I was scrolling through my social media accounts after hearing the news of the death of Sushant Singh Rajput from social media. I was more disturbed by the responses that poured in within a few hours than the tragic news itself. In fact, those were unsettling for anyone who believes in the idea of dignity, before and after.
Some reactions to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death were in extremely poor taste.
Some of the responses are and I quote, “Admi ke paas paisa aa sakta hai, sohrat aa sakti hai, lekin sukoon kismat se aati hai (A man can get money, he can get respect but only fate can bring relief)”. “Admi jab unchaiyan chadhta hai toh sab kuch haasil ho jata hai, paisa, naam, sukh, aish, lekin uss unchai par ek kami reh jati hai– ek dost ki, ek raajdaar ki (When a man climbs up the ladder, he gets everything. Money, pleasure etc but those heights leave you alone).”
“Aaj saabit ho gaya ki insaan pese se aisho-araam kharid sakta hai, lekin zindagi nahi. (It was proved today that how good someone’s quality of life is, that doesn’t mean that they have a life)” And I wondered:- “Kaun hain ye log? kaha se aate hain? Aur fir kaha chale jate hain? agli baar gandagi karne ke pehle (Who are these people? Where do they come from? Where do they go before spreading more filth later)”.
So, it was clear for me within minutes that we have touched the bottom line as a society, the lowest in history in a way that we don’t know how to respond to even this news. We have forgotten how to mourn and more importantly, have forgotten how to sit in silence for a moment in such conditions before vomiting out utter non-sensitive prophecies.
As a student of mental health and social psychology, it raises questions in my mind. Have we lost all sense of being alive? when feeds like, “aaj ek actor ki maut pe sab shraddhanjali de rahe hain, lekin aaj hi ek aur ne apni jaan ganwa di aur koi nhi pooch raha. (everyone is grieving an actor’s death, but no one will think about the others who lost their life today)”, flood the social media. Are they even qualified humans? Don’t we need to question EQ and EI of those intelligent thinkers and philosophers?
By the end of the day it was clear to me that we have touched the bottom line of Emotional Intelligence of human history, that we have forgotten to grieve. The early departure of a promising citizen might be just the tip of the ice-berg. There are thousands such leaving early every year, and astonishingly their loss is covered-up in an affair, un-employment, mortgage, addiction, etc., and thrown into the garbage. No one dares to think beyond.
Our response to these incidents is ill-mannered and escapist. We ought to rise-up to these lost lives and stop humiliating them posthumously. We ought to be civil and cultured. We ought to prove our worth as a community and society, what we always rightfully demand from the person in the form of norms and values. If it is not nurturing lives, it has to go.
Advocating speaking up and reaching out whenever in distress is effective as long as the life is valued. If we place examples of dis-honoring lives, the idea of reaching-out is worthless. Because the above-quoted responses have already spread enough hopelessness and worthlessness in society. Why would someone would have resilience to struggle if they find that the outcome of it would be worthless?
It’s time we rise up to the bully and behave again as a community. After all, every life matters and it is beautiful. It needs to be preserved as a gift of forefathers who laid their lives to send us where are.