When I first heard about the Delhi Zoo incident, my first instinct was neither fear, nor pity, nor horror - it was curiosity. This could be because I am somewhat hardened by working with human viscera samples, witnessing autopsies and watching thriller movies so much.
When I finally saw the video, I started thinking if it was apathy - that unbreakable feeling which pervades through all of us. I can specifically talk about the apathy of Indians.
We see children begging on the streets and we know all possible explanations for this - organized crime, genuine poverty, abandonment. Some of us give out our spare change. Some of us walk away understanding that beggary must not be encouraged.
Not many of us care to spare a couple of minutes to rehabilitate the child. I don't. I know I cannot afford it.
Possibly this apathy is the reason we have a blatant disregard for anything designed to make human life civilized. From spitting paan on sidewalks to public urination, it's not that we don't know - we in our collective lack of sensitivity to civilized behavior choose to disregard education and simply stick to literacy - the stuff that will get us jobs and feed our families.
Maybe in this disregard for education in favor of the skeletal literacy, people chose to ignore the clear signs in zoos that say not to disturb animals nor jump enclosures.
Maybe this apathy and curiosity in place of genuine empathy and presence of mind, people pelted stones and provoked an otherwise calm white tiger into attacking the hapless man.
Maybe we were so uncaring and more interested in the hysteria than actually saving the man when the incident was calmly and clearly filmed - including the gory details.
As Rory Young, a wildlife expert who has spent a lot of time with big cats in Africa put it, the white tiger was calm for fifteen whole minutes. Were it attacking in defence, it would have done so right away.
Were it attacking out of its killer instinct, it would have done so after a minute or so after playing around with the poor man.
But as the video shows and as was reported, it attacked after the mob started pelting it with stones. People's unrelenting curiosity and apathy of the real situation prompted them to do so - costing a hapless man his life so dearly.
I so wish we were educated instead of being literate.
When I finally saw the video, I started thinking if it was apathy - that unbreakable feeling which pervades through all of us. I can specifically talk about the apathy of Indians.
We see children begging on the streets and we know all possible explanations for this - organized crime, genuine poverty, abandonment. Some of us give out our spare change. Some of us walk away understanding that beggary must not be encouraged.
Not many of us care to spare a couple of minutes to rehabilitate the child. I don't. I know I cannot afford it.
Possibly this apathy is the reason we have a blatant disregard for anything designed to make human life civilized. From spitting paan on sidewalks to public urination, it's not that we don't know - we in our collective lack of sensitivity to civilized behavior choose to disregard education and simply stick to literacy - the stuff that will get us jobs and feed our families.
Maybe in this disregard for education in favor of the skeletal literacy, people chose to ignore the clear signs in zoos that say not to disturb animals nor jump enclosures.
Maybe this apathy and curiosity in place of genuine empathy and presence of mind, people pelted stones and provoked an otherwise calm white tiger into attacking the hapless man.
Maybe we were so uncaring and more interested in the hysteria than actually saving the man when the incident was calmly and clearly filmed - including the gory details.
As Rory Young, a wildlife expert who has spent a lot of time with big cats in Africa put it, the white tiger was calm for fifteen whole minutes. Were it attacking in defence, it would have done so right away.
Were it attacking out of its killer instinct, it would have done so after a minute or so after playing around with the poor man.
But as the video shows and as was reported, it attacked after the mob started pelting it with stones. People's unrelenting curiosity and apathy of the real situation prompted them to do so - costing a hapless man his life so dearly.
I so wish we were educated instead of being literate.
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