Bullets for that bubble-gum

The grisly inauguration of ‘gun-culture’ in India having been formally completed over a twelve year old’s body, the country is all abuzz with shock and consternation in no time.

But, didn’t we see it coming?

My answer is yes. We should have.

Moreover, if we fail to stem the rot with immediate effect ‘campus killings’ might get glamorized in no time in the coming future. Children fed on graphic images of blood and gore from a very tender age grow up to believe in the apparent acceptance of it in real society. Too much time spent on the virtual world of computers give them an entirely false impression about the ‘real’ world outside. Hence, when provocation, however minuscule, coupled with the juvenile indifference to restriction cloud their senses they choose violence as the form of apt retribution. Aiding these abettors in crime are factors like negligence and lack of attention from the parents’ end which slowly make the child attention-hungry. A chance to make the world stop and take note of you is but an extremely attractive proposition in those circumstances.

One incident of Abhishek Tyagi should act as an eye-opener to all of us before our university, college and school campuses become infested with psychopathic killers on the prowl. What’s most disturbing is the fact that the offender is said to have acted out of fear of his own life, owing to a previous death-threat by the victim to him.

Bullies are not a novel concept to schools and school-goers. Hence, the fact that a mere threat was perceived to be ‘real’ in nature and that the boy really thought that the victim could actually deliver on his threat is the point of measured consideration. Two twelve year olds taking a ‘death-threat’ seriously and acting upon it in a pre-emptive manner is something that the society as a whole must deliberate upon with grave concern.

Are guns becoming too easily available? Well, if you talk of Bihar, Jharkhand, UP (and lately our own Nandigram) the answer is “yes”. But by meaning ‘availability to the urban populace who apparently have no use of it’ one would say “yes” at the risk of being labeled an outright alarmist. So, should every parent wait till there are more reports of kids getting shot by their friends before they trash that ‘Resident Evil’ or ‘God of War’ cd? The answer is anybody’s call.

But, the future in case of unrestricted exposure of children to violence does seem gloomy from here. Our indulgent eye might be met with terrifying images when, five years from now, a DU or a CU campus might see a depressed maniac or a disgruntled lover on the rampage. Only this time there might not be a petty revolver in his hand. He might be wielding a blood-thirsty Kalashnikov, fully loaded.

And he might not turn out to be as saintly as our own Sanju baba.

Photo: from gettyimages.com