I just left the Boys Hostel, the Abdul Kalam Hall, at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, for the Diwali break. Whilst packing, during the last day, I couldn’t help but overhear some of my Rajasthani neighbors refer to their current states of being as affected by some sort of “solution”. Bewildered and confused, I didn’t pay much heed to it but passively spent the whole day rummaging through my mind palace looking for satisfactory answers. Alas, Sherlock’s famous technique couldn’t do the trick, and I carried on. It was after reading my Facebook feed that I finally gave in and decided to see what the fuss was all about. And then I got angry.

 

Seeing that four-minute long Youtube video, and then the subsequent reaction of the people of it busted my veins and asked me to question our morality. I didn’t for one second feel the contents of the video to be “meme” worthy, or to any extent funny. I only saw a helpless and addicted kid, in dire need of instant and efficacious assistance. Seeing him I could only feel pitiful, and remorseful at how our “ethical” and “moral” society has shaped up. Their hypocrisy in undermining and protesting drug abuse and addiction, and using a poor kid’s misery to tantalize and titillate their innate humor senses on social media, is shameful and utterly disgraceful. Rather than kickstarting a social awareness campaign to help other such kids in need, we decided to blatantly ignore the problem and instead laugh about it. We have seen quite a few trends in a short span of time in the last couple of months. From the “Gormint Aunty”, to “Sot King”, to the “Nagarpalika Reporter”, my Facebook feed has seen it all. Kamlesh’s photos and “soluchan” comments have found a lot of takers around us. His shocking comments on the preferences in his life, wherein he chose the “soluchan” over his own mother, shook my very soul, and sent an eerie chill down my spine, which still hasn’t settled. We need to actively discuss this issue I feel. The need for the concerned authorities, reflected through the society at large, to deliberate on the issue and come up with effective impediments is as warranted and accentuated as the pollution levels in Delhi. Children falling into the snares that are drugs and substance abuse is not only putting them at risk, individually but also the people around them.

 

The miasma of poverty has long been employed as a shield against holding it accountable for all the evils in the society. Criminals, they say, are made in “slums and squalors”, where the poor dwell in the dark, conniving and hatching strategies on how to become rich. The need to lead a dignified life gives them an incentive, and their unfettered bold genes, the facilitation. But isn’t this problem more prevalent and widespread behind the rich and closed doors of affluent bungalows and mansions? ; places where young-spoilt brats sniffle all day, using their inheritance to keep the problem confined to a room? It is more glorified and ridiculed in the home of the poor though, which acts as a catalyzer to inspire hundred such other Kamleshes to start the abuse. I read a similar post on Facebook to mine, which pointed out to this hypocritical and ignorant behavior of our society. People started blaming him for acting like a coward and writing posts on social media, instead of helping them overcome such problems. Why can’t social media be a tool to bring about change? Almost everything else, including protests at Jantar Mantar (alas, not anymore), and mass-oriented candle marches, are acceptable and a healthy practice, and expressing your opinion and disgust at such a macabre happening on an open platform is bigotry? It is funny how people change their opinions and views about things according to their convenience. It is dictated by how other people change theirs, which is another disparaging habit that makes me indignant. The herd mentality, as scholars deem it, has become a cause for grave concern in contemporary times.

 

The senseless sharing of his misfortune in the form of memes should prompt rigorous reconsiderations in the conscience of people doing it. The inner moral compass, that directs them towards righteousness and what ought to be done, has mystically disappeared and withered away when helpless kids like Kamlesh need it the most. It is my urgent and humble request to people to be socially responsible to the best of their capabilities and re-think their stance on this issue. I can but sympathize with this poor soul, who I reiterate, needs immediate and efficacious medical and psychological assistance. The way words like “psychological” and “mental” evoke people to react, especially in India, is the root of this problem. The concept of help groups and rehabilitation centers is almost alien and foreign to the cultural corridors of this diverse and eclectic nation, which they deftly avoid, using words like “xenophobic” and “immoral.” Being mentally sick or psychologically vulnerable isn’t the end of it people. You need to understand that there is a solution to everything in the world, which sets the things right. Support this tirade against social ostracisation and cultural stigma of addiction by being more aware, and making others around you sensitive to their problems.