From 'Flogged'...

 A woman was allegedly raped by five men in Delhi and jumped off the balcony to escape. Shocking, isn’t it? But let me tell you, this isn’t going to be a shock for many, for it has happened too many times before. One more thing happened though, something much worse. The lady, naked and hurt was not helped by any of the bystanders after she had jumped. No one bothered to cover her or help her. Now that should be enough to give anyone a shock.
When I saw this on the news, thoughts and emotions began to race in my head. Anger came first and slowly turned into shame and sorrow, when I realised that I belong to the same species as the criminals as well as the victim. And so, I decided to share this post, something I had written about a week ago.

I was studying a history chapter for my exams when I read the word 'flogged'. Rebels were being flogged in a village. The word did something funny to me, perhaps because I didn’t find the action of 'flogging' a very human thing to do. I grabbed a bunch of papers and at around five in the morning, I began to write something not very much related to history. It was about murders and terror attacks and rapes, all the things which have made me despise my own race. I thought against posting it on my blog because it was a dark piece of writing. I decided to save it for an incident like this, which I hoped would never come. But it has.

Don’t terror attacks, murders, gang rapes, etc., seem such distant happenings? I hear about them in the news, see photographs and videos, but they all seem so unreal. I guess that’s because it is just very hard for me to accept that a human being , not very different from me in terms of genetics and appearance can do something like this. It’s like fiction, a book I’m reading or a movie I may be watching, a horror movie. It’s scarier than ghosts.

To start with, I'm going to vent my spleen on terror attacks. Hundreds die, thousands are injured and millions suffer. People bleed to death, their families are devastated, screams fly through the air, and absolutely nothing is achieved or gained. People feel momentary terror but then it fades away, not because they are insensitive but because it is very very hard to believe that this picture, painted in red, with a brush of hatred, on the canvas on revenge, is real. It's true and the fact that it is should shame us all as a race.

I’ve grown up in Pune, quite a safe environment. I’ve never witnessed anything worse than a street fight, labour camp scrimmages, and people attacking other people with stones on the streets. I’ve seen the police arrive in jeeps, twice, because of murders but never saw them happen. Honestly, I found these things bad enough.
My parents, quite open minded, allowed me to be independent and do what I wanted as long as it didn’t harm or affect others, or me, adversely. They did, and still often do scold me, but I haven’t faced anything I’ve heard children struggle against.

My friends have had similar upbringings, though most of them were given lesser independence than me. But the one thing common is that all of us have till now, been comfortable and safe. None of us have been harassed or kidnapped or been victims of terror attacks. Come to think of it, we haven’t even been mugged or robbed.
Growing up in such an environment lead me to believe that this is how people are supposed to be, good, warm. And even if they’re not, the worst they can be is arrogant, rude, jealous, mean, disrespectful or selfish. Now that I think of it, jealous or rude is more the best case scenario than it is the worst.

When I see what’s happening around, my first reaction isn’t fear or grief. It is pure, utter disbelief. Disbelief towards the people who commit such acts and not the act itself. I simply fail to understand how a person can knowingly, deliberately, conspire to kill people. How is it, that humans can even think of annihilating other humans, knowing that they have families who care about them, children to feed, maybe parents to take care of, clients or students or patients to attend to, knowing that once dead, they cannot be brought back to life. How can they destroy upbringings, years of sacrifice and effort, in a millisecond without giving it a second thought? How can they kill goals and dreams? Do they have none?

I don’t get how a bunch of boys, can force a girl, rape her, make her cry, scream in pain, fight against pure agony, just because-I don’t even know why. For fun? For enjoyment? For what exactly? And is the life of someone worth a few moments of fun? It’s simply beyond my capacity to understand why. In fact, I believe no reason, no strong purpose can justify something so inhuman. It is deed that cannot be done.

I use the word cannot because, as humans, an intelligent species, who feel emotions, we should not be capable, we should not have the mental ability to do something so pathetic, hurtful and sad. 

If I were told to do something like this, I don’t think I could have done it even if I wanted to. My conscience would not be able to withstand the guilt of the very thought, let alone the actions. I wouldn’t be able to tolerate the idea for very long before having a mental breakdown. The very fact that we have developed ways of not having this breakdown, of not letting our conscience crack, just to hurt another of our own kind is something no language I know has a word bad enough for.

Even worse, is what has happened now. These things have become common. We now think of them as defects or problems of our society. We think of them  as challenges that we need to overcome and this mindset is as bad as the 'problems'.

These inhuman acts are not defects. They are a part of the society gone very bad. Rapes, terror attacks, etc., are not problems that shouldn’t have arisen in a civilised society in the first place, simply because humans shouldn’t have been capable of doing so. The very need to find solutions to these problems is shameful and shows us where we’ve come as a race.

There are people who will not resolve to such extremities but most of them are selfish, apathetic and  have a total disregard for rules. Things like this make me wonder if it is time that the human race becomes extinct. Those who made it happen and those who let them.

But again, there is a 'but'. I know people who do believe in good and try to make a difference. I know people who will go out of the way to help even a stranger. My dad says, there are thousands of good people for every thief, murderer and rapist there exists. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never faced anything like this which means that there are good people. Then, I have only one question to ask. Why are we silent? Why are we letting these horrific things happen? Why are we letting our race be defined by the acts of a few despicable members?

It is up to us, to let the darkness around overshadow our light or become the change. I ask all of you, who have faith in humanity, however little it may be, who have hope, to stand up for what you believe in. I ask you to break your silence.