Incidents of suicide, road fatalities and deaths caused by rogue elements from across the country’s border with an ill-behaving neighbourhood land are being reported in the media on a daily basis with all relevant details, including their numbers. These numbers have come to be treated as lifeless information, called statistics (for record purposes) only to be glossed over by the readers of dailies, having got saturated by their steadily expanding numbers. The response by the administration to the events causing loss of lives of citizens is a mockery of reacting appropriately, even as the perpetrators beyond the country’s border seem to be enjoying their whole time pre-occupation with intrusion into our space to cause disruption of peace. Times of talking and glorifying various isms such as Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Hinduism and whatever, fascinating to erudite scholars, have yielded place to times of helplessness in the face of a neo-ism that is perceived as TERRORISM, an undeserving honourable term by any means.

One cannot get a feeling of consolation from the fact that many regions across the planet are also witnessing disruptive and destructive acts by some sections of their respective populations. The warning sounded by the renowned British theoretical physicist to the entire humanity prescribing steps aimed at colonising other planets sooner or later may sound theoretical for now, but the imperatives of his suggestion are tending to acquire meaning, given the wayward conduct of humanity.

Saints like Shankara and social reformers like Buddha of several centuries past may have spent their entire lifetime in convincing people about the benefits of pursuing and practising spirituality along with orderly life. In total contrast, sections of populations in growing numbers have taken to disorderly living triggered by different factors, promoting their faith being obvious, their acts bordering on war-like conditions. While the wars of the distant past were fought with hand-held weapons by foot soldiers, the wars of modern times with hi-tech weaponry amounting to genocide (killing people in large numbers) sustain the economy of the so-called developed countries. In fact, manufacture and supply of war machinery to the various warring countries, including India, is the mainstay of the economy of USA.

The two World Wars of the last century were marked by a time-frame as well as death of certain number of people, both soldiers and citizens. The proxy wars of sorts taking place in the regions of different continents across the world have no time-frame and the numbers of the dead in these wars are steadily mounting. If this is not global suicide, what else is?