Are we becoming a society of living dead?

Yesterday, on my way back home, I entered the Petrol pump and was waiting in the queue. A college going youth was standing just behind me. Despite the fact that mobile usage is prohibited in petrol pump due to associated risks, he took out his mobile and started typing message. I tried to convey him, not to do so and he ignored me. Thinking of safety I tried to convey this to the person working on the pump and the people around. But they also ignored as well. In fact the expressions on their face were as if "why this fellow is so anxious, everyone uses phone on petrol pump". It may be a very insignificant incident, but it made me think, have we really stopped bothering about the wrong things happening around us?

Recently, I was amazed by some news. First one presented the cricketer showing victory sign to the crowd even when caught in spot fixing and not for freedom struggle. Another one was a detailed coverage of procession of a film star convicted for keeping AK47 which he received from the one of the most wanted terrorist. Another painful news showed the top most leader and self proclaimed prime minister candidate of India waving flags for flood relief sent for impacted people in Uttarakhand as if starting the F1 race. I was not astonished by the news themselves, but either applause of certain set of society for these news and ignorance of remaining society towards them.

I remember the first series of bomb blasts in Mumbai around 1993. We all were shocked to the core. Everyone was fearing to move out the house and Mumbai was virtually closed for nearly a week. But people came out and started working after that. All applauded the courage, calm and patience shown by people of Mumbai But then ... ? It became a routine. Every year there was a bombing couple of times and people got killed. Next day or in fact within next few hours the life attended a normalcy. We all got used to these blasts. We all accepted it as part of the life. 

Just a year or so before, we had a big wave of anti-corruption movement. I fail to see any change due to that in our life. Even today there are big scams becoming public. Same is the case with the discrimination of women. Even after a movement lead by a few and creation of "Nirbhaya fund" I can read news of countless rapes. Starting from small things like 'pollution caused by plastic' , 'spitting on the road' to the complex problems of 'corruption' and 'social discrimination of women', we can not see any problem being resolved. Rather these problems becoming integral part of our life.

Question is why and how our society which was once known for its sensitivity and ethics, reached current state. It is very easy and obvious that we blame all these problems to 'N' number of reasons like lack of visionary national leadership, corrupt political and judicial systems or even globalization of Indian economy, as it is very easy to point finger to others. But have we not adopted ourselves  to this change, or rather are we not the ones who constitute this ruthless society? 

These problems are just the symptoms, the real worry is ... Are we becoming a society of living dead?

By the way its just another random thought...

Once upon a time when ... "I was offline"

Recently I had time out with my family at a beautiful hill stations. The place had nice nature around and was free from all sorts of pollution. But the key aspect I observed was that the hotel where we stayed had no network connectivity. Effectively "I was offline" temporarily as it was impossible to take calls, check mails or visit Facebook !! Initially I felt very itchy, due to habit of being 24X7 online and connected, but then started enjoying the solace of this offline life....
In fact, this stay reminded me the old days .... Once upon a time when I was offline
The Mobile was not present. Only one or two people had a landline phone at their home amongst all the people in entire small town. Phone had a simple bell ringtone and caller-tunes was a also the same bell sound ;).Computers were named with numbers like 386 /486 and were a wealthy possession of few renowned institutes , labs and offices. Concept of a super-rich person included possession of a personal computer. World was not horrified by possible Y2K problem and Sabir Bhatia was yet working on the concept of hot mail. There were laps but no laptops. There were tables but no tablets and there was no word like "Social media" invented by then. There were no phone calls, mails waiting to make anyone feel important. There were no likes and comments on Facebook to make anyone feel "connected" to their friends.
First I thought life was so boring, slow, empty and pleasure less but then felt one thing was for sure, everyone had time, peace of mind.
Office work could wait till next day even after being critical. Friends could meet each other rather than calling over mobile. People liked seeing printed copies of photos over a cup of tea rather than sharing the soft copies photos virtually. Everything had a personal touch. Everyone could share a real smile than just smiley over chat.
Being "online" today may be good or bad, but it surely is a necessity of life. So is the fun of old days lost for ever? Can we control our hunger of being 24X7 online , so that we can enjoy the midas touch of old life style, while using these gadgets and facilities for office work and for connecting with far away friends?
By the way it was just another random thought... :)