Many people wouldn't find this incident wicked, but I did. And maybe I do sound ridiculous, but I am posting this anyways.
This happened when I was going to Bangalore from Nagpur after Diwali last year. I hadn’t got a confirmed direct ticket, so had to come via Chennai. There was a family in my bogey from Nagpur, parents and a cute kid, Ria. I had become quite friendly with the kid during the journey; we kept playing all the time. So when we had a stop at the Chennai station I tagged along with the family. This is where the incident happened.
We were waiting at the station; three men were sitting around a pillar, discussing something. Ria went close to them as one of the men started spitting on the pillar. When she saw this, she said very sweetly ‘Uncle, Please don’t spit.’ I was amazed at the sense of righteousness of the young girl. I thought that the man would oblige to the lil’ girl’s request, but it was not to be. The man spit again, this time not because he wanted to, but because he had been asked not to do so. And after this he smiled wickedly, Ria seeing this came back, disappointed and hurt.
How could he derive pleasure by purposely hurting a kid whom he didn’t even know? I was forced to think that if given free rein would he go to any extent for this sort of pleasure. Is it the fear punishment that keeps him bounded now, and if somehow he gets over it what would he do? Say for instance there is a riot and hooligans are having a field day with no police control whatsoever, would he go berserk too? Was he a criminal in the making, or was he already one? Just a thought... I am no psychologist after all.
Maybe I was overreacting and what I saw was just the primal instinct present in all of us ‘to not submit’, something which we call ego, in this incident which meant obeying a child. But maybe I was right and the person I saw was actually wicked, I can only surmise. We see incidents like this happen around us, sometimes we react sometimes we don't even give it a thought. Maybe we have reconciled to evil, which these days is ubiquitous.
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10 comments:
reminds of a incident in May 2002 (12th May) i think...
Me n couple of my pals going again from bangalore to nagpur on Rajdhani...a family sitting along with me with a father n son duo...
they were sitting facing each other with the train moving in the direction where the Father's back was...
kid says- "Dad, you are looking at the past, me at the future"
seriously bangalore nagpur route is full of intelligent kids :)
anyway u should have hit that spitter, poor ria must have felt bad.
@desh
that kid was a philosopher man!! no wonder William wordworth said 'The Child is the father of the man'.
I am a non-violent creature yaar, don't like hitting people. nahi toh wud've given him nicely. ;)
anyway the whole incident cud have been madeup as a part of munnabhai :)
spittin n non-violence does ring a bell :)
anyway will blog on tht incident of mine sometime
due credit to the kid's parents ! this incident tells a lot about the values and teaching being imparted.
We do see such criminals (might be a strong word) a lot --- throwing out garbage from a merc on a south mumbaki road, littering in train compartments, parking vehicles anywhere at will, just callous disregard for others and no fear of punishment ! The same people won't dare such things when they travel abroad !
damn some people can be so mean! hurting a kid's sentiment like that is so not easy! that guy was a pucca hoodlum!
@desh
nice idea, now tht i have strtd acting i can also star in the movie! :P
will look out for ur post.
@gaurav
u know even i thought the same thing, they treated the kid as an indivisual.
yeah, disregard for others has become the norm these days.
@steve
thats what stuck me the most abt the incident, the ease with which he hurt her.
Huh... ppl r always in a hunt of being one-up! All they want to do is show others that they need not listen to them, they dont even spare kids... thtz disheartening...
just imagine... had he repented his spittin when the kid askd him not to n complimented the kid, she wud have definitely felt encouraged and spread the goodwill everywhr! now, she ll think twice b4 spreadin sense, n most probly, she ll refrain 4m dng tht for she mght b hurt agn!
Hi,
Came here from Desh's blog. Nice narration & thinking of that incidents. We have so much happening around us that sometimes we don't know what is actually bad or it is just we think like that.
Have many experiences in day to day life which I keep writing about.
in singapore if u spit/sneeze in public places u will be fined immediately. u r not even allowed to pluck flowers/fruits from roadside trees... the same indian who goes to singapore will play by these rules...as soon as he lands in india even if he doesn't feel like spitting he will spit just because there is none to stop him from doing so... actually people don't realize that they are losing their pride and dignity by doing such mean things...i get reminded of an ad where children advise bigger ones from stop littering/spitting in nation's proud possessions like tajmahal,red fort etc...Poor Ria would have been hurt no doubt but she will eventually learn that she has to advise where it's worth...
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