Saturday, August 09, 2008

On the Path of Self- Realisation:

On the Path of Self- Realisation:

I take the same route to college and back everyday. For the past few months, I have noticed a very troubled looking woman living on the pavement in a miserably shabby condition and tattered clothes. She sits alone all day, I have come to know from the nearby vendors, and is continuously talking and smiling to herself. Onlookers call her crazy and maybe a witch, while children from the nearby slums derive enormous pleasure out of this ‘entertainment package’. Last week, I noticed a huge crowd around her on my way back. I stopped the rickshaw and got down to find about what had happened. On enquiring, I was told that this was all due to some trivial fight which sort of went out of hand. They were accusing the ‘mad woman’ of throwing stones as passerby’s.
This incident really bothered me for a long time. I finally decided to go and find out about how she became what she had. When I proposed this in front of people who had seen her, I was ridiculed and made fun off. I had seen this coming and therefore took no offence. There were others who told me to be careful and that she could be dangerous, but no one offered to come along.
I went on a week later. In fact I just stopped on my way back from college. Once I was there, I thought I was being rather foolish, standing there without informing anyone but before I could let my thoughts pull me out of this, I waved and smiled at the lady. She smiled back, but did not wave. I took this as a signal to go and sit besides her. I tried talking to her but words, that made sense, just refused to come out of her mouth. She was constantly blabbering without making any sense! I strived for around half an hour but finally gave up. I was about to leave when she spoke some word that made me stop and take my place again. I can’t quote what she said because her speech was broken but I’ll try to put it in my own words without losing the essence.

“I lost my girl when she was two. I have no family. They left me on the roads because I was mad. I have no one to live for. I live alone over here but somehow these people want me to react to everything. I don’t want to.” When I asked her about what had happened previously, she said “ladka patthar maar raha tha. Maine bhi maar diya.” (The boy pelted stones at me, so I hit him back).

I left at that moment, because she refused to speak after that and continued with her smiles and laughs and her talks with herself. “How insensitive can people be?” This was the only question I have been asking myself after that brief encounter. We don’t want to accept the fact but it is true that many of us derive sadistic pleasure out of hurting the innocent, or people who cannot do anything. We thrive for ‘entertainment’ from such insensitive acts and it hurts immensely when u see something like this happening, yet cant do anything about it.

8 comments:

Purnima Malhotra said...

u were very true when u said ppl derive sadistic pleasure teasing innocents!good dat u had a wrd with her!
wrld is shrt of kind ppl like u! :)
its rather a circus of insanes!
keep it up!

Mishika said...

circus-thats the word i was looking for. it is actually a big big circus, and somehow everyone thinks the others are for your entertainment and you are just the audience.
few realise it can also be the other way round, which it essentially is :)

Ishita_Dasgupta said...

a very thoughtful post mishi...these r d kinda ppl i cn nevr understand! dey seem 2 find sum sorta morbid fascination 4m watchin helpless ppl suffer...m so proud of u dat u went n had a tok wid her!!
its one of those things i mite feel a lot 4...bt wud probably never hav d courage 2 actually take a step fwd.. :)

Antara said...

Hey mishika, this is antara. Ishitas friend.

Its a really nice post and it shows how badly we have degenerated as a society.

keep it up

Mishika said...

@ishita:i'm trying to find out the same-pleasure in seeing others suffer!!
wish freud had something to say about this too :)
@antara:thanks :)

Aanandita Chawla said...

kya baat hai!!!
i am proud of you!
it takes real courage and a heart to do what you did
*applause*
Imagine what she would see from her eyes......... such an immensly heartless world!
one tiny talk for mishika , a huge leap for understanding peole!

Mishika said...

@andi:thanks, but i think i'll do a write up again just on sadistic pleasure, this incident kind of overshadowed that issue.

sksingh said...

Love
i am really moved by your emotions and centiments. That's what the world is all about, sadly
papa

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