While environmentalists may clamour about water, air, noise pollution, many of my esteeemed friends, residing by busy Airports and dizzy motorways confide that they cannot do without the drone of the airplanes or the disturbances caused by the cavalcade of vehicles in the neighbourhood. For me, it is the exact opposite. When I visited Kolkata to attend my uncle’s death anniversary, I could not sleep a wink because of the continuous din of the heavy vehicles passing by throughout the night. Though, residing by the longest network of road in the Capital, the direction/location of my flat is such that it prevents the heavy noise of the steady stream of traffic 24Xx7, from percolating into my day to day life. God’s grace because I am a light sleeper.

But what intrigues me more is the calm acceptance of violence in today’s lives. We are no more surprised by the blood and gore splashing the headlines of the dailies. When an aged couple gets killed by a rogue of a servant, who had been staying with them for years, we snigger a “yeh to hona hii thaa” response. When blood soaked bodies lie by the road side we quickly change gears and flee to escape from police interrogation (read harassment). After 26/11, the metros remained almost empty just for a day or two. Thereafter, it was routine. It was not that one should have been cooped at home to avoid an imagined disaster. But what was more endangering was the black humour which ensued. If a luggage was found unattended, the commuters joked about sniffing a bomb amidst the layers of clothes and other day to day necessities packed within. It was as if they had accepted their fate that a sudden massacre could end their lives anytime like the wick of a burning candle blown off by a mere phew!

To borrow a few lines from the brilliant essay written by my learned co-MSian @jmathur - as we deaden our minds to the imminent danger of a catastrophe we also de-sensitize ourselves from the burning issue and adopt a no-concern attiMr_Customer. Optimists may call it adaptability. Pessimists may view it as escapism. The debate continues.

I remember having once written a short story in versified form on the instant topic of discussion which goes something like this –

The shepherd boy lives by a happy stream

Jumping over a pebbled path without a break

As the sage like mountains watch with a scowl

A few huts sleep by the dancing waves

A gay flute fills the afternoon sky

Crooning a tale to the grazing sheep

As the fire dies down behind the peaks

The boy returns home with his gay herd

To have a frugal meal and retire to bed

At night when he tosses and turns on his sides

The guns roar a lullaby on the other end

Listening to the drumming drone every night

The boy peacefully goes off to sleep

The other night was unusually calm

The stars shone cheerfully bright

The moon beamed like a crystal maze

And the guns bellowed not

A single song throughout the night

The boy next day was late

To his work

Not a wink did he sleep

The previous night

I assume that this must be the case in war torn countries and with people living beside man-mad LoCs. But let’s not get morbid; rather, pray that sanity prevails before the species coined as Homo Sapiens in their overbearing vanity born out of intellectual supremacy marches headlong towards the road to extinction. Let’s pray that our planet Earth who has mothered us through epochs sees a violence-free global civilization soon.

Amen!