What two fathers carrying their sons' lifeless bodies can tell you about India today

Two fathers, two sons and a common enemy — death.

May 1, Etawah, Uttar Pradesh: A weeping man carrying his 15-year-old son's body over his shoulder at a hospital where he was provided neither a stretcher nor an ambulance.

April 30, Anekal, Karnataka: A father walking out of the Government Hospital in Anakel, holding the lifeless body of his three-year-old son close to him. Desperately looking for an ambulance to carry his child’s body. A few minutes later, the father rides pillion on a two-wheeler, carrying the body.

The uncannily similar tragedies are a reflection of a nation where people laugh, cry and scream only on social media. Such emotions are limited to the virtual world, and no longer found in real life.

#WATCH Etawah: Man carries body of his son on shoulders after a govt hospital allegedly denies to provide ambulance or hearse pic.twitter.com/gXB0CZULee

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 2, 2017

Yogiji this is Shocking! father wept as he carried 15-year-old son's body #ModiWeakestPMever https://t.co/5ngiuam13t pic.twitter.com/DbjUmSynu0

— Imran Solanki (@imransolanki313) May 2, 2017

Why else would a hospital and its doctors leave a grieving father weeping over his son's lifeless body and force him to carry it.

Forget rules, forget patients' rights, forget medical ethics; has humanity too died?

Even though the father in Karnataka found a good Samaritan (which itself should repose our faith in humankind), the unfortunate man in UP, a 45-year-old labourer, said the doctors at the Etawah government hospital did not treat his son and turned him away.

While DailyO couldn't independently confirm the claims in both the incidents, what is more shocking is that almost every time someone is crying for help, there is no dearth of people who have the time to stand and film their tragedy, only to be posted on social media and outrage over it. But there are very few who have the time to run to the victim's rescue. We would rather stand and film a tragedy, but not go and help the victims.

So much so that even violent crimes like molestations and lynching don't go un-filmed by a virtually active and emotional India.

Back in 2012, a girl was molested in full public glare outside a bar in Guwahati as bystanders filmed the violent episode. Even local media crew joined the scene and aired it. Although they later faced police action, initially the cameramen were praised by everyone, including the national media, for bringing the incident to light with evidence.

Recently, a Muslim cattle trader was lynched by a violent mob of cow vigilantes in Rajasthan's Alwar — another episode with video evidence where no one raised a voice against the injustice or tried to save the man.

Every time eyewitnesses give a similar excuse — "It's impossible to stop such a violent mob." Forget bystanders, even the police become spectators.

There have been numerous incidents where we have "enjoyed" a tragedy being played out in public, yet the victim's left to handle the situation privately.

In such a society, to expect doctors to behave like humans is perhaps too much to ask for.

Suffice to say our culture of hashtags, which mutes one story to make room for another in just a few seconds, won't even spare two minutes to help the grief-stricken, unless they are a Facebook share away.