Lost Souls in a Stark World

Recently the gruesome murder of a school teacher by a ninth standard student right in front of  other students in mid- morning has sent shock-waves among parents, youth and all sections of society. Used as we are to opening the morning paper and reading the endlessly gory reports of  child abuse, student suicides ( they have almost become a daily occurrence that people have stopped to figure out the reasons behind it), yet this latest incident just cannot be dismissed  that lightly.  Where are we headed-  all norms of decency seem to have been given the bye and brutality and bestiality seem to be ruling the roost!

All that happened was some adverse remarks about the boy’s Hindi performance  with an intention to improve his progress. From all reports, the teacher was a kindly person who took an initiative to help weaker students. The boy apparently had hitherto shown no signs of deviant, violent behaviour. Then how did the Chennai incident happen? It is too horrendous to be dismissed as an one off thing-  it throws up a whole lot of disturbing issues. Who is at fault-  the  educational system, society or the children of today. In India, we usually have student suicides which again seems to be increasing at an alarming rate. Students opening fire in classrooms were incidents which only happened in the Western countries where juvenile aggression is attributed to a whole lot of psycho-sociological problems.These issues have to  be thoroughly examined and tough solutions found for we are otherwise headed for Disaster. 

The boy has said that watching certain media programmes prompted him to behave thus. That throws open a Pandora’s box full of squirming vices and vileness.Depraved politicians watch porno while legislative proceedings are going on and are brazenly shameless about the whole thing. Our films also glorify violence and all forms of aggression.

I taught in my Alma-mater for a short while, decades ago. The teenagers of yester-years  are all mature, strong independent women today. I am proud to say that we share a very tender, beautiful relationship through Facebook. But that idyllic student-teacher world ironically is almost farcical today.One thing is certain- children who remained flowers to Jawaharlal Nehru are certainly not that any more.The Age of INNOCENCE is lost. Welcome to the frightening world of Juvenile  Barbarism a harbinger to a depraved posterity.