The Other Half Of The Society
13 Nov 2015 8:00 AM GMT
Source: beautifullyme | Image Courtesy: indiatvnews
While going to work or just hanging out with friends we often ignore some fellow human beings who sit at the sidewalk begging for some food or just sleeping on a torn piece of cloth. We make our way through the sidewalk and proceed to our destination, sometimes irritated if we are running late.
But have we ever taken the trouble of going through their minds, feeling what they might be possibly feeling? Well I did one day, n I’ll tell you what I’ve felt. The lady who was sitting at the sidewalk with her crying baby in lap the other day when I was coming back from a dinner with my sister, yes I went through her mind, She was hungry as hell, having nothing to eat in the last few days, she was desperate to feed her baby.
And that old lady I come across everyday while coming back from office, have I seen her shivering during the winter? There are thousands of them out there, thousands of hungry, cold, homeless people for whom we give a damn. Why do we care if they are starving death or shivering through the night? I’ll tell you why should we care, because we are human beings and we SHOULD CARE about the other half of the society.
In a city like Kolkata we often have to think twice before dropping some coins in front of them and we all know why, We all are aware of the beggar association, and the well known practice, using cocaine to put young kids to sleep and using them to get our sympathy.
So are we going to overlook all of them and let them die even if they aren’t part of any of these associations? We can’t.
The other day when I saw that woman while coming back from dinner with my sister, we were carrying the excess food with us which my sister intended to give to an old lady who sits in front of her place, I tried to convince my sister that this woman looks much more needy, and that many of the students from her university help the old lady.
The fact that there are other people to feed the old lady made it easy to make our mind , we had food for only one people, and we gave the food to the woman with the baby, and you should have seen the gratitude in her eyes, but what about the other days? It’s not possible for me to visit that place every day.
Does that mean she has to starve the other nights? Why can’t the other people who dine at that restaurant pack the excess food and give it to her instead of wasting it? Or why does the old people have to shiver through the night? I can only give my spare winter clothes to one needy person, but what about the others?
Can’t you give away your spare clothes, the ones that you don’t wear anymore to some of the other half of the society, or may be taking only the amount you can eat to your plate and pack the excess food for them the next time you dine out? It isn’t that hard, is it?.