly vicious act encouraged the media to highlight the going ons all around the country. The only difference was, the rapists in these cases were like you and me, people from educated backgrounds, rich kids in their teens or early twenties who thought nothing of raping their object of affection and strangling/putting them on fire/deploying any other horrific way of killing. The media’s tendency to highlight such incidents was so predictable that I thought twice before picking up the morning paper in fear of what new detail I would come across.

The incident has destroyed something for me, maybe for all of us. With many children today asking what ‘rape’ means, our coming generation may be losing the innocence that is so precious in defining their childhood. With mothers warning their toddlers not to go with any unknown ‘uncle’ and fathers holding on to their precious ones more tightly, I do not see the child’s innocence returning too soon. I have also lost faith in my belief that people pay for their acts in their current lives. The girl who died did not deserve to die like that. And the ones who did that to her cannot have a cruel enough death to pay for what they did.

Hopefully, there is a God up there who is watching… Observing what Her creations are turning out to be… And frantically thinking of what to do to stop these atrocities. Because if She isn’t, well… I can’t even say “God help us all!”

No comments:

Post a Comment