"Bangalore's crazy violence : Violence was incited,"
"Chaos in Bangalore after Rajkumar’s death"
"Rajkumar's death sparks violence in Bangalore"
He wasn't just a hero, he was veritably a god! So when god goes to meet greater GOD, the mortals were natually anguished. They mourned, they protested and in their display of homage a metropolis burnt! No, this isn't a scene from gothic literature or Mahabharata or any other epic. It's a modern day incident of a city loosely regarded as world's emerging technology hub! The aforementioned god is Doctor Rajkumar, a noble soul and a noted Kannada actor who died of natural cause at a ripe old age. What followed however, was the dance of death in which thousands of supposed fans took to streets, burnt vehicles, enforced bandh, theatened non-compliance with physical damages and further dire consequences. It resulted in the death of 8 persons and physical injury to another couple of hundreds, ...
What I'd like to draw attention on is not exactitude, but attitude - of the intellectuals, the intelligentsia and the educateds alike, who regretfully described it as a natural outpouring of the sentiments of masses and washed their hands off, or tried to underplay the whole episode. May be those 8 persons killed were the sole bread earners for their families! Nobody would know that, or try to find out, or worse, would care to know! What then should be the price of a commoner's life as deemd by the mob/society? Who deems the worth of a god, and more importantly, who all are earmarked to pay?
There's a thin line between faith and fanaticism and there's a definite price to pay when it is crossed!
I had also come across this news about a person who severed his thumb as an offering to Amma (a dubious but powerful poltician of TN)!
Reverance of this scale are dangerous indicators. The collective sanity of a million people becomes easy to hijack. The fragility and the utter lack of self-worth/identity of the masses become evident. From this volatility rises often a wild fire that can be easily directed in virtually any direction by any cunning manipulator....
It may be wise to ponder over these lines:
Unfortunate is the country that has no heroes,
Unfortunate is the country that needs heroes.
