Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a God.
Another blast in Delhi, one killed, 18 injured.... and many more to follow. My reaction, I just call up those I care for in Delhi , tell them about the blasts, ask them to stay in and watch the news. I wish that people who I know and I can't connect to are safe. I am not bothered too much about all those I don't know.
Its not that I am unsympathetic towards the blast victims. I am sure if I see someone or hear about someone I am going to feel sad. But other than that its just numbers. And numbers baffle me. X number of blasts in one Indian city. Y number of such cities. Z number of casualties in each of the blasts. After some time, its going to fade from my memory, precedence taken by some piece of crap. May be new MTV Roadies or may be office work or may be some good shopping offer. Yeah life moves on... It always does.
Have we accepted terror, violence ,death and injury as a part of life. Do we now think that insanity and irrationality will always be there. We just hope, wish or rather BELIEVE that its not gonna happen to us. That my near ones and I are always going to be lucky enough never to get caught in the chaos. And rest is all fine. Its fine as long as its not happening to you. Is it indifference, callousness, helplessness or inhumanity. I have seen some animal species gather and fight against a more powerful enemy to save each other. Yeah we ain't animals any more.
Its not that i can do anything about it. Its not that I can do anything about anything in general. I can just wish, hope and do the utterly trivial things. Things that are good, but of such small size that they do not matter. Its like clearing the way for an ant to carry sugar in the midst of riots or an approaching cyclone. Does saving power mean anything when we can't save lives. What difference does it make if city streets are clean or not, when the minds are not? But then... keep up the good work ;)
Child-free by choice: A growing trend
8 years ago
6 comments:
"What difference does it make if city streets are clean or not, when the minds are not?"
Can't agree completely on it...... mind is an individual property you keep it in whatever way you want... unless and until it doesn't cause any problem to others its o.k...... What difference does people with clean minds make?.... they all at some point or the other have bits and pieces to talk and to put the blame on others..... people with so called clean minds talk in groups saying that I'm not creating any such problems, but also doesn't want to get their hands dirty by trying to clean up....
one of my friend rightly points out... "If I am not a part of the solution actively, I am a part of the problem passively"...
The only point is we all don't realize when something or the other happens to some of us or someone around us... but when it happens we need an immediate solution........ not all the problems in the world is unsolvable.. if we name it as a problem it does have a solution the only thing is the approach should be right....!
but nice thoughts and well compiled!
Good to see you going here again :-)
I agree with Selva. Clean mind too is a relative things. 'Ahimsa' is a very complicated word which has always been interpreted differently by various minds. When one is saying I won't kill anyone, doesn't know that he is making the lives of 100 more not livable. Pulkit's blog description might be the best to describe this (Nero's Guests)
A few examples:
- By drinking coke and promoting it, we never know that we are depriving 1000s of people from basic drinking water!
- The environment pollution due to blind consumption, reckless usage of cars and private vehicles will only kill a few lives earlier than expected, and can even be a curse for the next generations. But not many people care about it!
As P.Sainath rightly said: "How agonized we are about how people die. How untroubled we are by how they live!"
Will stop here, else akka will beat me!
Btw, Selva, If I am not wrong your friend was Pulkit? :-)
Sejal!,
yes that quote was Pulkit's :)... and yes... I don't drink coke because of the same reason... in fact I still remember the converstation I had with Nandlal master about the issues they face from the Mehdiganj plant... I was a very hard core coke drinker before that... I completely stoped consumption of coke and also advice my friends not to do so :).... I've been able to conveince 3 of my friends so far.... will keep doing it :P
I didn't know you had a blog. Good stuff! This one is a very hard-hitting and well-written piece, but smacks of gloom and a bit of I-give-up type feeling, which contradicts my image of you as a go-getter! My more than two cents on the topic [:)]:
Saving energy does translate to saving lives, indirectly. For instance, it is beyond doubt that global warming causes more frequent and more intense floods/droughts/hurricanes. Whether we see it ourselves or not, whether we can relate to it or not, the truth is that our carefree energy consumption kills!
Besides, I don't consider death as the ultimate form of suffering. Some of the people very close to me have battled with asthma all their lives, and I know what that pain is like. Recently, I read that 30% of Bangalore's children suffer from asthma, for which air pollution is the leading culprit. Yet, instead of feeling guilty, we feel proud to drive a car rather than a cycle, and board autos over buses.
You are a part of AID Delhi, and are aware of the hellish living conditions of a vast share of fellow Indians. A thousand bucks a month from 100 software people (not a big deal at all), coupled with some vols working on the ground, can make an elephantine change to the lives of several slum dwelling communities. In effect, this tiny gesture, which would impact thousands of lives, heals the world as much as averting a dozen terror attacks.
To cut the long story short, however tiny your contribution is or seems, it, sure as hell, matters! As Margaret Mead aptly said, "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world". Our freedom struggle is a classic example.
Thanks Selva, Seju and Pulkit for stopping by and thinking :)
The post was written close to blasts in Delhi and Mumbai.. hence probably the helplessness is reflected here. I am not against doing our bit, however small it is... whether you can see the change or not. Someone has to make amends for the work done by fellow homo sapiens!!!
For me a clean mind is a mind that knows what ethical behaviour is and knows how to adhere to it. As long as you are not adding anything to the dirt in any form, I donot blame anyone, even if they donot get engaged in cleanup. And I mean "Any form"
With every human action, we produce side effects
you drink in paper cups... trees are cut..
you drink in plastic cups... its non-biodegradable..
you go to some far off place... some non-renewable source is used...
you eat non-veg food... as per energy conservation of physics 90% of energy is wasted..
you breathe.. CO2 level increases...
We need to strike a balance between technology and environment. We need to have environment friendly systems instead of giving up growth and advancement.
Cleanup of mind means ensuring that everybody is doing their bit correctly. Everybody is responsible for their actions. That ways we will just need to deal with past mess, not present or future one. All industries are responsible for the harm that they do to environment and deal with it... all individuals responsible for space around them...
@Pulkit... Yes I have been writing for sometime but did not share the link with anyone. I usually write only when there is nothing else that I can do about something... hence the pessimism :)
keep writing coz that will make you think deeper :-)
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