Finding The Lost Human

I was sitting in my room, watching a program on TV about a traveler riding on his motorcycle across the length and breadth of India. Many times when he was in the middle of a small village and was hungry or needed a place to stay for the night, he knocked on the door of any villager and he was provided with food and shelter. No questions asked. While watching this I remembered an incident narrated by one of my Uncles which I happened to overhear and it stayed with me. He told us that he had gone to play a cricket match with his friends and by the afternoon when the match got over, he was very hungry. The cricket ground was near a village. So he went to one of the houses in the village with a few of his friends and asked the old lady in the house if he could get something to eat, and the old lady without asking who he was and where had come from went inside and got him a plate full of rice and dal.

What struck me about these two incidents is the colossal difference in the thinking between the people living in the villages of India, and those of us living in our swanky houses with modern facilities, 24 hours security, and closed gates, in the modern cities of India. In the villages, people still do not hesitate to offer help to anyone, whether known or unknown; whereas in our cities, we even hesitate to come to the aid of those whom we consider as our own. In villages they still believe in the concept of humanity, whereas we are often found weighing humanity against profit and loss; to our convenience and security.

If we study the social demography of our cities we would notice a significant shift in social values. The economic elevation of the society in our cities is inversely proportional to the social synergy. Remember those 'Mohallas,' where our neighbors were an extension of our family, and all the moments, whether blissful or sad were shared? Today we have shifted to living in gated housing societies, where most of the time we are not even aware of who is living next door. We are living in a world where we are surrounded by 24/7 security, even a relative or a friend has to come through a proper security check, when they are visiting us. We live in a world where we look at anyone unknown to us, with a suspicious eye. We are prisoners in our own homes.

And it is just not in our homes, even when we are out, we are still imprisoned or I should say trapped in our little world. We just ignore the sufferings of the others. On a traffic signal, we would roll up the glass of our car window, when a child comes to beg, and would criticize the system, but how many of us have ever tried to do something to help those children enroll in schools so that they can make a future for themselves? 

What changed us? Why have we become so incredulous, so skeptical towards our people? Where and how did we lose faith in the people living around us? Why can't we be like those innocent people of the villages who don't even think twice before offering help to a stranger? Why have we become so oblivious to what is happening around us?

It is the right of every person living on the face of this planet to think about and to work towards their economic elevation and to have a better life. However, every right comes with a duty attached. Therefore, it is a duty of each one of us to ensure that the rising economic status should not take away our innocence and our belief in humanity. We should not hesitate to offer help to anyone who comes to us with a faith that he/she would get help. More importantly, we should ensure that we do not forget the basic human nature of collaborating and interacting with people around us. Share their sorrows, be part of their joys, and make them part of ours. We have to start trusting again. Be emotional, offer help to someone who needs it. If you are sitting comfortably at the top of the economic pyramid, try and pull the ones at the bottom of it. 

Life of a human being is supposed to be a blessing because it comes with a boon. The Boon of Choice. Our body is like a machine, each organ has a specific function and at the end when all the parts are outdated the machine becomes a piece of junk. But still, we are more than that because we can choose. We are like most of the animals on this planet with basic functions of eating, sleeping, and reproducing. But we still are more than that because we can choose. We can choose to make a difference to this world, make a difference in the lives of everyone who gets in touch with us by our actions, our emotions, and our will.

I now staunchly believe that to keep the human alive in our body, we need to make a change in the way we conduct our lives. If we don't do that we will lose the human in us and will be just like an animal or a machine. The only difference between us and machines is that when a machine stops working, it is thrown in the scrapyard and is forgotten, whereas a human even when he/she is gone is always remembered for his/her deeds and relations.