Satan was successful because each stab was meticulously prepared over a long period of time, and passively allowed by the spineless individuals moving through that partially-lit lane, which looked like it was filled with a lot of people, but not with men and women of conscience, of vigor; instead, those were people who had burned their souls long ago in the pits of desensitization that our modern civilization offers, people who have been reduced to mere machines and insignificant parts of a big corporate doomsday bomb, waiting to explode while they try to chase a something called “ease of living” and are sacrificing the little remnants of life that are left in them.
Certainly, Satan won only because he was surrounded by mere “shells” of men and women, who deliberately reduced their roles to mere passersby and spectators of this horrific crime. Unquestionably, they are as responsible for this crime as the one who committed it, perhaps, even more.
A society which considers marrying-off young individuals as a flex and silences domestic violence with the fingers of “A couple’s personal matter”, shouldn’t something like this be foreseeable? Because if abuse is readily acceptable, then in that analogy murder is just reduced to something that should be frowned upon and left like that, because that’s exactly what happened.
The third stab and she wanted to cry out for help, to scream her agony and fear to the street, but could get no volume. Little did she know these people were the lots of the same that still send their kids to the mills of rat races, no matter the suicides in that city. Even the fourth blow didn’t waver them because just like they advised their child, they expected her to fight back alone. After all it's the weak and dumb who get bullied and it is their sole responsibility to avoid such situations. Because obviously, why should the abusive, the exploiting ever change their ways?
As the fifth and sixth stab spilled out her organs, a man walking by stopped and stared. He was fascinated at how real his current watchlist show replicated a stabbing scene. He, just like the others, loved the gore and darkness in the most popular show “Rampur”. The stabs continued with the count to seven and eight, as he started walking in the opposite direction pulling his friend with him to discuss how Rampur is different from other shows. After all, it is one of the first Indian shows to actually show gruesome killing instead of leaving it to your imagination. This is the forte that made it so popular. No wonder, he did not feel surprised seeing Satan stab her.
There’s an old saying, “We Become what we put our mind to”, and certainly, some of us are becoming those wicked incarnations of evil that we see on a day-to-day basis on our mobile screens, on our laptops or our Television, worshippers of mayhem, and most us our becoming mere spectators of this chaotic scenario, because that’s what most of us are good at, sitting back in our couches and first watching someone getting murdered on our electronic screens, then seeing something similar when we go out to buy groceries.
The woman crossing them heard him sympathize with the psychotics and villains. Because, hey! Everybody has a devil origin story and that is so much cooler. It makes him strive for more and more twisted stories. Satan’s hand moved in and out for the ninth time as the woman neared the blood, but strange calmness dawned on her face. Of course, it wouldn’t be surprising for her. She just heard that man. Media is just the mirror of society. If the TV can show it, it must have gotten pretty common and regular around her. Emotionally numb, she gives a second look as the eleventh stab leaves no strength in the girl’s body which falls straight down on the dusty ground and then walks away with a sigh of acceptance.
Satan smiled and looked down on the fallen body. He finally felt victorious because he gave her the best taste of medicine just how the anti-hero does it. He has watched a lot of shows. He has obviously become smart enough to know how to get away with it. It's no big deal. Yet his desperation wasn’t satiated. He went on with the twelfth stab. He knows a few people with connections. In a country where people don't mind criminal charges on 24x7 media covered politicians, those connections would surely manage to bury this too.
Afterall, the public of this country takes accidents and tragedies just as a 3-inch-long headline on our newspapers when we sip our coffee, and whenever we read something which includes the words, “Murder,”, “Gruesome Killing”, we take our chance to take a jibe at the “current condition of our judicial system”, and then take another sip and move on with our days.
Aren’t we responsible for this sewage that we have allowed to enter our streets? Why have we become so blind and deaf that we can’t hear a 16-year-old crying for help inches away from us?
The slashing continued now with a loud voice filled with anger, but people continued to their goal. Because, why pay attention to such a common thing over your daily work. They are not worth getting late to it ! News Channels nowadays are bombarded all the time with news of corruption, rape, kidnapping, suicides etc. The scene they are witnessing isn’t even close to the terrorist killing news they saw yesterday. They feel thankful as something that brutal is not happening in India right now.
Thirteen …. fourteen…fifteen…. sixteen… A man passing by remarked how similar this case looks to previous teenage boyfriend girlfriend cases. The victims nowadays really need to control and assess the situation before getting into it. He is sure this person won't get jailed just like the others. What is the benefit of helping now? Corruption is so common nowadays. On the top of it, police harass and misbehaves with the witnesses and victims. It is always an awful experience, and he doesn’t want to be a part of it.
The count neared eighteen while a woman quickly ran with her child. She cannot let her child see this, what if he gets traumatized! Distracting the child, she gave him the phone to play encounters and shooting games. Mind you, that kid was very talented, with id LUCIFER and a gold badge in one of the toughest grueling shooting games. It was important for her to walk away for the sake of her child, so that he doesn’t get exposed to such brutality at a young age. How ironic, right?
Nineteen…twenty … the CCTV footage continues to capture, now a dead girl, a raging murderer and a silent road. No one helped, yet everyone fled. She might be dead already! What could they have done? It was better to get out of there before he comes after the witnesses too.
Twenty one….With the final thrust, emotion and empathy disappeared. The empty roads, the murderer and the dead all were void of it.
THAT DAY....
The CCTV captured and the world witnessed. To stab someone 21 times and get away with it, live in a society where there are diminished feelings of moral outrage or concern and distress no longer evokes empathy and compassion.
A society that is distorted due to exposure to fictionalized or sensationalized portrayals, about the actual consequences and severity of events and overlooks the suffering and trauma experienced by victims due to reduced empathy.
A society where the media populates with sensational aspects of crimes and accidents to capture audience attention, hence demanding for more extreme or shocking stories.
We can’t be sure if this is what Kaliyuga meant, but if this is it, then we are certainly doing our part in building it !!!
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