The end of future.

It is not unusual in today's world to come across news items, which send shivers down our spines. News of children being killed, women being violated, men being subjected to the worst forms of tortures have somehow numbed me. However, I recently came across a news piece about two 10 years old killing a three year old kid. This incident took place about more than a decade back, but it was only recently that I came to know of it. Of course, this is probably not one of the most gruesome murders of our times, but somehow I was shaken awake from my deep slumber of insensitiveness. I was jolted to my last bone and I spent quite a few nights awake thinking about this incident.

This incident occurred in 1993 in England, where two 10 year old kids, lead a three year old child away from his mother, made him walk for more than 4 kms, kicked him, punched him, threw paint on his face, made him swallow batteries and then laid him on railway tracks, piled rubbish on him so that he couldn't move and then left him there to be run over by a train. I guess, the only tolerable part of this horrific incident is that the child died before the train ran over his three year old body.

I am not writing this to make vulgarise this sad event, but rather to make an attempt to understand as to what must have made two ten year old do something as extreme as this. The fact that they not only killed the little child, but made him suffer so much before they killed him is what horrified me even more. The fact that they tried to make the whole event look like an accident is what alarmed me even more. What is it that made a couple of 10 years old behave in such a manipulative, cruel and insensitive manner? Are we as a society to be blamed or can we just blame it on all some brains being just evil?

To say that the society we live in today, is more vulnerable to violence is not a very plausible explanation. Violence has been a part of human history for a very long time. But, it is not the violence, that I am questioning now, but that such violent outburst coming from two individuals who probably didn't even understand as to what death is. We as a race seem to have devolved to a race, which lacks moral foundations and an ethical structure.

I have no answer to the problem of violence. How could I? After reading about the incident I wished for the worst for these two children. If being so unrelated to this incident I could not look beyond the gruesomeness of the crime and understand the reason for the crime, how can I expect people who were at the receiving end of the crime to forgive these two individuals? How can we expect forgiveness? How can we expect tolerance? No, I cannot. But I sure do hope for a day, when I can.

Forgiveness, tolerance, love etc. are words, which have no meaning in today's world. In today's world we expect children to grow up without any fear or prejudice, when everyday in news all they see are bomb blasts, killings, loot etc. We expect them to grow up without fear, when they are being made to pass through metal detectors when they go to airports, bus terminals or train stations. Our children are growing up with only fears in their hearts. How will they learn to love and forgive, if we haven't learnt to do so? No, I am not saying that what the two children did should be forgiven. But maybe for a moment, we try to understand the why of life and not the what of events. We, as a race stand here today in front of an ugly picture with only violence and intolerance on display. How long will it take us to realize that this ugly picture is simply a mirror reflecting us and not a creation of someone else?