Oxford online dictionary defines Human as "showing the better qualities of humankind, such as kindness", but today I realized that even though I have this so-called kindness within me, I cant claim to being a human as I cant do anything to exhibit it, meaning there is no course of action I can take as its effect. Is feeling pain for others is human, or doing something to alleviate this pain is human; for every animal feels the pain of others, even a dog attacks anyone assaulting his owner.
The case in analysis is of a person who saw a feeble dog which was unable to walk, eat or drink anything. maybe it got injured in a fight with other dogs or some vehicle ran it over, but it was not in a position to do anything other than lying and seldom howling as it felt the pangs of pain striking through its body.
As the dog was lying at the doorsteps, the guy felt it was his duty to remove the dying dog from the way, lest he may not be able to sleep in the night by its continuous yelping of pain. He tried to shoo the skeleton away but with last few gushes of strength, the dog leapt towards the boy to keep him from touching itself, now afraid of all living things. That was a tough nut to crack, thought the boy as he ran inside to get something to restrain the fighting dog. Somewhere in his heart he wanted the dog to run away on his feet as he was feeling pity for the creature, but he had a more important task at hand:- protecting his home from getting soiled. As he went inside, he heard the ring of telephone. The fruity conversation with that someone special soon made him forget what he had come for. The time passed by and he got busy in another chore.
Few hours later when he realized that it was time to have a look at the beautiful evening, he saw that someone had already moved the dog to a nearby piece of empty land. With relief came the mixed sense of emotional distress at the condition of the canine. He wanted it to regain life. He tried by getting a piece of bread for the dog, but decided against it as it looked in no condition to eat and this may abet the ants or another beast towards the helpless creature. He could just manage a piece of jute bag to save him from the chilly night. Not able to do anything else he resigned towards his home with a heavy heart. Soon the love of sports and glamor of tube made him forget the whole episode and he went to the bed with his earthly problems.
As the cool morning breeze swarmed his face and the rays of light illuminated his face, he returned to the spot half-hoping to see the dog dead, but to his utter disbelief and dismay, it still had signs of life, albeit no energy left to convey the grudges it had with the world. The only other sign it was alive was the continuous trembling body, the panting tongue and half closed eyelid. He came back to find that he was unable to eat anything as he was witness to the most gruesome sight of his life. This time he could hold himself back and hurried towards the phone. As he found the phone of his dad engaged, who was the only source of guidance or information he had, he ran back with some bread and vegetables to try to keep the destitue and exposed dog alive till he could arrange some help. He stopped in his tracks as he looked at the site in front of him. Nothing had crushed him more than the sight in front of him till date. There lied the poor animal without any movement, any sound, any life.
The dog had died.
The character is me and the feeling I am having right now is of utter disgust and disappointment towards myself. It feels like I am being squeezed in the stomach. Writing this story is the only way I could make myself keep my tears from coming out.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Right and Duty
"Yet Again"- this is what today's times of india said as its headline. Once again terrorists have succeded in their misdemeanor. Mumbai is again bleeding. In midst of all the cries, sirens and 'elite panels' discussing what steps need to be taken and how much government is at fault,there was a voice which had smitten me. However i fought with myself to inebriate myself of those words, they kept on ringing in my ears. The voice was of a man called Hemant if my grey cells still work hard, the channel was cnn-ibn and the words were -"Right to feel secure".
The context in which these words were hurled towards the journalists was ofcourse the inability of the govt, and home ministry in particular, to provide, what our fellow considered his and our fundamental right, the right to safety. In very strong words, he asked our esteemed minister of Home Affairs P.Chidambaram to take note of this attack on sovereignity of our country and pushed him in line of fire for not succeding in stopping the misdeeds of the barbarians. Home minister, who is already been pulled several times by many more, for remaining largely ineffective in taking care of his duties, once again did not take any criticism on his beloved so-called 'secret' agencies and whined, -"it was not an intelligence failure, as there was no intelligence since no clues were generated and no leads were found." God knows why doesnt he actually closes these agencies down and escapes all responsibilities of intelligence failures. But that is altogether a different topic and merits separate space for itself.
Coming back to our rights, I concurred the thoughts of our gentleman from Mumbai, until I happened to swift my way besides the traffic policemen standing at the red light close to my office. He was motioning me or the car tailing me to stop, but as usual I took advantage of the early morning rush and zoomed past him, turning a blind eye and covertly smiling with my inner self at my highly skilled maneuver to escape a challan for not keeping my pollution certificate up to date, as did my anonymous partner tailing me. Although this skill is so commonplace in our country that everyone has a boastful story of how he first slowed and then raced past the casual poilceman, shouting abuses towards him when he was expected to stop and get his papers examined. More or less, in a few minutes this 'glorious' story would give way to how inefficient indian police and govt is, and how we can't expect them to catch a thief, goon or thug running. And finally when our drinks or chicken is over, we will move to our respective friends or girlfriend's' telling them how we plan to take the country to new heights by our master plan of utilizing taxes towards eduaction and removing the corrupt politicians', before going to sleep and after 6-12 hours of sleep, depending upon whether its a weekday or not, we wake up Voila!!!! fresh as a cucumber, without a trace or hint of our rights and all that yesternight blah-blah.
Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country- Now I understand the true meaning of these words by American president Kennedy. You don't have to be a minister or IAS officer to take our country forward but the common man, as RK Laxman fondly calls us, would do.What one needs is the desire and passion to do so, which alike common sense is uncommon. Its not that simple to sink in because the concept is not 'in', I mean trendy or fashionable except a few days before or after 15 Aug and 26 Jan or just 15 mins after watching 'border'. I mean, how many of us have actually stopped at an accident site to carry the victim to hospital or called '100' for reporting a crime until our own beloved ones are caught in it, and then we expect everyone else to be mature and show humanity and kindness. The problem with kindness is that everyone wants it from others. In fact, I am wrong. Reporting a crime is not an act of humanity but our duty, the very duty which makes us claim our fundamental rights.These rights are not free, they come with a price tag and its not easy to pay. The price is duty.
It is our duty to stand in line at airport to get ourselves frisked and not raise a hue and cry for it that the security personnel touched my this or that and I am offended. You are not that cute and he is not that desperate, he just wants to do his duty. Similarly, we must stop at the red light even in the absence of a policeman because if we are getting late for office its not the system's fault but ours because we started late. I may be wrong one odd time but close your eye and just think once- "Did I thought of asking the policeman why he demands Rs. 500 for passport verification when I already paid the fee in the long queue at the passport office". It is our fundamental right to get the verification done free of charge as he is already getting paid from our very own taxes, and most inportantly it is our duty to report him if he demands bribe. But!!! Wish I had an answer to this 'But'...
The context in which these words were hurled towards the journalists was ofcourse the inability of the govt, and home ministry in particular, to provide, what our fellow considered his and our fundamental right, the right to safety. In very strong words, he asked our esteemed minister of Home Affairs P.Chidambaram to take note of this attack on sovereignity of our country and pushed him in line of fire for not succeding in stopping the misdeeds of the barbarians. Home minister, who is already been pulled several times by many more, for remaining largely ineffective in taking care of his duties, once again did not take any criticism on his beloved so-called 'secret' agencies and whined, -"it was not an intelligence failure, as there was no intelligence since no clues were generated and no leads were found." God knows why doesnt he actually closes these agencies down and escapes all responsibilities of intelligence failures. But that is altogether a different topic and merits separate space for itself.
Coming back to our rights, I concurred the thoughts of our gentleman from Mumbai, until I happened to swift my way besides the traffic policemen standing at the red light close to my office. He was motioning me or the car tailing me to stop, but as usual I took advantage of the early morning rush and zoomed past him, turning a blind eye and covertly smiling with my inner self at my highly skilled maneuver to escape a challan for not keeping my pollution certificate up to date, as did my anonymous partner tailing me. Although this skill is so commonplace in our country that everyone has a boastful story of how he first slowed and then raced past the casual poilceman, shouting abuses towards him when he was expected to stop and get his papers examined. More or less, in a few minutes this 'glorious' story would give way to how inefficient indian police and govt is, and how we can't expect them to catch a thief, goon or thug running. And finally when our drinks or chicken is over, we will move to our respective friends or girlfriend's' telling them how we plan to take the country to new heights by our master plan of utilizing taxes towards eduaction and removing the corrupt politicians', before going to sleep and after 6-12 hours of sleep, depending upon whether its a weekday or not, we wake up Voila!!!! fresh as a cucumber, without a trace or hint of our rights and all that yesternight blah-blah.
Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country- Now I understand the true meaning of these words by American president Kennedy. You don't have to be a minister or IAS officer to take our country forward but the common man, as RK Laxman fondly calls us, would do.What one needs is the desire and passion to do so, which alike common sense is uncommon. Its not that simple to sink in because the concept is not 'in', I mean trendy or fashionable except a few days before or after 15 Aug and 26 Jan or just 15 mins after watching 'border'. I mean, how many of us have actually stopped at an accident site to carry the victim to hospital or called '100' for reporting a crime until our own beloved ones are caught in it, and then we expect everyone else to be mature and show humanity and kindness. The problem with kindness is that everyone wants it from others. In fact, I am wrong. Reporting a crime is not an act of humanity but our duty, the very duty which makes us claim our fundamental rights.These rights are not free, they come with a price tag and its not easy to pay. The price is duty.
It is our duty to stand in line at airport to get ourselves frisked and not raise a hue and cry for it that the security personnel touched my this or that and I am offended. You are not that cute and he is not that desperate, he just wants to do his duty. Similarly, we must stop at the red light even in the absence of a policeman because if we are getting late for office its not the system's fault but ours because we started late. I may be wrong one odd time but close your eye and just think once- "Did I thought of asking the policeman why he demands Rs. 500 for passport verification when I already paid the fee in the long queue at the passport office". It is our fundamental right to get the verification done free of charge as he is already getting paid from our very own taxes, and most inportantly it is our duty to report him if he demands bribe. But!!! Wish I had an answer to this 'But'...
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Opposition
Today is that unfortunate day on which 18 of my fellow countrymen lost their lives for no fault of theirs. Or is it? Maybe I am wrong. Maybe there actually is a fault of theirs. Yes they dint elect BJP to the chair. This is their fault.
Congress has never been a party with good policies. I completely agree with our respected ex-deputy PM Advaniji, but look who's talking. Was he any different. What did he do when his govt was in power; they took the sadbhavna express across wagah. I dont see how is he blaming UPA for trying to improve the relations with our neighbor. Wasnt he involved in the same process?
Now to be clear, this is not regarding UPA's flawed policy, nor is it regarding Pakistan ane definitely not regarding terrorist bombing. This is me wondering about common sense. Common sens which says if you see your home under attack, you stand united with your family despite all small or big differences between you and your brothers. If this is not so much difficult for me to understand, how come the most vocal and respected opposition politician fails to see this. I know, he has his limitations. He cant openly praise the govt, but he can atleast keep his mouth shut if he doesnt have brains to analyze that exactly this was the motive behind all these attacks. They dont like to see india and pakistan not fighting. They will stop recieving funds if pakistan has no reason to strike India. I am not specifying they here because of the simplest of reasons. I dont know who they are. They may be LeT, IM who want to negotiate kashmir with the govt using terror as their base, or pakis who may fear that if India is free enough to concentrate on development, they may become superior and dominant, the same reason as chinese, ormaybe americans, who want us to increase our defence budget so that we cqn purchase their planes or second hand aircraft-carrier ships,or maybe BJP themselves, to destabilize govt for coming elections in UP. I seriously dontwant to speculate here. I just want the leaders to speak sense. Is it necessary to speak against govt if you are in opposition. I dont agree. Talking about aalu pyaz is definitely far from this. This is done for the motive of separation and you are not achieving anything else than this. You will never get any votes for this but you will lose support of those who think this is immaturish. It is known that the power of todays indian leaders lay in illiteracy because that is the only characteristic which can make you realize the common good rather than your selfish achievement. Why is it so difficult to expect honesty and sincerity from politicians. Why doesnt a child never chooses politician as a career. Wish I had the answer.
Congress has never been a party with good policies. I completely agree with our respected ex-deputy PM Advaniji, but look who's talking. Was he any different. What did he do when his govt was in power; they took the sadbhavna express across wagah. I dont see how is he blaming UPA for trying to improve the relations with our neighbor. Wasnt he involved in the same process?
Now to be clear, this is not regarding UPA's flawed policy, nor is it regarding Pakistan ane definitely not regarding terrorist bombing. This is me wondering about common sense. Common sens which says if you see your home under attack, you stand united with your family despite all small or big differences between you and your brothers. If this is not so much difficult for me to understand, how come the most vocal and respected opposition politician fails to see this. I know, he has his limitations. He cant openly praise the govt, but he can atleast keep his mouth shut if he doesnt have brains to analyze that exactly this was the motive behind all these attacks. They dont like to see india and pakistan not fighting. They will stop recieving funds if pakistan has no reason to strike India. I am not specifying they here because of the simplest of reasons. I dont know who they are. They may be LeT, IM who want to negotiate kashmir with the govt using terror as their base, or pakis who may fear that if India is free enough to concentrate on development, they may become superior and dominant, the same reason as chinese, ormaybe americans, who want us to increase our defence budget so that we cqn purchase their planes or second hand aircraft-carrier ships,or maybe BJP themselves, to destabilize govt for coming elections in UP. I seriously dontwant to speculate here. I just want the leaders to speak sense. Is it necessary to speak against govt if you are in opposition. I dont agree. Talking about aalu pyaz is definitely far from this. This is done for the motive of separation and you are not achieving anything else than this. You will never get any votes for this but you will lose support of those who think this is immaturish. It is known that the power of todays indian leaders lay in illiteracy because that is the only characteristic which can make you realize the common good rather than your selfish achievement. Why is it so difficult to expect honesty and sincerity from politicians. Why doesnt a child never chooses politician as a career. Wish I had the answer.
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