Sunday, January 18, 2009

We...

You may call me selfish and self-centered. I can sleep peacefully when my fellow countrymen suffer at the other corner. I belong to that group of citizen who keep an eye on the daily news on the newspaper and shed some word or two in consolation and analysis. Perhaps avoid reading and listening to them when the massacre is too bloody. Their pain and tears doesn't pierce my heart. Their loss doesn't make me cry. Their sorrow doesn't jolt my emotions.

I am only concerned with my lot. I feel the pain only when my family is in trouble. I spend sleepless nights when my mother doesn't keep well. Otherwise I'm happy and complacent with my life, totally unmoved by the world around.

Does that mean I'm not patriotic? Does that mean I should be ashamed to call myself an Indian?

But I have something to say. I'm not the only one. You may call it a lame excuse, but this is the truth. Unless it happens to our family we do nothing more than sparing some hours in watching the news and discussing the tragedy with colleagues. Perhaps we think we can do nothing more than this and head for a new day as if nothing has changed. We avoid thinking of it and wish that it never happens to us or to our family. I petty myself and those who are like me.

3 comments:

  1. I am one such selfish guy and I have no problems with that...

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  2. There is only so much you can take of the pain of the world. We have to live on until something happens. Is there any other way?

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