When I left home early in the morning on April 19, 2019 for field work which I've been assigned these days, I didn't have the least idea that this day would beget a great deal of turmoil and uneasiness in my mind. I started the day on a positive note with renewed enthusiasm to deliver my best as far as my work is concerned. I still remember the moments when I got dressed and picked up my newly-purchased Ray-Ban sun-glasses thinking that they would take my personality to an altogether another level.
Here I have deliberately made a mention of the sun-glasses that I put on as their significance would become clearer to you all towards the concluding part of this write-up. When I saw myself in the mirror, I was so puffed up with pride at my sophisticated looks that I couldn't resist the desire to take a selfie, as everyone does these days, to capture my magical look for the future use. At that time I didn't know that I was totally wrong and my views about myself would undergo a complete change by the time I got back home.
Let me share the pic with you all:
Thinking that I have everything that makes a man civilized, I started on my journey and reached a spot where I saw a seventeen or eighteen year old boy working hard to earn his livelihood. When I saw him hard at work, I was so impressed with his dedication towards his work that I at once asked him to give me a glass of sugar cane juice that he seemed to be making for his customers day in and day out. I thought that by buying a glass of juice I would help him earn a bit. I captured an image of the boy while he devotedly worked at the juice machine:
Was it right on my part to be so self-complacent as I was considering myself so self-important ??? You may either say 'Yes' or 'No'.
But this situation is the predicament of humans nowadays. I didn't behave in an unusual way as I think most of us behave and think as I have done so far.
Does this behaviour justify my claim of being civilized???
This is without any doubt a million dollar question which I can't answer. But I leave it to you all to answer as per your understanding of the situation given above.
But when I moved away to another place from that vendor of sugar-cane juice, I saw something which made me rethink about my claim of being civilized. Let me come straight to the point. I saw a couple of stray bulls by the side of a road and at the entrance of a building that is under construction. I took no time in photographing them but when I saw them staring at me as if they were disturbed with my presence, the change started to occur in my thinking. Let me share their pics with you all hoping that you will too feel what I felt by looking at them:
Let me tell you why I was so disturbed by those bulls. There has been an increasing trend in rural India that old cows and bulls are cast aside or driven out of homes by their owners as these four-legged animals become useless in their old age. They are reared till they can plough the fields or give the milk. Once they become too old to do the above-said works, they are left on the streets to feed for themselves by eating the dirt and squalor lying by the side of the roads. The bulls I saw were also thrown away by someone. When I think of these homeless animals, I become doubtful of the claim of humans like me to be civilized.
Deeply disturbed to the very core of my heart, I left the place feeling helpless. Thereafter where ever I looked, I saw the signs of depravity and moral degradation that has crept into humanity. We brag about morality and ethics but we do nothing when it comes to implementing them in our own lives. That is a bitter truth that we must accept.
Man now claims to have become civilized just because he lives a luxurious life or just because he can read and write. Is civilization associated with luxury, religious beliefs, clothing and amenities of life ? It is a harsh truth that the so-called civilized man has been instrumental in desecrating and polluting the mother-earth. The pictures attached below is the perfect example of what man has made of the world.
These pics seem to be perfectly well and one may find nothing wrong with them. But there is no denying the fact that their appeal would have been different if there had been no intrusion of man-made buildings and houses of concrete in them. By looking at these closely, one can certainly feel that man has done more harm than good to the earth.
Let me give you another pic which will show you how earth would look like if it is in its purest or most elemental form.
You must have got the clue by looking at the pic that offers a panoramic view of lush green trees. Do you want your children to live in a thoroughly mechanized world that is devoid of trees? How would you feel if your children live in a world that claims to be civilized but that doesn't have any regard for the lives of other creatures just as the bulls shown above?
It is an open-ended debate and it can go on and on without reaching the final conclusion. But if it makes a single person ponder over his day-to-day behaviour, the purpose of this post is served.
When I am writing this post, I wonder if I have the right to be called civilized just because I go out with sun-glasses on my face and show only pity for the poor and other creatures created by the almighty without in anyway being able to do anything concrete for them.
I hope I can answer these questions but I know I can't. Can you???????
Think and try to find the answers. ........ Thanks buddies