Getting a seat in a microbus is a big achievement these days. I was going to the office along with Sooman and it was quite late already. Things were fine... as we entered the vehicle, there was this Yash Kumar's 'yo manle timilai nai rojeko chha...' song and the whole thing was okay. I was completely lost in the lyrics of the song...
Then when we reached Babarmahal, a man seated in the front i.e with the driver, started vomiting. The conductor asked the driver to stop and asked one of the man sitting behind to exchange seat with him, so that the sick man feels a little more comfortable. The vehicle stopped and the sick man got off, hoping that he could get a seat somewhere in the back. Noone got up, perhaps everyone was stunned as I was... we were not able to understand what was going on. The sick man, stunned himself, started vomiting again... I was watching him... when noone got up to occupy the seat left by that man, the conductor closed the door and instructed the driver to get going. The man was left there, sick and vomiting.
I could hardly figure out what was happening, or what had just happened. When I realised that a man, helpless as he was, had been deserted just because he was sick, I was too stunned to react. The fact that that man was a Madhesi drew my attention. I wondered if someone other than a Madhesi would be treated that way. In some ways, madhesis revolts seemed reasonable to me...
When I asked Sooman about the whole thing, he said that he has stopped thinking about such things. And I thought, may be even I should not care about such trivial matters. Afterall, just yesterday, we at office had laughed about how the madhesis are ill-treated by everyone in the valley including conductors and drivers... the laughter echoed all over again in my mind, and I felt sort of guilty.
I just wish we all could live in harmony and that there would be no discrimination. I would not want myself to be left out if I were sick!! But then, everyone in the bus was too stunned to react, or say anything to the conductor and the driver including me and Sooman.
At this point, I remember reading Yurgan dai's touching line 'Think and feel globally, act locally.' Therefore, may be by diverting my focus away from the BIG word 'discrimination', I should start on my own to stop judging people by the colour of their skin.
So, there's a commitment from my side, I guess!!
So, there's a commitment from my side, I guess!!
5 comments:
Poonam, I know how much it pinches your heart. I also know that we must do something but what????? If there would be a few problems we could have solved that by our effort but there are so many problems....you can see thousands beggars a day, thousands of helpless people, thousands of starving people,so many homeless, so many insane and so on and so on.....So if you cannot overcome the sadness and the pinches you will never be ableto step forward. If you can do something, you have to but when things are behind your limit, Lets forget this because that is how the world moves.....Anyway I have a deep respect for you because there are few poo who still know what is love......
Hi Poonam, excellent article, pointing out the calamity of daily life in the anonymous big city life.
Compassion is essential to us humans and we may never give this feeling up or become cold on the suffering of others. But we also should not bash ourselves, if we are unable to help in every single case we are confronted with.
We should care about people to whom we can provide some kind of continuity in our help. Don't blame yourself, care about your friends when they are sick and troubled and do this in continuity.
An ocean is made of single drops...
Very well said Poonam, thats what exactly we should start doing. There are talks everywhere about discrimination and if we wont start changing the discriminatory object within us, nothing is ever gonna change!
That happens in our daily. So, I don't want to use those micro buses. I am happy to have my private vechile. But once in a while I use these buses, then so amny things bump on me. People are so much discriminated that they are treated like the will not pay for the seat. I had come across such situation, once there were two people looking from a low social standard or say magne's and you know no one was ready to seat with them and the Khalasi made them stand. I couldn't say anything but I gave some space to the woman. What could I do anything. Your article reminded me that accident. Well written
nice story and its the truth which pinches. lets hope for beatuiful dawn.
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