While returning from Sarjapura, we stopped at San City Bakery for a cup of Lemon tea and our 3+ years old daughter was introduced to the Bakery owner’s girl.

As the two girls were beginning to build on a conversation a local guy came to the Bakery. As he stood before the display counter waiting to be serviced, he picked up Aviva’s (my daughter) cap, made a grunting sound and put the cap on his head.

The little girl was startled by a dark burly fat guy saying something in local Kannada language with a drag, and said in english “Give my cap back”.

The guy bend down and pinched the cheek of the girl, who started to cry and moved about a bit. She became very apprehensive.

I walked up to the local guy and asked him to “return the cap” and “stop bothering the child, dont touch the child” (in english) who was playing with another girl. The owner duly translated for the guy to understand.

With the cap placed back on her head and presence of the father, Aviva went about looking for Xenha the girl she was playing with, inside the bakery. I walked back to my wife, took the cup and finished the remaining lemon tea. Then we walked back to our car and took out the sanction plan that we were discussing about.

Almost seven to eight minutes would have passed, since the incident when the same local guy while standing near the display counter started shouting “Aiyee, Ohoo … and some crap in local language” and then showing his fist and biceps almost like a scene out of the local regional movie scenes.

It seemed as if the intervening time was used to devise a strategy to kick up a argument and a fight about something in which clearly he was in the wrong on a Sunday morning.

We continued our discussion, as we noticed that two more people had gathered along with the Bakery owner, who helped him depressurise and keep his local ego in check. All along he kept blurting some local language crap and twisting his wrists and elbows.

About 10 minutes later Aviva came out and walked upto the car. My wife helped her settle inside the car and gave her some lime to drink. After a while, we drove back to home.

There is a clear cut pattern seen across multiple incidents - both observed and read in news about violence in Bangalore. The localite freely indulges in violence while relishing on flimsy excuses and imagined slights.

But this one takes the cake. “You bother the child - When the parent ask you to leave the kid alone - You resort to threat and violence”.

A culture that encourages people to look inwards, a politics that promotes entitlement mindset and a mode of expression that is Savage 2.0, one can only expect more opportunistic violence and degradation of civic sense.

On the prowl, get set … Rowdy !