Where is the Love???

I was thinking of penning down this thought for a very long time, but as usual, couldn’t get my lazy self to get the job done.

But something happened yesterday, something that I saw, that got me to finally write this thread.

As it was, I was coming back from the hospital, on the opposite side of a road close to my house; a car ran over a dog while it was trying to cross the road. The poor thing was writhing in pain but not a single vehicle seemed to slow down. Finally, a young girl got down from her car and had the heart of picking the dog and moving it to the side of the road.

As I sat in my car- waiting for the traffic light to turn green- watching all this unfold, I wondered. I wondered how all those motorists did not for once think about another living being when they refused to slow down their vehicles, let alone help the poor creature.

And then it occurred. Maybe we humans have just lost the “love”. When I say “love”, I do not mean the kind that we feel for our parents and near ones, nor the feeling that we profess to our boyfriends and girlfriends. By “love”, I mean a genuine feeling of doing something good and thoughtful for another person, for another living being, whether or not we hold a relation to that being.

I mean, has today’s world really become that materialistic and self-centered, that we cannot take one moment in our daily lives, to at least THINK about doing something good, to go out our way to make someone or something happy. I am a part of this world too, and as the majority, I too think in the same materialistic manner. I know there are so many things to do. The constant desire to work for the future, so as to make it more comfortable and easier takes away most of our lives. Be it a student’s desire to make a career or a working man’s to get a better job. And I totally know where that thought comes from because I am also a part of that rat race called Life. But one doesn’t need to be earning a million bucks to make a small difference.

I ask myself.....how many times have I sacrificed my happiness for someone else’s, how many times have I done something good without being duty-bound to do it, how many times have I traveled that extra mile to bring a smile on someone’s face? I would not answer these questions saying never, but I know I haven’t done enough because I have been too busy doing MY own thing.

And even so, do I really want to spend my life in such a manner, that when it all comes to an end, I am left to ask myself “What have I to show for my life?”

Answer: “Money, cars, a big house, status.”

I would rather have my conscience answer me, “You brought a smile to someone’s face”, “and you did a good deed.”

Sometimes when I introspect, I wonder how “hollow” I have become. I can be concerned enough to call a number of people and inquire about the ins and outs of what’s happening in college, and spend hours together gossiping, but seldom do I take such an initiative, out of my own volition, to call upon my grandparents with the same zeal. I know that “call” would definitely bring a smile on their faces. That’s not to say that I don’t love them. It’s just that in today’s world the priorities have become lopsided.

This post may feel very idealistic. But this same idealist thought gave this world a Mother Teresa who lives in the hearts of millions as a Saint who devoted her life to selflessly caring for others. And you know what; it wasn’t like Life wasn’t a rat race during her lifetime.

I know I wasn’t one of those who got down from the car to help that dog. But at least this thought is a start in that direction.

Please don’t get me wrong. My premise is not that I am asking others, or even myself for that matter, to abandon the pursuit for worldly pleasures. All I am saying is that in the course of that pursuit, we should also try to achieve a certain degree of moral ascendency.

Let’s not let the society reach such a stage where it gets difficult for us to associate the word “Human” with the expression “Human Nature”. Go out there and make that difference even if it is small.

P.S.: This post is a reflection of my personal thoughts. It is not indicative of the generality of this trend in the society at large.