I saw something today that troubled me for a long time. It made me do some rethinking about the kind of people I thought existed in the world. I was stumped beyond belief at the behavior of a fellow citizen.
We were driving down the beautiful Peddar road where we stopped at the Haji Ali crossing. (Always a red light there) A gang of young boys attacked the waiting cars with armloads of pirated books, hoping to make a quick sale! Now, I’ve bought tons of stuff from these crossing wala vendors and I’m sure that others have too. From the aforementioned books to flowers to toys... It’s always a decent deal.
A young vendor, around 10 years old, was showing his books to the passengers of a taxi. And suddenly the traffic lights turned green. The taxi sped away with all his books and didn’t even pull over beyond the lights to pay up. (As I thought it would and as it was supposed to)
The image of the young boy with fear writ large on his face, running among moving vehicles with all the speed he could muster behind the speeding taxi, a sense of despair which touched an emotional chord in me will never be forgotten. I was hemmed in by cars from all sides, couldn’t even help the poor kid as he ran from that red light to the next crossing looking frantically around for that one elusive car. Panting, he stood there desolate as the taxi mingled with all the other taxis, making it indiscernible.
How callous and how uncaring have people become? Somebody who can afford to ride a taxi, who can buy books on a whim couldn’t afford to pay the poor young guy his due??? How is that possible? Why did he do it? For a lark? For the kick of having robbed the boy of his job? (For he would surely have been fired that evening itself.)
This incident shook the very foundation of my belief that there is a basic goodness in everyone. I had thought people were nicer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
20 comments:
OH MY GOD!!!
This is so very pathetic. It's horrible. If I could, I'd catch hold of the guy's neck and twist it ten times over. This seriously sucks.
We all try to get a good deal, and bargain. All that is fine, but robbing a poor guy, and that too a child. Do people have absolutely no conscience? Can they really sit and enjoy their "success"?
Tell you what, Ishani. I don't know what I'd do when I get into the 'real' world, because I guess such incidents would be commonplace, and what I hate most is the feeling of helplessness that arises from being in such situations. You see that someone is being wronged, but you just can't do anything. I feel strangled in such situations. That's why I'm scared. I always have been.
Oh come on, you saw it for the first time? It has happened so many times in front of me.
Well, all said and done, we're just helpless...Wish someone could kick their ass.
Oh shit, what a fucking fucking BASTARD. Bastard!! I could throw a brick at them, if I saw this happening in front of me and could catch up to them... Sick person, whoever it was. I hope he loses a limb tonight. A leg. Yes, that'll be nice.
@Swetank: You're telling me!! It is so scary how mean and disgusting people are. After this post, so many stories are pouring in from various people. Fucking scary!
@Rohit: Yeah! Saw something like that for the first time. BIG jolt.
@Ami: Bastard it is! I so wanted to do something, but you know how sometimes you just can't do anything. That's what happened there. And leg ke saath saath haath bhi chalega..Please.
Girls, why can't we just wish this guy has to start the same thing instead? Some jerk, then, would do the same..Ah, that should be some lesson.
It's just disheartening to know that such people exist.
just SO bloody disgusting!
It's really sad. And, yes, I too have stopped believing that there is inate goodness in everyone, and if there is then it's very well hidden. Some people are just rubbish, and this is the reason i believe that those who are good should actually do something abou things and not just talk about them.
Tarun
oh i have seen it a lot of time..and everytime its getting a worse..
and you know wat..tht asshole prolly wud have gone and told his bunch of sadist frnds about this lil' adventure of his. thts how some ppl claim to be called man.
thyis world is not that good a place
@Rohit: Oooh yeah, we should pray for that! But please broken leg too. Then it'll be fun watching him hopping from one crossing to another!!
@BASTM: :(
@Tarun: Yeah! It's sad.
@Comment deleter: At least tell me who you are.
@Anshul: I know.. Can totally imagine the horrible scene.. To use Ami's words..Bastard
Needless to say, its pathetic!! I dont agree with the fact that there is 'basic goodness' in everyone, most ppl r mean barring a few..and cities r full of them! One should find a nice clique with whom one can spend the life.
Very pathetic! Not everyone has the basic goodness!
I've seen a similar incident where this poor boy had ice-creams to sell and some guy from the window of a bus got three. The bus speeded, this guy never paid, the poor boy kept on shouting.
Sad!
But you know what.. there ARE good people too.. I saw a guy throw out a 100 rupee note to a vendor for a 80 buck magazine, when his car had moved from the crossing.
So see, all is not bad.
I haven't seen the bad side of this situation as you unfortunately did.
@Amod: :(
Clique?
@Harpreet: Ew ew ew!! People are just so horrible.. Waaaaaaaaaaaahh!
@Vidur: Oh!! Nice! At least some light in this darkness.. *Sigh*
It WAS very unfortunate and you're a lucky bugger!!
It's terrible! as u say,the goodness in ppl has vanished.couldn agree more..
-first time here and new to blogging too
SICK! Those f***in' SOBs!! X( Why didn't you guys go after the cab?? You should've and then you should've had that/those bastard(s) arrested!!
And Vidur is right too. If there are ppl like that taxi guy in this world then there are ppl like you in this world too, who felt so strongly about this incident. But, the sad part is ppl don't always get what they deserve in life. It's a nice to believe that everyone gets their due in life, but does that always happen? Unfortunately, no. :( Call me a pessimist, but that's the way things are. That's why I said you guys should've gone after the cab, cos if you wanna see change, you're the one who's gonna have to bring it about.
UPDATE!!! :O Been SO long you made a post! :O
Very painful. Stuff like this makes me wonder whether there is anything called equity in this world at all. And it is precisely this inequity that breeds crime. Today this boy got cheated. Tomorrow he will have no remorse in cheating someone else to right the wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right. But neither will one wrong.
I hate us, Indians, when I think of our unjustified greed, our greed to profit at the expense of someone else, our meanness of fishing in urine......
You might want to update
x(
Oi! where's your masterpiece that you were talking about? Jaldi post karo, I'm waiting.
Post a Comment