One would think being educated would make people act sensibly. Right? Reality though is far from it. People are ready to saw off the branch they are sitting on rather than just admit something is wrong and needs rectification.

Diwali is known as the Festival of Lights. Ostensibly it has now morphed to Festival of Firecrackers. Don’t ask me how a Chinese invention became an integral part of an Indian festival so much so that people now are dead certain that firecrackers were burst to mark the auspicious day eons back too. Anyway, that doesn’t concern my post, so I’ll leave that aside.

Let me recount what happened in a housing society in this beautiful city of mine recently. People burst crackers for Diwali, not just the innocuous ones, but the dicey ‘rockets’ as they are called, some of which went in unintended directions making people scurry around for safety that night. When I tell you this happened near houses, people, parked cars, and (hold your breath), a gas bank providing cooking gas to the apartments, you will know the seriousness of it.

Apparently, the seriousness hadn’t penetrated the skulls of the “adults” gracing the occasion, ranging in age from eighteen to eighty and plus. What a bunch of excellent NOT role models for the next generation! None of them thought it prudent to be cautious around flammable objects instead indulged in recklessness with glee.

So what do you think happened next? One of the more sensible of the residents shared a CCTV footage (scary in itself as it drives home the point of how things could easily have gone wrong and how the whole celebration would have ended in a huge tragedy but for Providence) with everyone else, and demanded action. New guidelines needed to be put in place, why the old guidelines were flouted had to be explained, accountability was necessary, was the gist of her message. This was the only way to prevent future mishaps.

And here’s where something really funny, as also something that made me question the connection of education and the ability to be sensible right at the beginning of this post, happened. An educated Memsahib, totally ignoring the seriousness of the issue at hand, jumped into the fray, and in the manner typical of WhatsApp Mafias that exists in almost all WhatsApp groups everywhere, made a personal comment on the one who raised the issue.

Leave aside any appreciation for someone who bravely brought the matter to the fore, there was no acknowledgment of the dangers or a tragedy of gargantuan proportions that could have unfolded because firecracker were burst close to flammables. No horror at the video that revealed the dangers was touched upon. No searching for solutions or alternatives found a mention in her message. All she had was a mocking personal comment against someone who was brave enough to bring forth the issue.

This Memsahib is like that proverbial boy who was ready to saw off the branch he was sitting on. She is ready to fall crashing to the ground, in flames if you please, and bring others down with her too, but loathe to admit there is merit in what the other person is saying. Tell me, what the heck did education, the degrees she holds and a supposedly high profile job, give her? For that matter what good has education and fancy professional degrees given to the majority maintaining a studious silence around the issue?

©️ Shail Mohan 2025