All thanks to the new diseases I keep encountering each and
everyday, I encountered something quite horrendous, if I may say so. My Parotid
gland swelled up, which is a salivary gland right across the cheek before the
ear. It happens due to mumps or some other infection but in my case, I ate a sour flavour of Nachos, felt a twinge across my face, which all of you must
have experienced from time to time and next thing I know, my face looks like
half a pear. It was quite unexpected and inexplicable. For me as well, though
being a student of dentistry, I do study about salivary glands but this was
only one of its kind. But being such an intelligent specimen of such a
disastrous species that I am , I did not panic at all :P And I came to home
instantly in Delhi :P So not panicky :P
Now, I
am not here to make a big issue of my illness or anything, but I am here to
speculate about a stark; I don’t know what to call it, the state of Delhi and
its people. The state of Delhi, has deteriorated so much over the past years,
there is no doubt over it. I am not talking about the beauty of Delhi, or on
the developmental lines but I am talking here about the soul of Delhi which has
been marred and is being marred everday by the people who reside in Delhi.
I am not much of a metro traveler, or even a public
transport user, because first of all, I don’t bloody like it and secondly, I
don’t require it. But when you suddenly have to step out of your comfort zone, which
I kind of had to today, it really left
me aghast too see as to what has become of us these days. I am walking down the street
and I see all kind of maniacs here. The civil maniacs. There is a bunch of
young boys maybe in class 6th or so, speeding on their scooties. One
of them was louder than the group and much of a show off. So in his high which
he might be getting, he attempted a wheelie and unfortunately, he ended up
hitting an elderly woman. Now these are the times when you really don’t know
what to do. You can’t scold the boy. He was already petrified at his accident
and you can’t even let it go. With all the crowd gathered around him, he was
bloody terrified. And people yelling and shouting at his inane behaviour, there
was more a sense of desperation in these people rather than any concern for
that old lady. And this is not the first time such things have happened. So
many road rage incidents and brawls on trivial issues, what has become of us
these days? I was watching the movie 'fight club’ the other day and found quite
an amusing scene where each of the member of fight club has been given a task
of indulging into a fight with total stranger. And guess what, it showed
people actually do not dare to fight. That was about 15 years ago. So people
did have some civility 15 years ago. But where has all of that gone? People
nowadays are just waiting for a fight to happen. They are looking for an excuse
to fight rather than avoid it. Even in your workplace, it’s a common phenomenon
that people rake up really small issues and hold a grudge against you. A small
difference of opinion between you and someone else’s nowadays means you’re intrinsically an
asshole and do not deserve a place to live in this world. Respecting someone’s
opinion and not not contesting someone’s opinion are two very different things
and people have lost this fundamental sense completely.
Talking about Delhi specifically, the people here are,
mostly, immigrants and all the Delhites want to force this change on them. But
I really want to speculate here. Whether they are the real issue here for all
the destruction of our values? Is it all due to them? Or we all are missing
something bigger here? I mean with delhi being a mega city, there are people
here belonging to most vivid cultures. Here you can find a Dhoti clad Tau on a
chaar poyi, a turban clad sardar in a Jaguar but who still bows before Bangla
Sahib, a bright, colourful saaree clad woman who smokes hookah, or even just
another Bihari going naked in the street to finish off his daily ritual of
offering water to the Sun. Delhi has everything. Now when people relocate, they
bring their cultures to that place. It seems fair to attribute the loss of
Delhi’s original culture due to this intermingling. But is that one hundred
percent right? I don’t think so. Because everywhere, this thing is happening. Maybe at a slower pace in some other areas but this is just not indigenous Delhi, it’s a global phenomenon. The examples come to light every now and
then. Countries are strong armed. But
why is such a thing happening?Are people these days are sitting at the end of
volcanoes? Because just one stimulus and they erupts like anything. Is this the
kind of environment we really want to live in? There are self crowned idealists, some of them hold debates on national TV, some roam around wearing Nehru caps, and some go to such an extent that they start comparing themselves to Gandhi. But that is not what this article is about. This article is sololely and specifically about why is there so much anguish among the common man? Why is he not satisfied with his life and why is he letting his sense shadowed under the cloud of his ego? The world needs peace
more than ever. We have all kinds of weapons of mass destruction and we have
seen people losing the respect for human lives. To hell with mass destruction, I
say angry potheads with a 5 ton car are potential threat to our security in
general. I am actually pained to see our values, our humility being diminished. We have all been forced to believe that we are here to do something big.
We are forced to look at the things in an impractical fashion. And that’s why I
find a person’s own desperation, guilt, remorse, failed dreams and an impaired
sense of judgement coming into force during an argument.
It seems they are on a vendetta to link everything with their own cause. They
fight to run away from pain. And the worst of all is, these people see humility
as a sign of weakness and so do dumb spectators who are too scared to voice
their own opinions. Why? Because they think it might not sound cool or maybe it
will make them the target. But I am sick of people giving such excuses at why
they did not react in the right fashion. For god’s sake stop blaming other
people for your cowardness. And these people are contagious. It’s necessary you
stay away from them and shun them out with a full pounding force and wake up
from their sleep so that they realise that they are wrong. Doing nothing is
just as good as doing wrong. I am disappointed how the slightest of the values
of human nature have perished altogether by our uncouth, loutish egos that have
simply got out of our hands to deal with. I am not here to be the yardstick of being the
superior model of calmness and sense or moral judgement. But this, sir, lack of
humility and your boiling attitude, will not be tolerated. Confrontations don’t
happen. We make it happen. We hunt for blood. Everywhere. But where does it end
finally? The outbursts, the frenzy, the exhaustion, the powerlessness ultimately
leaves you crippled. I feel terrified, not humiliated, not shameful but terrified
to be associated with such society with such hypocrisy. Terrified. Because when you are dealing with angry men, it's better to stay away. But for how long are we going to tolerate this kind of absurdity of being the recipient of your own insecurities? I have been an ardent supporter of this word "humility", because your act of humility can brave you through any situation. With your pride and dignity intact. But it is even more important that the bloody motherfucking common man understands this word, its gesture, its meaning and its motive. Politeness, humility look poised when they are understood well. But in today's society, I barely find a place where it is not misunderstood. Misunderstood as ego or pride or to some more clever people as some cheap trick to be seen as pretentious and idealistic. We really need to pause for a second to see where we're heading to. We are losing our ideals to something that is more
