Time to break this forced calm

It seems to be something new – have not seen a book written in the form of a website before. I am talking of The Story of A Suicide - BySriram Ayer. What I really liked was the fact that it is so accessible now, though I am strong supporter of paying to read books. The website is compatible with a smartphone as well as a tablet so it can be read on the move!

"The Story of a Suicide" is a gripping novel that tells the stories of Hari, Charu, Sam and Mani, whose lives are interconnected in a web of love, passion, revenge and deceit. I found this book engaging because it is very ‘rea’ and very ‘now’. I love books of the literary genres, the magical real ones, the emotional autobiographical types and the eccentric satirical types, but books such as this one are also the need of the hour and I realize that. It is not easy to be young today. And this books is more of a project than a book in that sense – because it really helps youth deal with being young.

Today's youngsters are expressive, self-absorbed, independent, afraid, hurried, fearless, fame hungry, but surprisingly resilient. In a world that makes unreasonable demands of them, many are disillusioned about their education, relationships, jobs, sexuality, bullying, and abuse. In the backdrop of a powerful story and visuals, this project aims to reach out to young people, by verbalising their struggles through the story, informing the do's and don'ts when they face challenges, and providing a platform to share their experience.

I am very very partial towards animals so I think it is not a surprise that the part that absolutely gripped me was when a petite girl narrated the incident where a tigress was skinned alive and the merciless monsters had the audacity to film the barbarism and upload the video on Youtube. This environmentally conscious girl pleaded with the crowd to narrate the incident in details and my heart broke at the heartlessness of it all.

I have often wondered what made humans take the world as it belongs to them, as if they were meant to be its owners, as if they have some kind of a right over it. There have been so many incidences like the Chennai floods, Uttakhand landslides, Bangalore floods, rising temperatures and this is just in India! Throughout the world, the earthquakes, tsunamis, and so many other disasters have been warning signs waiting to be heeded. Each of these is a sign that something is majorly wrong in the world but it doesn’t seem to ring a bell! 

In his book Animal Liberation, Peter Singer states that the basic principle of equality does not require equal or identical treatment; it requires equal consideration. This is an important distinction when talking about animal rights. People often ask if animals should have rights, and quite simply, the answer is “Yes!” Animals surely deserve to live their lives free from suffering and exploitation. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the reforming utilitarian school of moral philosophy, stated that when deciding on a being’s rights, “The question is not ‘Can they reason?’ nor ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they suffer?’” (source)

While I thank Sriram Ayer for bringing up this pertinent topic in a very subtle manner that does not make the readers go, “Oh another book on activism”, I also want to share this quote that seeme to echo my sentiments quite well.

One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them.

--- Martin Luther King, Jr

(Images are from veganismylife.com and https://www.pinterest.com/explore/animal-rights/)