Of Power & Powder

The world is at war again. Or parts of it. As a kid I used to think that whatever people’s propensities, when they grow up, they become calm, caring, compassionate, considerate. I did not associate callousness, far less cruelty, with adults. Possibly because the elders around me were generally kind. The exceptions were the terrible villains of the fairytales. But they were always punished in the end for their meanness. Like Cinderella’s cruel stepmother.

Therefore, I was always astonished, genuinely astonished, how leaders of nations could wage wars. How they, like little bullies in school, have no qualms about grabbing stuff for themselves. It never, still, fails to astound me, how an individual or a country made up of individuals would squander the limited time on earth with single minded preoccupation of destroying others. People don’t have enough food to eat in some parts of the world but Defense (or should we start calling it Offense?) guzzles up trillions of dollars.

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As the Midwest goes up in flames I am thinking, do little bullies grow up really? Or do the proclivities lurk dormant? I have seen the glee in the expressions of little kiddies when, while they play those electronic games and shoot and mock kill in simulated battlefields. The tendencies are never satiated perhaps. Instead of eradicating them, the pursuit of conquest is allowed to bloom unabated.

Speaking of blooms. Let me tell you of another kind of play, the delightful and the joyous, the merry kind. I would rather tune out of the wargames that countries play and tune into another kind of play: the play of colors. The day after tomorrow, March 3, is Dol Purnima, when Holi is played. With colored powder. Not gun powder.

(The writer is Editor, Features)