ChoudharyRupaliDhillon for #ConsciousPlanet

Kids were playing Holi in Delhi’s Uttam Nagar. An 11 yo girl threw a water balloon from her roof toward her father standing on the road below. The balloon burst on the street; a few stray droplets splashed a nearby woman from the Muslim community. Woman got angry. An argument followed. The girl’s family apologised. By all accounts, the matter seemed over. But apparently, it wasn’t. About half an hour later, a mob, armed with bricks, stones and iron rods, arrived and attacked the girl's family. In the assault, Tarun (pictured), a young man, was killed and four others were injured. Killing someone over an accidental splash of water, one that had already been apologised for, cannot plausibly be explained by that moment alone. When violence erupts with such speed and ferocity, it suggests that something far deeper than the stated trigger was waiting just beneath the surface.