HOW CAPABLE OUR HEARTS ARE!


 


“Men build too many walls, and not enough bridges.”

― Joseph Fort Newton

 

We can’t have it all…

This means, every achievement in life comes with a cost. Some, at huge costs!

But, then, that’s how it has been for everyone who aspires to achieve something in life. Nothing -– I say, nothing -– comes without a cost.

Now, did you hear me saying –- ‘Sacrifice’?

On this Dussehra day, my wife and I watched the latest Hindi film, ‘Prahaar’. This is the inspiring story of how Special Public Prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, fought his long legal battle (almost four years) to get Ajmal Kasab finally sent to the gallows. I was not surprised how audience clapped, whistled, chanted ‘Bharat mata ki jai’, ‘Vande Mataram’ etc., while powerful dialogues were delivered, and, especially, when Kasab was hanged…

It's like breathing a long sigh of relief… the anger and pain, bottled up for long, went out in that one moment…

Ujjwal Nikam turned a Hero… and, rightfully so.

But, what I liked even more in the film, was the tensed scenes: How Jyoti, his wife, bore everything silently, so that her husband could totally focus on that ‘all-important legal battle’. I wondered: what if she had put her foot down, saying: ‘Choose between me and your case’?

Ujjwal Nikam’s relationship with his son, a budding lawyer, was strained… The Son found his father to be too self-centered and insensitive to the feelings and needs of his own family –- wife, daughter, and son.

Well, I found nothing unfamiliar. ‘Single-minded focus’ -- it means you have to shut your focus on everything else. Period. If you find a very understanding family, you are fortunate. Else, yes… Else, it’s really tough to focus single-mindedly…

Most of us, realize this truth somewhere along our journey. We realize, how achieving at the cost of immediate family is no achievement at all…

Sacrifice! Well, the question is: Who should sacrifice, for whom?

Kasab is hanged, and long gone… This young jobless young man from Pakistan was brainwashed –- poisoned –- to hate… to shoot indiscriminately, and remorselessly… Yes, he deserved no mercy. When he was finally hanged, I, too, sent a huge sigh of relief…





But, then, I see the algorithm of hate -– the seeds of brain washing and poison –- thriving everywhere around me. How hate is alike -– no matter to which country, to which religion, to which political ideology you and I belong… Hate is alike… Hate is blind… Hate makes us look very, very small…!

Today, I was getting in my social-media feed so many videos of another Pakistani –- Dr. Asif Hasan, a widely-acclaimed child heart surgeon. He had just won the prestigious award ‘Pride of Britain’ for his lifetime work…





I was listening to each of the child he had saved, now grown up and well-placed in life… I was reading every comment on those videos…

How refreshing to see no hate -– just because he was a Muslim from Pakistan!

Yes, Sir, the same heart, which has the capacity to hate -- get poisoned and kill –- has even more capacity to discern, make choices, spread love…

Our hearts may have the capacity to build walls, no doubt about it. But, then, is it not so beautiful, if we can recognize, how capable our hearts are to build amazing bridges?”

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic’s: 1. www.indiatvnews.com  2. 

Video: 1. Maddcok Films  2. Pride of Britain Awards and The Mirror

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