The Mother and her ailing daughter

Some time back one day I was travelling in local passenger bus from Jammu towards Katra. The journey though a mark of few miles but that envisioned me lessons of millions of miles. Whole through distance, I was standing as all the seats were already engaged with passengers of diversities of socio-economic classes. Meanwhile I saw two women ( Mother and Daughter , age approx. 60 and 45 ) whom I found initially standing, then surprisingly sitting on the floor of the bus. When I looked towards the floor, it was washed with the vomitus that one of the women (daughter) had went through an excessive episode of vomiting. I could see the heaps of prescription files and medicines in their carrying bag. Later, I came to know that she is suffering from a serious neurological disease. The conductor of the bus was consistently shouting at them to move out of the bus. When I discovered as why he (conductor) was shouting at them, he told me that they are not paying their bus fare. I found them from very poor family that they couldn’t afford now bus fare. I told the conductor “I would pay bus fare on their behalf, please don’t force them to move out. They are humans. We are all humans”. Anyways, I paid the required amount for their bus fare. But deep in my heart, I was weeping. I controlled my tears with difficulty. Life is not as cozy as we think. Seating a cozy car and enjoying life of personal gratification is dead unless we really get to realise the real purpose of it. Besides personal upliftment, if we could help the poor, alleviate them from their suffering that fills a part for the true purpose of our life. If we unear our attention and remain unconscious towards these sections, then we are not living life of dignity. To live life with dignity, bliss and happiness, we must take serious note of such scenes in our society and approach them with empathy, sympathy and compassion.
(The author a Medical Practitioner at SMVD Narayana Super Specialty Hospital, Jammu is also a motivational speaker, activist,columnist and a top educator awardee. Views are his own)
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