There's Always Place for Hope...

The tragic events which took place in Virginia last month raised a lot of eyebrows back here in India with regards to security of colleges in the USA. The fact is that this troubled individual was at Virginia Tech. and not at Harvard or somewhere else. This sort of incident can happen anywhere in the world.

I have aspirations of studying in the USA one day. There's absolutely no doubt that the USA has good institutions where students want to apply. So, when we see institutes like Virginia Tech. and a guy shooting 33 of the university students - it does send a shiver down our spines! The laws are about guns may not be as strong, but you do feel that it is the Institute’s prerogative to check up on its students especially when they are as troubled as the one who carried out the shootings.

The underlying fear now in India is that any university in the USA is susceptible to such an event. The fact is that India is in itself a very unsafe country. There was an incident recently where a bunch of 15 year old boys kidnapped and murdered an 8 year old to buy a mobile phone. Does that sound civil? These boys were probably not even psychologically challenged and yet such an unfortunate event took place. The Nithari killings are also proof of the pathetic state of safety of young children.

Even my mother, after watching the news one day told me - "Don't go abroad to study, stay closer to home". While I can understand her concerns, you've got to take some risks to achieve something in life. We cannot look at the number of road accidents before getting on our 2 wheelers. We can't look at the casualties on flight accidents or hijackings before travelling on a plane. It just can't be done! We have to stay positive and keep believing that things will end up fine. If you stay in the comforts of your home, you're going to end up a protected, spoilt brat.

At the end of the day, the world is not the best place to be but, can anyone suggest an alternative? Every place in the world has its flaws and if you are caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, unfortunately anything can happen. We all live in a fragile world where is very little margin for error. All we can do is be optimistic, hope that the day will go on as planned and pray that nobody gets caught in a dangerous situation.

It is this hope, which at the end of the day makes us all live every single minute of our lives... which is why we must never lose it.