People holding each other by the throat and hurling abuses is so common a sight in the Capital that many of us have even stopped taking a note of it. And this is just one of the many forms of aggression on display in public domain.
Within minutes, many minor issues graduate to a level where they have detrimental and irreversible consequences. The recent shooting incident at Gole Market, which claimed a young life, was the outcome of one such petty dispute where the only fault of the victim was to ask a customer to follow queue discipline.
Similar incidents in the past have rekindled the oft-made allegation that Delhi is more aggressive than other cities. This also raises questions about why people react violently to situations with little or no provocation.
From the infamous Jessica Lal murder case of 1999 which took place over an argument following a model’s refusal to serve alcohol to the more recent “racist attack” on Nido Tania, there are many such examples.
The growing level of impatience also poses a challenge to the police who are often called to arbitrate in a large number of petty quarrels, many of which graduate to cognisable crimes before they reach.
Psychologists attribute such behaviour to increasing levels of stress and competition. Explaining the reasons behind such spontaneous violence, Dr. Sameer, Director of Mental Health, Max Hospital says: “The society has reached such a state that the ability to tolerate is going down and the frustration level is increasing each day. People do not have the ability to control their impulses anymore. A lot of this is also because of the kind of environment in which we are living: the stress and competition, everything plays a role.”
Dr. Pulkit Sharma, a clinical psychologist agrees. According to him people do such things because they have narcissist egos to feed. “Everyone wants a lot of importance these days. They cannot accept being hurt or cannot accept refusal, be it for anything.”
But there are no simple answers, for these crimes are committed by people of all ages and holding all kinds of profiles. In March last year, a 15-year-old boy was allegedly stoned to death by his two juvenile friends after he refused to give them cigarettes. Yoga, meditation and medication offer solutions but the art of developing patience as a virtue, itself needs a lot of patience and perhaps this is what will nip the evil in the bud.
By Shubhomoy Sikdar
