All it needs is a rumour, an audience prone to gossip and anxiety, and the gruesome episode begins. While the Ganesh episode had a touch of the comic, the braid episode evokes the right touch of the sinister, the lethal. Rationality dismisses the event but rationality cannot explain it. What one misses is the presence of groups, civil society activists, doctors who can tackle the event, civil society activists to initiate panchayat meetings. Each event whether monkey man, braid women, or the much-saluted Ganesh becomes a fable unfolding the symptoms of trust and the contours of suspicion and anxiety.

Source: Hindustan Times August 07, 2017 07:17 UTC