Another new year starts with a bang – literally. In the midst of the holiday season, which was supposed to be a time of peace and love and merriment all around, we started our new year with yet another terrorist attack. I can’t say I’m shocked, because terrorist attacks and wars don’t shock me anymore. Yes, I live in a world where terrorist attacks and wars have become a part of the daily quota of news to people all over the world. Just open the newspapers if you doubt that – one day it is India, one day it is Syria, one day it is Israel or Palestine, one day it is Paris, one day it is Brussels, and just another day it is just another place. Most of these places have had wars and battles going on for years now. Even with the known truth that media have been spreading more hatred and misleading people lately, you just have to accept the fact that these daily attacks in one corner or the other of the world is not a misleading bit of news – it is the harsh reality of the world we live in.

Sometimes I wish we could press a reset button and go back to simpler times; times when there was nothing but peace and love prevailing all around. But then I ask myself – “Was there ever a time like that?” From the time man was around, there have been wars and bloodsheds – in the name of religion, in the name of conquering more countries, in the name of probably a sheer love for destruction and chaos. At least that is what all literature pertaining to history point at. I’m sure there are twisted facts and inaccurate information in all those; but nothing points to a time when there was no war. At every single point of time, there has been a war or an attack happening at one place or the other in this small world. No number of “new years” from the time human species came to existence could change that. What does that say about man? That we are a race which cannot stand the idea of world peace?

We call our ancestors from long, long ago barbarians. And we call ourselves civilized. But is there any real difference between them and us? Except that we have more advanced technology and equipments to aid us in our barbaric activities. Sure, not everyone in the world is involved in a war. But aren’t we really, at least in our minds? There are a lot of people fighting with guns, and there are just as many who are fighting in their minds with raw hatred – hatred for someone from another region, hatred for someone from another religion, hatred for someone with different ideas.

I am not saying there is no goodness left in the world. There is! It’s just a sad fact that all the hatred and bloodshed eclipse the goodness so much that it just can’t penetrate the hard shell of evil and make a difference. As perfect as my personal life is, I just can’t stop thinking of all the people who die every day for absolutely no reason. Let it be soldiers who lay down their lives to protect their citizens, or civilians who bear the brunt of savage massacres led by people who are blinded by hatred. I just can’t help thinking, “Didn’t these people deserve a perfect life too?” I sincerely hope I can shed this negativity and hope for a better future. But right now, I can’t find any reason to when I look around. If the future has to be better, the younger generation needs to grow up and make it perfect.  But if the younger generation could make the world better, wouldn’t it have been better already? Because every generation was once the younger generation. I guess it’s time we all asked a simple question to ourselves – “Why are we like this?”