Out there, somewhere, some people shoot down people they know, some shoot down strangers, some cut off people’s neck, some make children do the ugly deed for them. Temples and mosques and lakes are bombed down. Abuses, be it physical or emotional or sexual, are rampant. Some countries live their lives crippled with fear. Some are hard- hit by natural calamities. Some are victims of relentless conflicts and terrorism. It’s almost as if the world’s cultivating a batch of full-fledged sadists, so eager to inflict pain on others just for absurd reasons; somebody caused them pain once, to state the power they hold or desire to hold, in the name of defending their gods, for their selfish desires, or worse, for no reasons at all.

It’s a scary world out there, all haywire.

And yet, people manage to survive, to hope for better things, to have faith, to plan for future, to live their dreams, to be happy, to be strong. They live through epidemics, wars, genocides, abuses, injustice, famines, and fears. We’re all the same species and yet, while one tries to survive through any sort of pain, the other is the one causing that pain, hurting people, lives, humanity. It’s high time we realise what kind of humans we are. And it isn’t just about who we have grown up to become, it’s who we choose to be, because, we; we can be anything we want.

Joshi is a +2 graduate of St Xavier’s College