You are standing in a bus stop waiting for your bus to come. There are quite a few people waiting with you. And here a small child begging is a common sight. You see one such girl begging from a group of children. The children continuously taunt that small girl. They tease her. Wave money in her face and run away from her when she comes near them. And all this while they’re laughing and teasing that small child. And unfortunately nobody seems to be helping that small child. People there drive away that small child. And when all this is going on, you are standing there watching the whole thing. What would you do? Would you tell those children teasing that child something? Or would you think that someone else will probably do something about it? Or will you just give something to that child and just tell her to go away? Will you take a stand there at that moment?
People sometime give food to the less privileged people in temples. And this can get messy sometimes. The kids there never get a decent meal a day. And when someone comes with food they start fighting. They guy who comes to give them food has good intentions but because of the children, he gets angry and just gives the food packets to one child and goes away. And in most cases all the children don’t get it. Only the stronger kids end up with it. And you are there watching all this. What will you do? Will you take a stand or will you remain a silent spectator? Will you help that person distributing the food? Or maybe organize the kids into a line or something and see to it that each one of them gets a packet?
All of us travel by bus almost everyday. And we know how crowded the buses can be here in Mysore. Getting a seat is like the best thing that can happen in a crowded bus. You see an old person board a bus. You want to give him your seat but at the same time you want to sit as it’s a long way to our campus. You hope that that person gets down soon or maybe even better somebody else offers that person his/her seat. Would you get up and give him your seat knowing that you might have to stand the rest of the ride to campus? Would you take a stand? Or will you think that its not so important anyways?
All these things happen almost everyday in our lives. And believe it or not I was faced with these three scenarios on Saturday afternoon. I took a stand and well I regretted my stand later for a few of them. But I guess that’s not important now. And in most cases whatever we do, goes unnoticed. This is another thing that stops us from doing something good. We are afraid that we might not get any gratitude for our actions. That our actions will go unnoticed. Is this important? Isn’t the act itself more important than the fruits we might or might not get afterwards?
Just ponder on these. And think of all the times when we’ve just been a silent spectator. Regretting later for our actions. Thinking that maybe we should’ve done something. Well I guess its time we stopped being a silent spectator. Its time we took our stand. Its time we made a difference! There are a lot of bad things happening around us. Less and less people are caring for the world around them. Let’s soften this world of ours. Lets touch somebody’s life today, everyday! It might not be much, but every small act helps. Lets not be put off by the attitude of others. Lets all make a difference!!
