The death of innocence.

"Heard of that kid abroad. This boy killed his fellow students just for the heck of it. What a shame!” was a comment I heard two days back. Yeah isn't it kind of true. Such shootout cases happen to kids abroad, not our precious little children who have been brought up in India.

But yesterday's shootout dispelled all myths. Azad Yadav along with his friend Vikas shot their classmate Abhishek in school. The pain of Abhishek's parents cannot be understood how so ever much we try. Their anger or shock cannot be put into words. They lost a son and on an issue where such an outcome seemed outrageous. I mean who thought that a school fight, a common sight seen across generations, could lead to a cold-blooded murder.

But right now I want to look into a totally different aspect to the whole incident. There was an article that had come out a few days back on how video games and TV have started showing violent and sexual content thereby harming the mental growth of the youth today. Such games lead kids to believe that killing is an easy way to end misery and that it's ok to use violence to get one heard.

Seeing murder and sex on a daily basis has made them a 'no-big-deal' thing these days.

But then we can't just blame the generation alone it's the whole society now that needs to take the blame. Today kids are being subjected to a lot of pressure, be it peer pressure or pressure to out-perform everyone in every field be it education, sports or other extra-curricular activities. What they need is someone who can help them out without making them feel intimidated or disgusted (read molly-cuddling teachers or over-zealous 'councillors').

These folks need help but it needs to be given very subtly. Psychiatry or Psychology may sound as great professional subjects but not many in India like to visit psychiatrists/psychologists. The discomfort stems from the fact that people believe that these doctors are for the mentally ill or to be more colloquial 'pagal' people. What they don't realise that the guys are just regular doctors who need to be visited ideally on a daily basics. Like we have family docs in India, in the US and UK most families have their own psychologist. It's a must these days.

We should stop being so arrogant as to think that the people in our society don't need it and that those people out of India suffer such mental problems solely because they have a casual lifestyle unlike ours. We still love to live in that dream world where we live perfect lives of dutiful sons, daughters, fathers, mothers etc. Unfortunately the reality is far different. We are in as much need of these doctors as anyone else across the globe. Once we accept that a lot of such problems would cease immediately.

Now back to the shootout incident.

What was Azad thinking when he was about to kill Abhishek? Why didn't anyone send all the three kids off to counselling as soon as that physical fight occurred? Had they not seen the basic fact that a physical fight meant that things had gone out of hands of the school authorities and that merely calming them at that moment or handing out punishments would not suffice?

A lot has changed in a child's psyche from what it used to be in yester years. Today children have far more responsibilities and choices in life. They can choose from a million pathways thereby they either may attain worldwide glory or might end up as Azad did... in jail.

I dunno what I have inferred from all that. Just that I strongly feel that we need to realise that such incidence won't be stopped unless we accept the faults in our society. Yes this is a great nation but it too is made up of human beings and like I said earlier in today's life we need counselling to deal with the pace and stress that comes as an excess baggage.