Column

It’s no ‘minor’ concern

On Saturday night I walked into a brawl on the streets of Gold Coast. It was between two groups of boys barely out of school. All of them looked the same—white, drunk, lean and hair that had never seen a comb.

The reason was flimsy— ‘he looked at my girlfriend’! I returned to my apartment and switched on the TV, only to find some news report about a boy in America who gunned a bunch of people! I am getting a bit scared of kids today.

Whether it’s the Adnan Patrawala murder in Mumbai or a brutal brawl in Gold Coast, their tendency towards violence is shocking. When I was a kid, the only violence I indulged in was getting two of my toys to beat each other up against my sound effects—‘dishoom dishoom’.

And then there were enactments of fight scenes from Hindi films where somebody would play Amitabh Bachchan and fake punch the other. But kids today get to not just punch but kill in virtual games! They even have girlfriends at an age when I used to take the Indian pledge very seriously.

After all, every textbook began with a pledge saying how all Indians were my brothers and sisters, which meant Raksha Bandhan was our biggest festival! I still remember two of my friends in high school getting into an argument when one told the other that kids are born out of a sexual act between a man and a woman.

The other was appalled. “What rubbish?” he snapped. “You mean, my parents… I don’t believe it! Aisa thodhi hota hai!”