The dictum of a mob

"हमारे देश में सबसे आसान काम आदर्शवाद बघारना है और फिर घटिया से घटिया उपयोगितावादी की तरह व्यवहार करना है। कई सदियों से हमारे देश के आदमी की प्रवृत्ति बनाई गई है अपने को आदर्शवादी घोषित करने की, त्यागी घोषित करने की| "

          ~हरिशंकर परसाई ( आवारा भीड़ के खतरे )

 

Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I don't know enough.  But what has been happening around us in past few months is quiet distasteful and disturbing . An actor is found dead in his apartment who has been a diagnosed case of depression for years. Ofcourse how it happened remains unclear and if it was a foul play the investigation is in process.  But what became stark during this time was a herd mentality of witch hunting where compassion is dead and the news reporting gone from bad to abysmal. 

A person loses his life. Instead of paying the due respect that he deserved, a mockery and criminal case is made out of it. When a thing like happens its a caveat for us to relook the importance of mental health,  be a little more aware of its consequences, rethink about being a little more sensible towards our interpersonal relationship  because you know not what the other person might be suffering from. Sadly thats the tough way in this time of instant gratification. Trolling, hate comments, hitting a dislike and sharing memes is far easy to gratify one that they have done their part in something good. Its day and age of online verdict, cyber bullying and lynching ; even after the investigation if the person comes out to be clean will that acquittal be enough for the person to start the life where she left.

I felt baffled initially but now I get why it has become what it has become. A filmstar having committed suicide for reasons known to him is a mundane news. The narrative we would rather be interested in is murder, controversy, adultery,  money laundering,  nepotism. People opportune it to spill out their instored hate and passive aggression. In a scenario where there are serious crimes,  murders, rapes, abuse happening round the country,  we have become a suicide capital,  but the national discourse is skewed towards this. The way we have chosen to show support doesn't that impact the mental health of people recklessly targeted. If our compassion is selective it might as well be dead. In subliminal consciousness I am aware its possible that even one of the allegations if proved out to be true then the internet would flood with people with conceited sense of victory thrashing the few who didn't believe otherwise and so I started writing it all with a 'maybe '.