Touchstones: Why we behave like louts
I have often wondered why we Indians find it so difficult to stand in orderly lines or await our turn
Updated At : 07:39 AM Jun 10, 2025 IST
Go to any bus stop or railway platform and see for yourself how passengers shove and push to enter and grab a seat. Old people, women, young mothers with babies in arms — no one is respected. ISTOCK
Two ghastly incidents of the past week have shaken me profoundly. One is the senseless bombing in Gaza that has not just destroyed it, but has left its hapless residents bereft of any kind of support. Israel’s relentless bombing, its heartless refusal to allow foreign aid agencies to bring in food and medicines to those who need it urgently — to say nothing of breaching every convention, such as not touching hospitals and schools — is so inhuman that one wonders how it can ever be justified. Imagine not having food or milk for your children; what those mothers must be going through shakes my faith in everything. Even God.
