Once a certain human rights campaigner by the name MKG, said "If you feel that you are unlucky and life is treating you harshly, then look towards someone who is poorer than you are, who has more problems in life than you have, then maybe you might feel that you are not that unlucky after all, you may begin to believe that life is not that harsh after all" Well, he might not have said exactly these words but I am certain this is what he meant. How many times have you, and of-course I, spend time worrying about the non-availability of milk in the public distribution system, about the anti-social goons making a mockery of the judiciary and police; about how the government is inactive on problems like the price hike in essential commodities, about how the high street banks play with our money and brings about the downfall of the stock markets, about recession and job losses, a good percentage of us wake up worrying about what school or college our children will go to, we worry about what career they may chose and how successful they will be, we worry about what kind of a day it would be at work, we worry about how to survive on the monthly budget; we stare for hours at the question "to invest or not to invest". We worry about how our life will be when we retire, we worry about eating healthy and staying fit, we worry about car loans, home loans, personal loans, credit card bills, insurance premiums & hospital bills, we feel forced to watch the latest movie in 3-D, we are left confused on which mobile phone to buy and curse the dealer when they come up with the next model the very next day, we feel jealous, we feel hatred, we cry, we feel hurt, we take revenge, we give to charity and then announce it to everyone who cares to listen, we worry about what to write in our next blog, we worry about the comments on our latest post in the social networking group, at the end of the day we express disbelief that we can manage all this into 24 hours, we sit back and crib about what a messy world we live in... Is that true?
On this very same planet, somewhere is a civil war torn country, a 19 year old black girl wakes up praying that she be able to make it through the same 24 hours without having to live the horrors she has seen. She hopes she does not have to see murder, like her father's and brother's when they were chopped off - legs, hands, genitals, eyes - and then left to bleed to death. She prays she is not raped like her mother and sisters before her, by countless men who would not stop even if she were dead. She prays that she would get to eat someting so that she can run when the rebels invade her home. She fears for her future which she hopes is not of a sex slave. She fears for her children which she hopes she will be able to give birth to. She has no fears about milk, goons, movies, phones but she fears to breathe: for she does not know when it will bear the scent of blood,torture and death.
On this very same planet there walks a man from one of the most privileged countries in the world, equally scared, a soldier who walks the streets of a country that he hardly knows. Not knowing whom he protects. Not knowing whom he fights. His knowledge is about death that lurks in the alleys that have no resemblance to his childhood memories. His fear is surely not one that is shared by you and I. He fears the stray bullet that will take his life. He fears the innocent looking suicide bomber who will detonate for a cause that neither of them understand. He fears that the picture of his family in his combat vest will be torn into a million pieces with him. He fears the reasons why he wanted to be a soldier and what he does as a soldier are poles apart.
On this very same planet there are underprivileged humans who are denied justice, who are denied food, who are denied shelter, who are denied freedom of speech. On this planet there are brave men who guard the borders of our nation so that you and I can peacefully worry about the million things in our messy world.. Isn't that the truth? May be Mr. MKG was right. Next time you find your life messy, spare a thought for The Girl and walk with The Unknown Soldier. May be, just may be? you will feel your life is not that messy after all?
Oh! By the way MKG is better known as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
- The Scribbler
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