27 May,2017 06:27 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day correspondent
When did winning an argument become more important than the sanctity of life?
When did winning an argument become more important than the sanctity of life?
Two disturbing news reports in this paper point to how trivial confrontations ended in tragic deaths. In the first, a Nashik businessman died after being thrown off a bridge in Kongaon, Bhiwandi, when a fight broke out with three scooter-riders. The argument began after the scooter-riders overtook the businessman's car on a bridge in Bhiwandi, and ended with them throwing the motorist off the bridge. In another tragedy, a 19-year-old boy from Mumbai killed his mother after she demanded that he show her his report card. He did not want to show it to her as he had skipped his exams.
While there is rarely any justification for killing somebody, such cases are hugely worrying. Human life has become so cheap that even niggling arguments can lead to extremes. Road rage, feeling irritated because of a mother's questioning - these are such small issues that one cannot even fathom how they can result in death.
Human life has to come first in your priority pyramid. Families need to reinforce this with firmness from childhood. Youngsters need to learn that they may not always have things their way. They are being reprimanded for the right reasons. Even if they do not agree with a point of view or are diametrically opposed to it, taking somebody's life can never, ever, be an option.
All the regret in the world will not bring the dead back. The bikers who pushed the businessman off the bridge, and the teenager who went on to paint a smiley with his mother's blood - they may have to live with a lifetime of regret. Or not, that is not for us to say. What is evident is that this is fast becoming a society that is forgetting the value of life.