Being Human

Few days ago one of my friends sent me a link with a request to promote the campaign to awareness in the society on homeless old age people who are left out by their children.

I did my little bit by passing it to 50 people in my friend circle. But, what was bothering me was how is it going to help those helpless people? Being a layman in this web marketing, I couldn’t really understand how on the earth, these people are going to get benefited by promoting a link? And still it’s a question to me [appreciate if, some one can educate me on this].

When I was very young, in my childhood I have seen the joint families with grand parents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc… as I was growing I saw the family divisions after the grand parents death. Yet, the same values, ethics and cultures were taught that has to be followed by us. With all due respect to what we learnt we imply the same on ourselves and teach to our children. The core values like love, truth, togetherness, respect, kindness, help, understand and support each other etc. is carried forward generation by generation. Probably that may be the reason I could not understand the people who can literally ignore their parents when they get old leaving them on others. Feeling that just by sending some money and visit once a while is more than enough. What is that not stopping them to do such sad things? How they get the courage and heart to think of taking such step? And Why?

I remember a Drama in which I took part in my school days…. A drama that is little poetic in my native language, Telugu. I still remember this and many times used it in relevant situations as idiom, to make certain people understand their responsibilities.

It goes like this… There was poor farmer residing near jungle with his wife, son and his old father. The grand father was baby sitting, taking care of the home and looking after the poultry as the farmer and his wife were busy in the field. After few years the old man has become older and was mostly sick; always on the bed. The farmer’s wife could not bear her father-in-law and started abusing the old man and make issues out of it every day as she felt that he is fit for nothing and just a burden on the family. The child loved his grand father and felt very unhappy with his mothers’ behavior. But being a child he could not express his feelings. One day the old man has fallen ill and the farmer’s wife was not ready to take care of him, she insisted the farmer to send the old man out of the house. The farmer could not handle the wife’s fights and abuse. The farmer positions his ill father on his shoulder and tells the son to come along with him by carrying a crow bar and a spade and walks into the forest. After getting into thick forest, the farmer makes his father sit under a big tree and starts digging the land. The farmers’ son doesn’t understand why his father is digging the land and why his grand father is crying sitting under the tree? The son goes to his father and asks:

Son: Father, father…

Father: Yes, my dear son…

Son: why are you digging the land?

Father: To make a pit.

Son: why do you need a pit?

Father: Your grand father has become a nuisance to me, that’s why this pit.

Listening to the farmers answer, the kid starts digging the land to make another pit.

Father: Oh! Dear son, why are you digging another pit?

Son: The treatment which you are doing to your father; must be done to my father as well, when I grow old, that’s why this pit.

The farmer gets shocked with the son’s answer and cries a loud holding his father and takes him back home.

As children we look up to our parents, elders, teachers and people around us. We follow them blindly and adopt all the habits from them. Good or bad, we just learn from them and apply them in our life.

As we grow we learn to judge the right and wrong…. Still why the wrong step? The moral values are not inculcated from childhood or molded as per conveniences.  Why people forget that, what you give, will get back the same. I see people greed for the forefathers property, dowry what not…. easy money!!! But when it comes to responsibilities they just dust the hands and stay back as if they are not part of it.

The ethics, values and culture do not teach someone to be rude to others… they always taught the positive way of dealing with people. We can see this wrong attitude everywhere, not only in the families, in colleges, offices, and social circles. Students bully one another; relatives look down on each other showing off there fake courage and immoral behaviors. Laugh on poor people, look down on illiterates, insults the one fallen in life…. Every thing is learnt right from childhood, and the learning is never ending IF one really wants to. These negative attitude and behavior like disrespecting elders, ignoring and leaving them on others, insulting someone, bullying co-student or college are all because of unethical up bringing. If one feels that they are right by doing such things, then they must know that they are not able to see the reality. They badly need reality check on themselves. Insulting, bullying, looking down on others, loose talks; all these are done for false status and are only the fake courage, low self esteem of audacity. Real courage exists in the one who takes all the insults, still climb to success in spite of the harassment, maltreatments.

Changing according to time is not bad; leaving the moral values and ethics is not good. No culture, community, religion in the world teaches to misbehave and live irresponsibly. 

Along with the informative education, its Extremely important to get educated on morals, ethics, values and cultures for overall growth and development as Human.

Vahini Muniganti

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