Apathy?

                                                                                   

If there were ashes flying in the air

Would you be glad to see it?

And if snowflakes instead were there

Will from your eyes, emanate tears?

In mornings when your feet touch soft grass

Do they ever painfully sear?

And if you know somewhere a child is without meal

Will you still dare to waste a supper?

Or if an evil you confront in present

Will you welcome its footsteps into the future?

I know your answer is ‘no’

Because we are under our control and we know

The right, the wrong, the good , the bad

We can identify the comforts, the discomforts,

what makes us and people happy and sad

Then how with such ease, do we chose to suture

The mask made of ignorance towards suffering of others?

Look into your own eyes in the mirror

And try to evade the above question..

If you’re thinking I’m going to talk about compassion and kindness and mercy, then may be you are mistaken!!

What I actually want to highlight though is the complexity  of human mind (not anatomically). I wonder how could I enjoy a delicious meal while watching television, just five minutes after reading an article on the condition of slum dwellers in Mumbai. Obviously my mind was numbed by the joy my taste buds provided it with.

OK. Well I think that I am going to talk about compassion and ignorance. Continue reading. So let me throw some light on what I read about the condition of slum dwellers in Mumbai. Kids over there, at times, have to kill rats and feed on them. Other alternative may be collecting grass grown near a pool of stagnant water or some ponds (where we better-offs would chose to shut our noses and mouth). Lack of education and opportunities make working in nearby hotels as waiters, a dream job. They rattle junk materials in search of metals and to differentiate them. And so on. And I pledged that I would not waste any food thereafter. But I couldn’t keep my own promise; may be because I am not ‘Chulbul Pandey’ of our typical Bollywood movie ‘Dabangg’, whose famous dialogue goes like, “Ekbaar jo maine commitment kardi to phir main khud ki bhi nahi sunta.” ( “if I commit once , then I do not even listen to myself.”). Also I am no Mother Teresa and likes. So what can I do? And a prequel to this question is, “Do I need to do anything?”

I read all sort of bad articles, news on atrocities being committed in this world, in present, in history, and those that will take place in near future. I get moved, both emotionally and literally. I take a step ahead and forget. I may remember all the bad things that have happened in he past and get depressed but not once do I think of those underprivileged, I read about in the past, and then get depressed. I need to be keep myself abreast with such news to feel bad about them, or passionate about them. And I think most of the people reading or not reading this piece of article share the same story.

Well, as for now, I do the minimum I can do to help the underprivileged. I hope I raise myself to the platform where I will be competing in the field of philanthropy. For now, I need to compete in other fields to feed my stomach and my ambitions. The starvation for philanthropy is yet not felt by me. It's concealed and subjugated by the selfishness and greediness of my mind, just like those kids’ starvation is concealed by them, behind the veil of ignorance, helplessness, capitulation to their fate…

 Watch the video of this NGO 'Kartavya', also listed among 20 successful nonprofits started by students across the world

Image source: http://www.sonrays.org/2011_05_01_archive.html