An Iota Of Goodness

Two nations. Two horrific stories. One common sentiment- Anger, Outrage and Disbelief at what happened.

I am talking about the Connecticut school massacre and the Delhi rape case – 2 stories which took the 2 nations by storm and resulted in a massive outpour of sentiments by the people.

Adam Lanza- the massacre gunman who took the lives of 20 innocent children aged between 6 and 7yrs and 6 adults of the Sandy Hook elementary school  in one of America’s worst ever school massacres for reason’s yet unknown.

In Delhi, it was the story of a brutal gang rape of a 23 yr old by 6 men in a running bus which ultimately resulted in the death of the girl.

The Mayan prediction of the world coming to an end has not come true but humanity surely seems to have!

It is quite ironical that something so horrendous needs to take place for the people to start rethinking about such important issues as rape punishments/security of women and gun control laws.

Both of these stories really touched my heart and made me think.

But here I would like to ponder a little more over the Delhi case-just because it happened in a country where I come from , is something which affects every girl in our country and  therefore more closer to my heart.

India for ages has been a patriarchal society where women are always considered secondary to their male counterparts in all spheres and strata of society no matter how modern the country is turning.

The country is slowly moving forward with respect to growth and technology but in terms of the mindset of the majority of the population, it is still eons of ages backwards.

The sad part is that even the people leading and governing the country have such a mentality where they think that girls are painted and dented and their shorter clothes and longer nights out are the sole reason for inviting trouble.

If such is the attitude of the leaders of the nation, how can the rest of the people think any different?

There are many questions that arise with these incidents like what kind of punishment should the rape offenders be subjected to or what gun control laws should be put in place to prevent such crimes from happening again.

But in an age where we comfortably sit behind our computer screens browsing- there is nothing much we do other than randomly liking/commenting on   some messages about these victims on Facebook, debating about it with our friends on a Friday evening or burn a candle as part of a candlelight vigil for them.

Therefore in my opinion, the very least we can do is to take a small step in trying to change the attitude of men towards the women of our society.

As they grow, we should teach our boys to be more sensitive and respectful towards girls/ women and towards any individual for that matter. Teach them that girls are not just mere objects of desire but someone who play important roles in your lives and therefore need to be treated with love, care and respect. Treat them as your equals and not someone you look down upon. These values will ensure that your boys don't grow up to be inhuman beasts but young men whom we can be proud of even if it means bringing an iota of goodness to this world.

 And who knows maybe one day this muddy puddle of inhumanity and insensitivity created by these beasts is replaced by a pristine ocean of respect, love and humanity by the goodness of our very own children.