Who hasn’t felt angry at a particular point in time? After all anger is one of the basic emotions to all animates. A person without anger is verily an ascetic, one who has attained the state of ‘sthithaprajnya’ or self poise. The toughness of achieving this state can be understood when I hear octogenarians praying to the Lord to remove their anger, as perhaps they have been unable to have done it themselves in their long journey of life. 

The threshold of anger is different for different people, with the hapless people around bearing the brunt of the outburst. But anger can be a positive emotion when directed at oneself, at one’s work-when it pushes one to be dissatisfied with one’s output-and aims for higher quality. Such anger goes on to bring out the best potential in that person. Public demonstrations of anger alongwith sloganeering against erratic policies or unsavoury incidents, seem healthy for any democracy. But road rage cannot be condoned with for any reason when it goes beyond grinding of the molars or thumping of the steering wheel, heard and seen only by oneself. It is particularly dangerous as lives of others may be risked due to this emotional outburst. 

  Unsavoury or unfavorable incidents occur that sometimes are beyond our control, but anger cannot reverse any situation. Such anger only eats into oneself and upsets the mental equilibrium and spreads toxicity within. As such anger has physiological effects and affects the human metabolism, leading to health upsets both on the physical and mental front.

 What if one is at the receiving end? A travel acquaintance-and an educated one at that-confided that she was being the target of her long term husband’s irrational anger each day. Any simple sentence from her provoked a rude grunt or harsh reply. Unable to bear the abuse she revealed that she retaliated at times only to get more hurt emotionally until she decided each day to move on by immersing herself in other tasks. The hurt vanished on its own she opined. 

Anger can be tempered with calming melodies or a brisk walk in the open or by simply latching on to a favorite author’s novel. As a wise man said, ‘If you spend a minute in anger you lose sixty seconds of peace of mind’. Isn’t life more than angry confrontations? A news report read that a lady passenger slapped an airport official- a lady too incidentally- who in turn slapped back, both seeming to lose all sense of propriety and rationality. Even I have been miffed several times at public places but slapping anybody never crossed my mind! But such cases are becoming common nowadays with even ‘honourable’ ministers slapping public officials who don’t toe the line, and even vice versa-anger being seen as an add-on with power and hierarchy. Persons who seem to lose it at the drop of a hat need professional help, to save themselves and others around them!

  ‘Speak when you’re angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret’, goes a saying. I add, ‘Act when you’re angry and you have the best scene you will ever not want to replay again.’