How many times have we noticed a rag picker? using an old handle to pick up old dirty bags, iron pellets and in his own small selfish way.... Cleaning the roads? Have we ever noticed his work? His job? and thought of it as an important person? A person who has the maturity to distinguish right from wrong? Or simply a person who might steal at the first chance ... Amusing as it may seem is our human nature.. At the outside we speak of dignity of labour and respect for everyone, but somewhere in out heart and mind we look down on some jobs as pithy, piddly or meaningless or more so as a risk to society than a help....
And today a lot of us stand corrected and they ... Well you decide! A city reeling under the strike of a violent and brutal terrorist attack... in a usually busy hour of North India on a weekend... Inflicted by those who don't care for or respect humanity... 5 blasts on the trot, expected to break the back of spirit of the city and that it did to an extent.. But then there was an unassuming victory for its citizens...
2 rag pickers at different points in time, behaved with responsibility and reported some surreptitious activities and doubted intentions of some... In a world where we are afraid of going to Police and they, who bear the maximum brunt of police, dared to go to police and report the incident... and guess what... They SAVED precious lives and more so... resurrected the sagging spirits...
My friend who till last nite were skeptical, worried and doubted the intention of his neighbour and expected this to go on communal lines today called back, telling me that Delhi is back on its foot. Not scared, but determined to demonstrate what kind of stuff are we Indians made of... Laxity in govt information systems, lack of empathy by govt, politicians again using this as a point to get some more votes or save some... These two guys have done a big deal of favor to the normal public...
The real hero is not the bomb disposal squad, its his job. The real hero is not Delhi police who's tom-toming about some string leads. The real and unassuming heroes are these two guys, who did few things different
1. Went to police, knowing very well that they themselves could have been detained ... as that's what out police is good at....
2. Believed their instincts and had the maturity to separate rite from wrong and did what they feel right.
I salute the spirit and these two guys and believe with all my heart that in a country where we have people like these, even with a force as pedestrian as ours.. We will not stop, we will not be scared and we will look after each other. A toast to the unflinching, unstoppable spirit of Delhi and India...
Vande Mataram!!!
2 comments:
hi, hope u dont mind me (a netizen stranger) leaving a comment here. I once did a play in high school about so-called second hand citizen (labelled by many)- rubbish pickers, prostitutes etc n how society failed to acknowledge their 'contribution' to society whereby at the end the community suffers when the rights of these people were oppressed n denied by the said community, it was quite thought provoking. i was reminded of it when i read ur post. peace.
The problem that we have leo is that... We, Humans, are basically hypocrites of the highest order..
I am sure People will still not learn....
Thanks for the comments... They are from my first reader ;-)
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