2,3, 4...

Recent events have left me puzzled.  We seem to have transcended from a “Generally Indifferent “group of people (who did not bother when things happened around them but did not affect them) to a “Grimace / Grin and bear” type of people and it is a scary thought.

Just look at the reactions to a wide range of events that touched people directly or indirectly:

•           Demonitization
•           Amma to Chinna Amma
•           The Swathi murder
•           Mass molestation of women in Bangalore

Enough has been spoken, debated, written by people; whether they were competent to do it was never an issue but what affected me was the reaction of the common majority. There was a minuscule outrage in the online space and by a few fringe elements who organize demonstrations in public places where the media and police usually outnumber the protesters. The general public just moved on.

Earlier there was no outrage and people were indifferent if things did not touch him, now even if things touch them they seem to shrug it off and move on. If society is going to be reduced to set of exclusive individuals operating in their own cocoons then the term community will no longer hold good.

Two is company, three is a crowd and you will still need four to carry the coffin. If people are going to get insular then there may be a time when in the hour of crisis there will not be even company.

The Indian freedom movement back then, the Arab Spring recently and so many more mass movements were sparked off by small incidents but the collective outpouring of people for or against the cause changed the world as we knew it. The above incidents are grave and deserve better responses than they have got, these events are a small sample of what is going on around us. If this is how we react to these things, I fear that we all are in desperate need of help.

And oh! It’s already two days into 2017, so here’s wishing you Happy 363 days more in 2017.

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