“We have been created in this world as the beautiful creation by Creator of this world i.e, humans. So our motive is to serve humanity through any means to gain sympathy and merciful bliss from Almighty Lord. Performing an act of humanity is a soul key to patience, peace of mind, happiness and success. It is a soul key that provides as a tool to remain engaged in doing good deeds all the time.”
The sadness that seems to be invisible sometimes reflects eye-openly when we have a bothersome look at its actual sufferers. This sadness has rendered a diversity of people lead into thorns. During this era we have such sections of the society-who are living in slums, who don’t have a hand to hold a glass of water, who don’t have a leg to walk, who don’t have speech to address their sufferings, who don’t have a home to live, who don’t have even a rupee note to get themselves adequately treated, who have been discouraged by their families, who are orphans, who are handicapped roll on the roadside or foot paths. Some years back during my MBBS college days, one day I was waiting for my College Bus at a bus – stop in Kachi Chawni Jammu .On the road-side I could see an old-aged woman who was in distress and signs of sadness were imminent on her face. I could see her in this hanging face for a minutes’ period. A thought touched my soul that whether she is alright.I finally got close to her and could witness sweat was rushing down her entire face. I asked her Daadi Ji” Why you are so upset, your face is blushing with sweat. Take my hand-kerchief and clear your face. “She didn’t reply. I asked her again the same question. But again she reacted the same way as she did earlier .Half a minute later; she started waving at me with her hands. I could not understand if she craves for some help. She was waving her hands first at me and then immediately to the opposite side of the road. I could think if she wants to cross the road. I also mimic my hand movements in the same manner as she was waving and could get a smile on her face with nodding her head saying ‘Yes’. Finally I realised that she is deaf and dumb and couldn’t speak. I pulled her up, support her with ease and patience and helped her in crossing the road to the opposite side. After crossing, she was praising at me by waving her hands towards the sky, put her right hand on my head and was saying something that I couldn’t understand. The moment I left there, I dwelled deep in my thoughts and felt disheartened to see such sections of the society during this self-centered era. My friend could tell me that there are many such examples throughout the Jammu city, who have been abandoned and disappointed by their families and are rendered in isolation. They leave their homes on early mornings and live for whole day in thorny bushes, returning back in evenings. 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 it 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 look towards the floor, it was washed with the vomits that one of the women (daughter) had gone 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 it. Few weeks ago I was having breakfast in a cafeteria. While eating, I could see a man seemingly from a very low socioeconomic background accompanied by his wife and two children – both merely seeming under 10 years of age. The man made his wife and two children sit on chairs around a table – as usually available in cafes or cafeterias. The man bought a bottle of juice hardly of around 30 rupees and went to sit on a chair along with his three family members. On completing one ounce of juice, one member of the family was passing the bottle to another member for their ounce and so on till the juice in the bottle would finish. The two little children were helplessly with innocent eyes looking on the people who were passing by with their friends and family – some carrying delicious food , some with high quality snacks, chocolates, ice creams and other food stuffs , costing to lucrative amounts on average. On seeing this heart – melting scene, I could remember the first ‘aaya mubarka’ from Holy Quran – IQRA ( meaning ‘read’). IQRA does not only mean to read books, gain/acquire knowledge besides it means to analyse and read scenes like this in our society. You have to read them, approach to them and offer a voice to their voiceless signs of helplessness. If our children deserve a chocolate of 100 rupees, won’t these voiceless children deserve a chocolate of just 10 rupees? Many of you would be witnessing such scenes in your day to day life but have you ever read them ? Dear friends we are blessed by Almighty Lord with bountiful of blessings and surely it is our responsibility to take care of the poorer sections in our society. We have to become the voice of voiceless. Let us make a commitment together to offer them the foods they want whenever we witness such scenes in our society. Om Prakash, 70 years old, nowadays a cobbler by occupation lives in R. S. Pura Jammu. He is actually a native of POK. In 1947 on partition of Baharat into India and Pakistan, when Om Prakash was not yet even born, his family migrated to Jammu. In 1965, when Om Prakash was just 16 years old, he started working as a labourer and moved outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir. He had worked as a labourer in many states of India like Rajasthan, Maharastra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and almost every state of northern India. He for some time worked as a truck – conductor in Maharastra. Since, he found that job not suitable for him as he always used to do work with dignity and “dignity of work”, as he said is the most important thing that keeps you honest and humble in your life, . In 2002, he came back to Jammu and started working as a Cobbler. Since then, from last 17 years, he is working as a cobbler at a place in Panjtirthi Jammu, just opposite to the Jamia Masjid of Ustaad Mahalla. I most often used to visit this cobbler during my MBBS college days whenever I used to went city for some work. I could get my shoes-polished there and could always see him charging a fair amount.
To gain empathy, sympathy, peace, prosperity, happiness and generosity in our lives – instilling a sense and performing “acts of humanity” to our maximum capability would suffice.
One day I offered some extra money to him, he refused to took. On other occasion, I had to pay him an amount that was more than he could charge. I told him to keep this extra money; he refused and told that he would polish shoes next time for that extra amount of money. I could see elite class persons visiting him and getting their shoes-polished there. Anyways, the advices he put forth before me are always worth to imbibe. The good thing is that we could learn and realize a lot of things whenever we intimate such kind-hearted persons in our society. I owe a lot of respect to this man, who being in this age, is working hard with dignity and devotion to earn their livelihood and feed their family. Above all he is serving the humanity with his caliber and honesty. He is an inspiration that gives us courage and strength to work with passion and energy in this young age. I would quote some lines that instill us some realisation how important a cobbler is in our society, “Whenever we have to go for a party or function, we could check our shoes many times if there is any dust stitched. If we go to the party with our shoes in this mal – condition, we would fear that if anybody might tease us. That time, a cobbler is an artist who puts his whole soul in our shoes and meshes them with charm and light. And then we would feel confident and fearless enough to go to the party or function.” A doctor serves the humanity by saving lives of patients to his/her level best. Honestly speaking, whenever I could receive a patient with poor -background in the hospital, my heart literally weeps for the patient’s financial helplessness and unaffordability for treatment. Sometimes I along with other staff of the hospital could collect an amount of money to make affordability for treatment possible to the patient. In fact, there are many patient- helping organizations existing in medical colleges across the state that help patients from poor backgrounds in alleviating their illness. I remember one of such organization in Government Medical College Jammu run by medical student community there. We have been created in this world as the beautiful creation by Creator of this world i.e., humans. So our motive is to serve humanity through any means to gain sympathy and merciful bliss from Almighty Lord. Performing an act of humanity is a soul key to patience, peace of mind, happiness and success. It is a soul – key that provides as a tool to remain engaged in doing good deeds all the time. Three values of compassion we should always keep in mind to instill a sense of humanity .First to consider – we all are here in this world temporarily only for a short period of time. Second, in this short period of time, let us try our best to serve the humanity according to the graces we have received. And third, let us respect each other as well as each other’s job, like a shoe polisher has his own significance in our society. He puts his whole soul in our shoes and spark them with charm by his tireless work and this way we are feeling confident and fearless enough to go to parties or college, office or our work places. And to gain empathy, sympathy, peace, prosperity, happiness and generosity in our lives – instilling a sense and performing “acts of humanity” to our maximum capability would suffice.
(The author is Director J & K Innovative Foundation For Transforming Society/Medical Practitioner/ Motivational Speaker/ Activist/ Columnist/ Educator/ works at SMVD Narayana Super Speciality Hospital Jammu. Views are his own, [email protected])