INDIFFERENCE-TO-SOCIETY
is not analogous to
INDIFFERENCE-TO-HUMANITY!!
Margaret Thatcher once said, "There is no society, there are individuals and their families..."
As I was getting back from work last night with a friend, riding behind his bike, I suddenly spotted an old lady lying on the road, terribly wounded and bleeding on the roadside. My first reaction was that I hid behind my friend's back. But I soon recovered from the shock and got down. There were people surrounding the old lady trying to help her out. She wasn't responding though. Her white blouse was drenched red! Red, the colour of blood, anger, alarm, heat, love, passion could have variegated synonyms. Here it was an 'Alarm'. I saw a young man, trying vigorously, calling up the ambulance for help, but the ambulance didn't turn up. I tried to stop a car-pooling vehicle to fetch help, but the driver simply refused. Another lady in a car said she could help, but since the driver didn't have a license, they would land up in trouble, hence another minute lost! Finally, an old man called an auto rickshaw to take her to the hospital. My friend paid for the rick driver and the rick left soon. I followed them to the hospital. It was just the old lady, the man who had hit her accidentally and me at that hospital. I asked the doctor if her condition was stable and if she would be fine. He looked perplexed. I asked if her bag had a phone number or an address to contact someone. The nurse had tried but no one responded. The doctor asked if I was responsible for the accident, to which I declined and said that I had come to see if she was fine. The doctor asked me to leave saying that since there was no one to claim her responsibility, she would be shifted to a government hospital. I was taken aback. What did he mean? Would he not treat her? When I emphasized him on treating her, he prompted, "Were you the one who's responsible for her condition? Why are you so concerned?" I was disgusted at the doctor's reply, his indifference towards the old lady. Luckily, the man who had accidentally hit her (and not willing to disclose the same) came forward and took charge of her treatment's expenditure.
Our busy schedules with our hectic timelines, have enabled us a life of puppetry. We dance to others' tunes, and do not care for each-other. It's good to be indifferent towards the rules set by a harsh and fundamentalist society, but it's unfair to be not bothered about our fellow being. One should obliterate the wrong-doings of the society. I was crestfallen to the attitude of the doctor towards an old lady. A doctor being a life-savior should not be nonchalant towards his patient. When Margaret Thatcher made that statement, what she meant was, to not be dispirited by a pejorative group of the so-called society, which aims at setting up doctrines against the desires of any common man. By being unconcerned to the society, one should not draw himself away from the basic protocol of life, i.e., love and compassion.
I left soon after the man took responsibility for her condition. As I'm writing this blog, I pray that she would be safe and would reach her home soon. Do not run away from an accident, help out the needy, as a small help at the right instance could save a life!
