Pen is mightier than the sword by Dr. Akshatha Kamath

Pen is mightier than the sword

I’ve always loved putting my thoughts into words. Ever since I grasped the concept of vocabulary and grammar, I was constantly whipping a story or writing a poem or two. From writing about a proud peacock called Paru and his downfall by the amazing Patty, the parrot (Okay, I was 7 years old. I thought it made sense back then.) to posting blogs on my website, I’ve come a long way. As I look back at my journey, I can only remember the one obstacle that became my biggest ‘but what if’ when I wanted to start a blog- and that was hatred.

I was terrified that people would not appreciate my work, that they would not agree with my views, that they would make fun of my grammar, that they would say that I’m trying to sound too pretentious with my vocabulary. Surprisingly, at that point of time I was not even completely exposed to the hate that the internet can spew at you.

If there is one thing that I have realised over the 3 years of blogging is that there is a lot of difference between constructive criticism and hate comments. People manage to type out the nastiest things just because they have a keyboard, and to vent out whatever frustration they’re harbouring. Somehow trolling is the new cool, it’s the new fad. Of course,  a good sense of humour demands you to be cool, appreciative even, of the memes or the jokes that might follow your content; but there is a huge chasm of difference between stating your opinion and brutally dismembering whatever little confidence the creator might have mustered to post a part of their life online.

Of course, you have the right to choose what you want to watch but that does not mean you verbally abuse the creator of the same. Commenting on somebody’s looks, colour, and other such things that are inappropriate is not cool.

Why restrict yourself to the small creators out there? Even celebrities receive flak for things that are completely uncalled for, of course on a much larger scale thanks to the huger audience that they cater to. The recent incident involving the death of a movie star garnered a lot of hate towards other celebrities. These self-acclaimed experts who were preaching about being kind to every single person, were then found, less than a week later, commenting about any single thing that they could use against the people they ‘believed’ were responsible for the aforementioned star’s death. I do not claim to know the whole truth about the incident and therefore wouldn’t speak in the defence of the ones supposedly responsible, but even then, one must learn to draw the line before getting extremely personal.

The pandemic brought life as we know it to a standstill. As I was preparing for one of the toughest exams of my life, I was shattered to know that the classes I was supposed to attend had to be cancelled. And then they introduced the concept of live online classes and things seemed to be bright again. I’ve always believed that the professors I learn from our extremely respectable and I could never even think of contradicting them, much less make jokes or post derogatory comments on them. But I was shocked to see that some fellow students managed to do that. Yes, I agree that sometimes we might not grasp the concept, but does that mean we can say nasty things to them? I consider myself fortunate to learn from the best minds in the field and I’m surprised that people who will become future saviours and healers failed to show the maturity that is expected of them.

Hiding behind a screen and wielding the weapon that is your keyboard, does not give you the right to speak ill about anybody. Negativity is at its peak in these times and some people believe that venting out the frustration in them requires them to insult someone else. We might have all the access to technology we desire and feel proud to be ‘educated’ but definitely we’re a long way from being wise.

-Dr Akshatha Kamath

ABOUT THE WRITER

As medicine is to the body, thoughts are for the mind. Akshatha is a 24-year-old doctor hailing from the city of Mangalore, trying to decipher life and the colossal universe; penning them down as her microthoughts.

Follow her on her Blog: https://pensiveverses.wordpress.com/  And Instagram handle @thewistfulmedico as she amalgamates her thoughts and words.

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