PEOPLE ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE
“Some
of us are busy doing things;
Some
of us are busy complaining.”
Debasish
Mridha
It
was late in the night… around 11 to be precise. In one of the WhatsApp groups,
to which I belonged, the Admin made the sad announcement of the demise of a fellow-member’s father. The deceased was a senior
citizen, who had some health issues. But, he was an affectionate soul. As is
the case in such situations, the members of the group instantly started posting
RIP’s and Om Shanti’s… from all sides. Not even ten minutes had gone by,
the Admin made one more announcement… This time, about the shocking demise of a
43-year-old lady. She and her husband were in a critical condition battling
Covid. She succumbed. The group members, once again, started posting RIP’s, Om
Shanti’s “Shocked!”… “Cant’ Believe”… “Sad” and so on.
Not even another five minutes had
passed by. A young member, who is a chronic cribber in the group, came out with
a very trivial complaint… Instantly another woman, who lived alone in her flat,
joined in support… “Agree… Exactly… etc.” A respected member in the group, in
good intention, pointed to the complainants and tried to advise them to voice
out their complaints at another time… “We have just lost two of our dear ones,”
he mentioned, “Let’s keep our little complaints for tomorrow morning.”
The young man, who had
posted his fresh complaint, retorted – “Little Complaints? Do you know how many
times I have complained and how nobody cares?”
“Agree… Exactly,” the
woman came in support.
The respected member lost
his cool and blasted, “You people seem to have lost your heart and commonsense,
both.”
All hell broke loose
after that… One more disgruntled soul came in support of the complaining duo…
I went off to sleep saying the last prayer from the Cross: “Father, forgive them. For, they do not know what they are doing.”
Had I posted this in the
group, assuming that I was a wise soul, I would have got it back instantly:
“We do not know what we are doing?... Go to hell!”
Fearing that, I chose to
go to my bed, instead!
“People are the same
everywhere,” a dear friend of mine said when I narrated this late-night incident
to him, this morning. “You will find the same behaviour if you make a random survey
of 100 groups… High Society, chawls or slums… People are the same.”
Well, some of us may
disagree with this friend of mine saying, “Not necessarily so.”
But, how do you explain
this fact: the people who were ‘cribbing and fuming’ last night, right when two
of their fellow-members had passed away, were educated, well-placed and,
interestingly, seconds ago, had posted in the group their own RIP’s and Om Shanti’s?
Who says “Times are
uncertain”?
Who says, “Life is too
short?”
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: pixabay
Video: Dare to do Motivation
Comments