Sunday, August 03, 2008

Milipede...













Photo by - Endevourme
Location : Public transport bus in pune. It is fully packed as usual and i have managed to grab a seat. After 2 stops an old woman gets in and is standing nearby. Following is what goes on in my mind.

You must get up and give her your seat.
No! i have to travel quite far, i have done a big fight to get this place so i must remain seated, i must!
You are young and healthy, look at her, she is so old. Standing for half an hour is nothing for you.
But its so much burden for her. Cant you see?
Would she even feel grateful? i have given seat in the past and people dont just bother to even thank you. They think it was anyway my duty to give them my seat.
How does it matter whether they feel gratitude? you must help if you can.
These are all social doctrines, as i have found out, most of them are wrong or relative. This preaching is just to maintain a manageable social atmosphere, nothing else.
It is your moral responsibility to help her.
Moral responsibility? huh! why dont you go and help people on weekends instead of enjoying your days out? there are loads of them needing help!
See you always have to choose between you and others, isnt it?

Yes thats right, but this is nothing, you dont have to do much, its just about standing up for a while! you must give her your seat!
See, these buses are always full, always, and there are old people coming in, does that mean you shouldnt sit at all? and by the way, there are so many young people sitting around and not a single person cares about the old lady, why do you have to?
What others do or dont has nothing to do with your helping people, isnt it?
It has! see now, if i do give her seat, i will grab atleast some attention from onlookers, and what they are going to think?'look he is trying to be a showoff!, is he trying to impress the girl standing there?' and besides, it will do good for her to stand, if she is poor and cant afford going by auto she must get habit of standing, so standing will be good for her!
What a horrible thinking! she is a poor old woman, cant you see?
Its getting ugly and its a sin.
It isnt horrible, i am just trying to say that you must desensitise yourself in order to survive. There are much more horrors in this world. You must learn to live with all this disorder. And you can do lot of things for 'poor old people' on weekends huh?, why dont you do it? Isnt it a sin when you enjoy life when there are loads of people needing help?
hmmm...
And there is nothing like sin, these are age old absolete concepts, just to make people feel guilty so that they get sense of so called 'social responsibility'. And you have been good to people in the past, what happened? Did anyone help you when you were in need? And these are collective responsibilites, arent they? Why should you, only you, when there are others who just dont bother? You must learn to ignore all this, you cant fight everything, things dont work like that.
The old woman gets an empty seat after a few minutes, and the chapter is closed for me.

15 comments:

Junius said...

thats a milipede in the pic, small tiny creature, there are so many of them during rainy season :D!!

dear readers...please understand that i am not trying to conclude one way or the other in the argument
cheers! :D

Gauri Gharpure said...

this has happened to me-- in a bus-- to give a seat, on a traffic signal deciding whether or not to give soem change to beggar bachas and old people-- trying to reason why he needs it (or doesn't) ... you get caught in a series of thoughts and counter thoughts; the moment to do something simply passes away. The light turns green, the car moves and I feel dumb for being so indecisive...

Gauri Gharpure said...

I must add-- a wonderful piece of reflection.. nice writing...

Junius said...

#Gauri Gharpure
thats true,
and there are many angles of most of the social issues...
thanks fr visiting :D

dharmabum said...

well, at least some of us are thinking on these lines, there still seems to be hope.

super pic, as always :)

Junius said...

#dharmabum
/-there still seems to be hope.
mmm? hope for wht?

/-super pic, as always :)
thanku thanku :D

Kuan Gung said...

Funny debate...comfort verses discomfort on different levels....

Junius said...

#Kuan Gung
yes it really comes to comfort vs discomfort this way...
thank you fr visiting :D

Ash said...

Fantastic image, great textures...

Junius said...

#Ash
hey thanks!
yea actually the milipede is on a brick which has moss on it and on the right side its a bit dried :D

Gunjan Aylawadi said...

dat was a wonderful post pal!
something most of us go thru at sme point but keep avoiding!

Shankari said...

Usually Ende, I just look at the pic and then don't manage to read the post as I am SO taken in by the pic. This time I was glad that I could not only admire the pic but also focus enough to read what was an honest reflection.

Junius said...

#gunj
yeah we keep avoiding, and its a good thing to cross that line you know! to be honest with oneself :D


#Shankari
hey!
i am keeping this blog for the pic's sake if you understand :D
...everyone writes...isnt it?

Maya said...

the use of light green colored fonts for this post is pathetic

Junius said...

#maya
yeps it is!
actually, earlier the template was diff so it was readable