Jilted love often ends up in tragedy. While unrequited love usually led lovers to go nuts or even to destruction in the past, today a saga of violence and sadism has become the order of the day. If love is a gift of life, it needs to be nourished and respected. But it does not take long to turn the tender feeling into rage on rejection by the one so loved. How rapacious a section of youths have become today is exposed by recurring incidents of their attacks -both physical and sexual --on girls and even members of the latter's family. Murderous and most devious, these attacks are carried out with the sole purpose of exacting revenge for refusal of the advances made.
In the latest such incident three daughters and wife of a migrant worker were burnt alive following arson on the house the four were sleeping in. Petrol sprayed through windows helped spread the fire so fast and furious that the daughters and mother had no chance of coming out of the burning house. A neighbour's son is suspected to be behind this incident because his marriage proposal for the eldest of the three daughters was rejected. The suspicion gains ground because not only the suitor but other members of his family have also been absconding since the incident.
Now the crux of this increasingly worrying social problem lies here. One understands a young man's infatuation or love for a teenage girl. Giving free rein to his desperation is however a different issue. If members of such a crazy boy's family came to know about the amorous advances, they should have acted on it cautiously and prudently. There is no reason to think that they were ignorant of the affair because only four days before the tragedy, the youth beat up Marium, aged about 14 and her mother because they won't yield to his demand.
Now after the horrible crime has been committed, the entire family has taken flight. If they could do as much for the sake of their young member, they surely could have given a better account of themselves in order to save the day for the mentally disturbed and the family itself. Involvement of other members of the family in the horrendous crime cannot be ruled out as well. Even if they had to flee on a short notice after the incident, it does not speak highly of their moral standpoint.
The fact is today families in most cases fail to do justice to upbringing of the young ones. At a time when there are many temptations for giving in to, family lessons prove highly crucial. In the face of explicit materials appealing to susceptible minds, a family should know how and where to say 'no'. Without inculcation of healthy culture and moral lesson, exposure to alien visual materials of entertainment naturally creates a mental imbalance among the younger generation. Where education and cultural orientation are next to nothing, such exposure is bound to take dangerous turn towards crime. This tendency has further been fuelled by easy access to sex-stimulant drugs like yaba.
These are areas where parental and social guidance is most needed. Blaming the youths would not do. Let society stand guard against a sweeping decadence triggered by the twin invasion of visual entertainment and drugs.             Â
Jilted love and crime
Neil Ray | Published: October 13, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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