Keep good company always

It is strange that individually we are of a particular nature but collectively we become different. When we are part of a mob we derive the characteristics of a mob behavior. I remember as a fifteen year old I had gone to attend a marriage of a relative in a suburban town. In the evening a few relatives and friends went on a stroll to an adjoining park. It was 7pm and getting dark. There were not many in the park. As we were walking on the path, a young girl was seen walking ahead of us alone. She was tall with an attractive figure and must be around eighteen. One of the crowd said” She looks great. Let us quicken our pace.”As the others increased their speed I also kept pace with them. The girl too quickened her pace not to abridge the gap. These people began to accelerate further. The girl started running and the crowd of which I was apart also ran faster.Luckilythe girl reached the road before any harm could come to her. I shuddered to think what would have happened to the girl had she been overtaken. Individually each one of the relatives was good happily married and respectful to ladies. Yet in a crowd they became a part of pack of wolves.He who keeps the company of wolves will soon learn to howl.

Likewise the students who rag the new comers in a sadistic and wicked manner are individually fine specimen. Together they get vicious in nature that is not part of them if they were alone. The communal riots are always the outcome of mob frenzy. The man who throws petrol filled fireball at a crowded bus may be a decent tailor in the adjacent locality getting his stitching business from females of another community with whom he had cordial relations.
The moral is to keep away from the crowd bent upon trouble before you get sucked in unconsciously like the innocent boy in the pack of wolves in the park. In a crowd few act according to their own inner will. It is for this reason our elders emphasize the need to mingle with good men always.
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” Epictetus