Some months back, I read a news article. A woman had died in her home in Indiranagar in Bangalore and her body lay there for several weeks at a stretch without anyone knowing about her whereabouts. Some day when her brother came to her home, then the death came to light.A similar incident was reported in Noida also some years back.
Again, I saw a news clip of a couple on a Jaipur Road. The lady was lying on the road in a pool of blood and the man was incessantly asking for help from the cars crossing from there to take her to a hospital. But the cars were passing by nonchalantly as if nothing had happened.The title of the clip said , “MAR GAYI MANAVTA”( The humanity has died).
Shivers ran down my spine and instantly I was shocked as well as became thoughtful. If tomorrow something happens to me and my family is not there near me, will no one come to my help?
People say, “We live in a civilized society”. Plain bull-shit. We live in a jungle, the concrete jungles we proudly proclaim as our ‘cities’ or ‘metros’. A race is going on. Everyone is running after something. Don’t know what and we have no time left for anyone.
Much of my childhood was spent in a small town. How nostalgic those days of mine make me! Men from neighbourhood sitting together to discuss the day’s problems, about business, family; children of the entire lane playing together. If one family in a lane required some help, entire lane will be up in minutes and ready to help fully. That culture can still be seen in our villages and towns to certain extent. People feel safer there.
But in cities, people feel a stronger urge to photograph a dying person than to save him. Does the cosmopolitan nature of a city robs away all emotions of a person? Do we stop being the persons we were back at home? We, specifically as Indians, have humanity imprinted in our genes. Why, then, we can’t make the environment and culture of our cities just like towns or villages?
Mahatma Gandhi said,” I call him religious who understands the suffering of others”. I think this statement sums up everything. If we just start feeling others’ grief and try helping, God will be happy the most.Let us ponder on this problem a bit and try bringing back life in our concrete jungles once again. Together we can surely make this world a better place to live in.