Katha

As he sat there twiddling his thumbs, wondering what was taking so long, he couldn't help but notice the piece of gum stretched along the side of his boot.  Darn, when will those teenagers ever learn.  Must have been spat quite recently, he thought to himself after an up-close inspection.  They had been in pristine condition as he stepped out on the warm sunny afternoon.  It wasn't till later in the evening that the heavens opened up and he regretted having taken the brand new suede leather out.  Trying his level best to skip from shelter to shelter without having to dip into any puddles, he tip-toed along the road back home.  At the last crossing he remembered cursing the hatchback as it splashed and sped past bringing all his effort to naught.  Mumbling and cursing, he bent down to tie his shoelaces, and salvage whatever dry patch there was left, only to see he had stepped on a filthy piece of gum too.  A shrill honking sound pierced through his ears and before he could look up, his name was called out as he got up from his chair to walk towards the pearly white gates. The End.

Pack of wolves

I’ve been spending a lot more time on Twitter lately. I tend to get my daily news digest, the day’s hilarity and at times an interesting article or two is thrown may way during the day. Perhaps the way a lot gets said in a meagre 140 characters is what has kept me hooked for the past few months. Today was no different. Following TED for a long time and getting intrigued by the videos being tweeted, I decided it was time to download the app on my phone rather than go through the drill of swiping everything into my Flipboard magazine for later viewing. On a side note, I ought to get some sponsorships for this post considering I’ve already mentioned three online content portals in the first paragraph itself. Thirty eight new videos uploaded on TED flashed before my eyes as I opened the application. The first, a talk given by Monica Lewinsky. I must say it seemed intriguing, but I still scrolled through. Haven’t been one for gossip or conspiracy theories. But as I scrolled down to probably the fourth or fifth video on the list, the title struck me again – ‘The Price of Shame’. Now this does not sound like a political gimmick, a PR act nor did it appear to be a long-awaited confession of shame. The ‘price’ of ‘shame’ – I do not know. I figured twenty two minutes would not be a bad investment considering lunch was still a good half hour away. I clicked on play and listened.

I must confess, there was this anticipation that it’ll turn into a crib session where she’ll curse the world for making her life hell. However, listening through the entire talk put a lot of things in perspective. We wield a power whose strength we do not fully comprehend. Our digital lives have transformed into something more than just an extension of our being. The digital ‘us’ defines how we move and function in society, not the other way around. We pacify our insatiable need to ‘fit in’ with a conformist approach to be a part of the pack. To hunt is now the only way to keep yourself from being hunted. We have evolved over thousands of years suppressing our basic instinct to kill and eat as the most rudimentary functions of life. Unfortunately, we have not realised that the destructive mentality has underlined our behaviour to the point where it has become one of the strongest unifying elements. We rejoice when a news anchor performs a character assassination on national television, laud the efforts of a rebellious mob that tries to take law into its own hands, make a hero out of a keen observer who pointed out one cricket website’s plagiarism of another’s commentary for a single ball leading to someone losing his job. Our personal timelines read of unimportant dribble. To rake up a storm, people put up messages in support of social outrage. Worth is measured in the number of likes you get, the more you have, the stronger you’re supposed to feel. Nobody cares about solutions, about application, understanding. It is all about broadcast. How far can you yell? Message boards get created, ridiculing, shaming, booing. Hand pick a few of this pack, question them, probe if they really understand the gravity or the context of what is going on and they disappoint. Why then this herd mentality?

Because we are too afraid to go at it alone. Let me wait for some ruckus to brew and I can contribute. If so many people are doing it, there must be some logic to it, maybe I too should be a part of it. A tiger hunts alone, because he realises that the risk of going alone is his own, the choice his own and the consequence his own to bear. Wolves hunt in packs, for them the choice is never theirs so the consequences of their actions never theirs to bear. We are a pack of wolves, gladly a part of the hunt, never willing to be attributed for the kill. It is time we held ourselves accountable and understood the gravity of our actions. To be compassionate once again, to not judge so easily and above all to have our heart in the right place. It is much easier to destroy than it is to build.

It is time to roar like a tiger than to howl like a wolf.