Wrong on all counts

Writer/director Bob Goldthwait’s film, God Bless America is stuck in my head. In it, a man in his 40s, feeding his anger against the festering American society, decides to go on a killing spree.

Why? He hates the way people have become in this century — rude, uncouth and depraved.

Finding a teenager partner, who’s more like a leech, the two bump off ‘annoying’ people one after the other.

And while the film is possibly the director’s way of taking virtual revenge on a nation — the larger picture is, well, larger.

When did we all become so rude? And what makes people think it’s okay to be rude, without reason, and expect to get away with it.

I’ve seen women speaking to salespersons in the most dismissive manner and not thanking them when they hand their shopping over; men barking at parking attendants for not hurrying up; diners shouting at servers and asking them to “be quick about it” and so on. It’s marvelous!

While I would never condone random killing, even onscreen perhaps, unless it’s some commercial potboiler where the baddie has to die before the lead pair can be united, I do wonder why rude people are rarely put in their place. No one actually responds politely asking the shouter to stop being rude. They just shout back and the ping-pong match comes back with high scores and no winners!

Talking about winners, if Bangalore has to participate in a city-planning competition, it would have had to come back with empty hands.

If you’re driving down MG Road after sundown, you’ll notice these little yellow reflectors on the road that tell you which lane you’re in, not that anyone cares. And then a little ahead towards Trinity Circle, chicanes divide the lanes further. Wonderful idea one would think, those who want to go right, wouldn’t think of staying on the far left anymore. But you see, the far left is riddled with craters (not created by asteroids or aliens) that are capable of causing some serious damage by just being there. And you thought Delhi was an unsafe city?