I am always surprised at the surprise evinced by so many when godawful things go down with clockwork-like regularity. Recently a stampede claimed 11 lives and injured many more following a cricketing triumph. Lack of crowd control, non-existent planning or organisation for the victory parade caused the tragedy. In a country where overcrowding is the norm across every overpopulated inch of it, how did we not see this coming? This year alone, many lives were claimed in similar stampedes at North Goa’s Shirgao village, a New Delhi railway station, at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh where lakhs of pilgrims had gathered for a dip, and the Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala Hills. And let us not forget the theatre in Hyderabad where fans were killed in the mad dash to catch a glimpse of a film star. Yet, we are bewildered when calamitous mishaps happen on account of deliberate blindness and a lackadaisical attitude towards ensuring the safety of our fellow citizens.
The populace gasped in collective horror like the audience of Terrifier 3, when video footage emerged capturing the last moments of a family trying to escape a vicious fire. A desperate man threw two children (his daughter and nephew) from the ninth floor before jumping himself. Relatives of the deceased blame the shoddy response from the emergency services and bystanders who were busy making videos without bothering to help. Unfortunately, sarkari incompetence and societal apathy is only too typical. How many times have we seen fire-trucks and ambulances with blaring sirens stuck in impossible traffic on narrow, damaged roads packed with mammoth-sized speed monsters designed for the Autobahn and condemned heavy vehicles held together by band-aids and everything else on wheels and four legs in-between? We avert our gaze or utter a quick prayer and hope for the best. As for what needs to be done to prevent the preventable, we can’t be bothered.
There was a lot of finger-wagging over a couple of cases featuring wives who cold-bloodedly plotted the murder of theirspouses. Naturally, feminists were blamed for the deterioration of morality and the loss of traditional values which leads to such shocking crimes. Even more naturally,nobody wants to acknowledge that the system is broken, law and order is a joke, and we live in a cesspool where anarchy rules and everybodyincluding women would rather kill than be killed.
Engaging with the problems that beset us, is our collective responsibility. We can’t keep blaming themorally compromised blowhards we elected to power in exchange for freebies and empty promises about protecting caste/religion-based rights. It is high time we shake off the torpor and actively work towards eliminating the systemic rot, with a smidgen of smarts. We deserve so much better than what we have settled for like the unpretty prostitutes with hearts of lead we have become having bartered our bodies and souls for petty trifles. But in a fractured land where laziness, stupidity, and bad behaviour alone is rewarded repeatedly, we need to anticipate the worst and prepare accordingly if we have no wish to become yet another sad statistic.