Some decades ago film-makers and writers used to portray a romantic picture of Punjab`s countryside; idyllic, tranquil with straightforward people moving at a natural pace. Mud houses surrounded by crops looked inviting. Men were hospitable and women artless whose charm fascinated urban imagination.

Innocence compensated for poverty and simplicity for lack of sophistication. But it was in part due to poor information. Romantic bullshit produced by urban monotony and congestion added to its shine. This image of serene countryside is badly dented by relentless intrusion of social media that have overwhelmed the young folks who nowadays display a weird mixture of the worst of village and city life. Social media sites are full of, what Karl Marx called, `village idiocy` which has now become outlandish and dangerously regressive making it as shocking as the Wild West seen in American movies.

Videos, talks, Vlogs and reports invariably revolve around threethemes; vendetta, gangsterism, and honey-traps.

Vendetta is nothing new as it`s a longstanding phenomenon rooted in tribal culture. What`s new is its publicity and glorification on social media as vindication of one`s honour in a community that values the practice of paying back to the aggressor in the same coin. Law is lax, they believe. Quick justice is justice truly dispense d. S o kill your culprit and keep your moustaches, to use local lingo, high like a scorpio`s tail. Consequences, dire or otherwise, never act as a deterrence. What happens after you have avenged yourself is rarely thought of. Now you have to deal with police, lawyers and judges.

Litigation especially of crimes of murders is highly expensive and time-consuming which may linger on for decades. The concerned family is forced to sell their piece of land and livestock to meet the legal and illegal expenses. Even if the avenger comes out of jail, this is a pyrrhic victory; he finds his family shattered and land gone. But he is praised to the sky by social media for doing what he did. The situation shows both the stranglehold of out-dated traditions and lack of credibility of the justice system.

Gangsters are usually projected as heroes on social media for their bloated egos, aggressive temperament, impulsive urges and killer`s instinct who believe in making my way or the highway a norm. It`s interesting to note a gangster`s appearance. He wears a starched desi suit; long flowing kurta down below the knees and a baggy salwar, long moustaches, gun slung over shoulders and a wild look. He appears surrounded by his gang members in an outhouse with a fleet of SUVs. Money comes from extortion. He can be an independentindividualifhehas astable economic background but mostly such a person is a lackey of some big gun, a landlord or a politician known for influence peddling for trying to curry favour with officials to get the criminals off the hook.

Late Baba Feroz Tarrar, an educated and highly travelled gentleman, who knew the ethnic culture of Punjab like the palm of his hand used to reiterate a saying popular with Punjab`s landed elite; `jag kar ke khaada, ki khaada` meaning how mean it would be if one has to workfor a living. To make a living without working is gangsters` motto shown in the social media influencers` romanticised versions of gangsterism.

Honey trapping is another practice that`s on the rise in the Punjab`s countryside because of easily available social media tools which can keep such an activity private and concealed. Small gangs consisting of sly men and sluttish women are operating freely, at times with the backing of officials. Young men become easy prey because of their sexual frustration. A sweet talk of a woman can seduce any young ruralite urban centres aren`t immune eitherany time. Social media has apparently made it safer; one can indulge in such an activity from a distance considering it less risky. Criminal gangs know the secret of this irresistible force; a fatal attraction can blind a man to the risks involved in such an adventure. That`s what the honey-trap gangs play on. Salacious aspects of conversations or images exchanged do the trick; young men fall in a trap. We all know the rest of the story. The gangs blackmail the trapped ones and extort money.Paying extortion money makes the victims what they desperately want to avoid, public exposure. Money can`t be arranged without sharing the details of what has happened with the friends and families. What follows is naming and shaming of victims and perpetrators which hurts the former more.

One can highlight some of the factors responsible for this messy situation. A, tribal society in Punjab is largely dead but we know, the culture of a society even after it`s effectively dead lingers on by way of collective habit. So is the case with vendetta which is perceived to be linked with honour.

And honour can only be restored by a daring personal act, not through resort to law. B, the value system of agrarian society has become quite dysfunctional if not totally discarded which used to act as a custodian of social behaviour.

Community pressure kept the wayward individuals in check. Socioeconomic changes induced by the intrusion of consumer society have played havoc with the traditional safety valves by making individuals the centre of society.

Consequently, the countryside isnow a space which is neither rural nor urban. On the one hand it has lost what it inherited and on the other it is unable to reach what it thought was low hanging fruit; modernity because economic and cultural basis for such a transformation is still a distant hope. C, traditional rural society relied on lands and their produce. With the population explosion the land parcels have suffered from incessant division to the point that they are no longer economically feasible.

This phenomenon coupled with mechanisation of agriculture has rendered people jobless in hordes, pushing some to vagrancy and others to criminal activities. D, lethal arms are as easily available as groceries. Law enforcement officials have found an easy way out; eliminate the perpetrators of heinous crimes in police encounters.

In a nutshell, this transitional period in the countryside life is painful, even excruciating because neither the old is fully dead nor the new is fully born. But who cares about the boondocks? `Jat jaanay te bijju jaanay ( the peasant and the badger have to fight it out),` says old wisdom. soofi01@hotmail.com