I have gone out quite a lot of times in the last few days. And something that never caught my eyes before did so this time. SO many random people, I saw on random streets, were exasperated and enraged for no apparent reason. And what is more disturbing is that their way of expressing the inner anger was ferocious. I saw men slapping rickshaw pullers; I saw rickshaw pullers swearing at passengers; I saw a husband calling his wife ill names; I saw beggars cursing men and women because they refused to give alms- COME ON!!! Where has respect for fellow human beings gone to? Every person you are yelling at, every person you are raising your ‘mighty’ arms on, every person you are judging and criticizing- YOU could be in his/ her shoes. And your life hasn’t ended; God still has time to put you in there. Also, how hard is it to be polite while making demands? SO many people try to handle situations by complaining and by brute force, that I feel compelled to question my own way of treating things with calm words. In this society where everybody is rude, maybe I am deceiving myself. Because when a rickshaw puller will ask twice the justified amount of fare from me, I won’t be able to shun him down and he will take my lack of abusive words to be my weakness.
Honestly, this frustrates me to no end. Two days ago I heard a man, living in the flat above us, throwing a series of vulgar swear words at somebody just because his tea, apparently, was too sweet for his taste. Just because you are the ‘man’ in the house and just because somebody works for you do not give you the right to say those things to a human being. I wanted to march in and knock some sense into him. But then who will guarantee that he won’t be mean towards me as well? I don’t know where this crude temper of our people comes from. Maybe because the society is geared to feeding the powerful, people want to feel commanding and use and misuse the authority that they think they have over others. Or maybe this is how people vent the pent up frustration from their toil through daily grind. All I know is, if you get angry at people who have done you no real harm, you are wrong. Every individual is his/ her own sanctuary. If you cannot respect the independence, the individuality, the uniqueness, you are a failed person. There can be NO good reason to speak ill of others, to physically hurt others, and to misjudge others. Being good-mannered doesn’t cost much, but makes the world such a better, more peaceful place.
Today is the day of Eid-Ul-Fitr and maybe, just maybe, we can take home the lesson of respecting others that our Prophet (Sm) set throughout his whole life. Let’s be good natured, let’s speak soft words, let’s not unleash the beast that lives inside us, and let’s try to appreciate others. That being said, I wish you a very happy Eid.
PS: With too much pessimism and cynicism around, I am really really grateful to people around me, who exude kindness. You know who you are! 🙂
Nazia's diary 