Love is Losing to Hate

Hate can rear its head in families too. Sibling rivalry can vary from fighting over chocolates to becoming jaani dushman over property.

- JAS KOHLI

Love- Just listening to this lovely word leads to halka halka suroor. Love, whether romantic, platonic or familial, is the Castrol Ultra of the growth engines of our relationships. But hate and conflict seem to have an edge in their war against love. Trolling on social media seems to be the new normal- just like ma behen ki gaali in many OTT series. Satan must be smiling from horn to horn.

Hate can rear its head in families too. Sibling rivalry can vary from fighting over chocolates to becoming jaani dushman over property. There is a saying in some business communities that if a family has two brothers, it is better that they get into separate businesses once they grow up. Offspring often make a scapegoat of their parents for failures in their lives and some even question their parents. "What have you done for us?" Of course, they get an answer with the word count of an epic once they bring up their own children. But some parents also utilize 'divide & rule' tactics to maintain control over their children.

Conflicts are opportunistic. They latch on to differences created by religion, sect, race, language, caste, ethnicity, nationality, historical grievances and even IPL teams. But humans can also be very inventive in finding ways to hate each other. The Nikon and the Canon camera users don't see eye to eye with each other- they believe only their brand can bring about 'sharp focus'. The Apple IOS users think of Android users as the equivalent of tribals who are yet to be contacted by any modern civilization. Pakistan hates India just for the sake of hate. Even an out of the way friends request, which happened in 2016, was reciprocated with bombings and bullets. If news about an Indo-Pak friendship treaty is read in the newspapers, many people would lose the ability to blink for quite a while. Even the atheists would start believing in God and miracles.