Fright Response

 Fright or fight, they say, is the primal most response. It is hard-wired in to us from the days when we were cave animals, so to say. Darkness, wild beasts, as-yet-not explored/understood wonders of the world, each of these, and all together, appeared to be threats to be fought against or to be avoided by running away from them. 

So much an animal response it is that we have idioms such as 'pushed to the wall'. It reflects the feline response. A cat, for example, when cornered, either escapes somehow or attacks bitterly.

It was this basic instinct that seems to be the base of the Jalgaon train incident. Someone floated the rumour of a fire. Someone pulled the chain. Given the fright-hence-flight response, many passengers jumped on to the track . A superfast train on that track just mowed them down.

Was this fear-mongering an act of sabotage? Was it a wicked mischief? For brute fun? As a warning or a distraction, since the whole world seems to appreciate the Kumbh Mela organisation where, too, there was a fire incident? As a retaliation to the naxalite control? Because Maharashtra seems to attract a huge FDI at Davos? There has to be some motive, right? 

Whatever could be the wicked malignancy, those who are victims of it would never return. A death, it must be remembered, is a void that can never be filled. Such acts, hence, whatever be the conspiracy that lead to them, must be avoided.The human(e) cost involved is much too much!

Pratima@On the lighter side, in the Saif saga, which gets more mysterious by the minute, neither the victim nor the victimiser (who is who, by the way?) seems to suffer from fright, although there seems to be some fight. The flights of fancy about the incident abound though, and endlessly.