Heroes: Yes I regret not sending that email.

Yes, I regret not sending that email….years back. Today when I think of myself I kick myself a lot. If you are thinking that I am talking about my love or beloved, you are totally wrong. This has nothing to do with any of them, its about a stranger, a stranger whom I never met but read about in a newspaper. It’s a small incident. Back in my higher studies days, I came across a story in the times of india about a Suryakiran pilot ( Indian Air Force`s acrobatic team) who had hurt his back/ spine in a high speed ejection and suffered that injury while landing. He was on bed for the past many months and was on the risk of being paralyzed. It was a short story carried out by that correspondent in this case which a newspaper would normally provide to such stories. Those were the days when I was still some years away from starting my own blog or writing. At the back of my mind I knew that I had to write a mail to the correspondent and ask him about the latest update on the health of the pilot... I had to write, which never came due to a combination of factors which included me being really busy in my studies, class schedules, laziness and a few more etc things.

Two weeks after that when I finally got the time to write the mail, I realised that I had lost the cutting of that particular news and 14-15 I had also forgotten the name of the correspondent so the Google couldn’t help me much as I had developed the habit of the deep Google searching only years later.

Even to this day, some 11 years since I had first read that news my guilt of not writing a simple mail it’s me up from the inside. I don’t know what I would have done with the reply if I had even got a reply from that correspondent but how it feels something wrong and even though six years back I had started the exclusive series on the Armed Forces on my blog, this piece of a jigsaw puzzle haunts me at quite frequent intervals. I won’t give any excuses for my laziness, but one reason could be the fact that at that time fighter Jets were my main priority or love. It’s just that when I started the series on my blog and 2013 and started reading about the various things and the contribution of each and every person in the Indian Armed Forces irrespective of their rank or field of service didn’t realise that everyone has its own part in the service of the nation whether they are in the combat role or not. I don’t think I would be able to forgive myself for this. A pilot who had a wife, a three-year-old daughter, confined to bed unsure of his future and life……it just kills me somewhere and makes me think about that one email that I did not send.

This post is dedicated to the Indian Armed forces on the eve of the 1971 war victory.

Have we lost the feeling of empathy and respect towards others ?

People say that I am very aggressive and fight with people very often although it’s not the right way but I can’t help it. I fight for what is wrong. Two incidents happen in a span of a few hours and I was made to wonder if we have really lost touch with humanity.

I had two fights in a single day with people. People known to me say that I should control migration and not get short tempered so easily but I can’t help it, not when I see something wrong going on. Incidents are small and I leave it to you to decide how do you decipher it –

Early in the morning, in the metro I come across a man travelling with his son. Both were seated on the opposite seats and while the child was eagerly looking out at the various sites through the glass his father was drawing his attention to the various things and making him familiarise with a few things. I snapped at the father the moment the train left an underground station. Why?? The moment those of the train closed, he called out to his son and said, “ Wo dekho Mayawati”.. Confused I turned around and saw that he was referring to the lady guard on the platform. Forget any reference to the politician Mayawati , she was not anywhere close to her. She was all slim and did not need that kind of a description. I don’t know whether this fits into body shaming, vulgar calling or objectifying or whatever but what he did was wrong because you don’t know how his son would actually take up to see girls/ladies later on in his life. As his little son was preparing to sling his little back on his shoulders and his father was dusting it, I responded with, “Just the Way you are dusting the dirt of his bag you should also sweep some dust on your crap mind through which you are making your child see the other people and specially the fairer sex. That was no way how you would address a female let alone the guard on the platform. Just thank your stars that the train moved quickly enough otherwise I would have immediately handed you over to the CISF.” Things got a bit heated but the tone in my voice and the fire in my eyes told him to back off especially when he was with this little kid otherwise a lot would have happened in the bargain with him.

The second incident happened just after that in a bus. I was going from Lucknow to Kanpur and at the extreme end of my seat at the back there were two dumb people (speech impaired) who were also travelling. They were having their conversation in sign language and also bought the tickets the same way from the conductor. There was a guy sitting next to them, probably around 40+ who was quiet the whole journey but spoke to me his mind after those two had got down at the destination on the outskirts of the city. He said, “Both of them look fraud to me”.

Me: Why?

Him: How can both of them be dumb? There is something fishy. 

Me: Which book in the world says that to people who can’t speak can’t travel in the bus together? Or together they might. It seems that you have never travelled outside of your village ever in your life and talking like tears in the whole world. Keep your idiotic lunatic thoughts to the side, close your mouth, open your mind, see the world and then talk.

It was a pretty miracle that in spite of having got into two arguments in a single day in just a few hours apart, I had not got into a fist fight of any kind and was unsurprisingly all okay. These two incidents showed me that we have lost all sense of human compassion towards the others.. And it’s such a shame.