It was one of those other routine days...I had gone to drop Anand to a bus pickup point in the city where he was one of the many passengers awaiting their carriage to arrive....the bus stop was full of all sorts of people...some with all the luggage in this world,some with babies crying away to glory,some already fed up about the journey, some treating the journey as a way to get close and my husband looking at the next 5 hours to reach another workplace!!!
In this frenzy of activities and noises, an autorickshaw halted at the bus stop and a young man started unloading his luggage from the rickshaw with the help of the driver.All of a sudden a boy of about 10 yrs of age with a small plate having a photo of some 'Deity' smeared with kumkum started asking for some 'dakshina' for the devi in the plate...The autorickshaw driver suddenly slapped the boy hard and pushed him away from the rickshaw....
This visual really struck me hard and before I could register what had happened the driver drove away in his vehicle.....
The boy walked away with a blank face as if this was routine...this was much more hard hitting....I had seen similar incidents on the platforms of mumbai local stations,signals and small eating joints...
Why do people exercise their power on persons who cannot retaliate...does this give them a sense of supremacy and power,would the driver have slapped the person asking for alms if he had been a young boy of 21 years and in a retaliating mode? this happened only because the small boy was not physically equipped to give it back to the driver...
These small people will grow up to be young men filled with only vengeance in their mind...and when the time is right they will retaliate in their own way and give it back to the society...they will know of no logic,no humanity and no socialistic well being..they will become sharp shooters,thieves,murderers and even terrorists since they can find solace only in negativity because of their upbringing....
Had the driver thought why the child was doing the act of begging...was it out of his own wish or was he forced to do it...he could have refused to give money and maybe tried to dissuade him from begging...he may not have listened immediately but at least would not have carried this negation along with him all his childhood...
Childhood is precious not only for the socially and financially well off but also the downtrodden...if we cannot do anything to uplift them at least let us not push them more and more into their hell ................
nature at its best...
1 comment:
hello
I completely agree with you. we have to realise that children are vulnerable , and hence excercise restrain in dealing with them. just to make a case in point my daughter's school runs a dramatics club and the facilitator routinely canes , hits with duster etc all the young members- this is fun class right? even if not do we need to physically abuse children? after the performance this man asked the packed audience now those who think I should not hit them ,raise your hand. and in the entire auditorium of 300 parents mine was the only hand that went up
When will we learn to stand for a cause? and be courageous?
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