Hotheads With Guns

India, Bharat, Hindustan—our nation sounds far too comforting, a softie. We should have named it Hotheads with Guns. The sarcasm behind this borrowed standup joke isn’t lost when we look at the news. There’s no need for someone to shout “goli maaro”, we are trigger-happy naturally—unintentionally as well as intentionally.  So many times a stray bullet had killed somebody in celebratory firings. And so many times wedding dancers get shot for refusing to ‘entertain’, much like model-barmaid Jessica Lal. In Bihar’s Bhojpur district, bullets fly over who gets the best seat at a cultural event. A 19-year-old was shot dead recently in this raging rush (or rushing rage) for the front row.