Is it the end of humanity?

Vishal Kumar 

Although it was a beautiful sunny morning at my native town, I had to cancel my morning walk, as I was supposed to board a train to Delhi. The preceding night, I could not catch a wink of sleep because of the heartrending piece of news from Pulwama. A dastardly and gruesome act by the enemies of humanity spelled doom, snuffing out many innocent lives. My heart was not only shaken, but shattered. My mind was overloaded with a volley of questions which pushed me into the deep ocean of painful contemplation.

Why are people murdering one another with such mindless frenzy? I was reminded of Swami Vivekananda’s words: ‘I wonder why people hate, when life is too short to love!’ Today, unfortunately, the wicked emotion of hatred is spreading its stench in every nook and corner of the world, whereas the kindred emotion of love is getting weaker day by day. Are men morphing into monsters? Another unsettling question raised its ugliest head. My eyes were clouded with forcibly held back tears. Where had compassion, kindness and sympathy vanished? Head heavy, heart bloated, eyes groggy, I reached the railway station.

As the train chugged forward, I was  eyeball to eyeball with pristine nature in all its myriad captivating colours: lush fields, quiescent scarecrows, birds perching on branches of various trees, loth to give up their languidness. Farmers were already up and moving towards their fields. Such a salubrious spectacle tried to soothe my frayed spirits, but my heart remained dipped in the sorrow of the ghastly carnage. Mist hung heavy all around and trees were mere silhouettes, searching for lost identity. 

Soon,  we were at the next junction. By now, the young couple sitting on the next berth had finished a boxful of sweets and an elderly couple sitting across the aisle was savouring homemade delicacies. But I had lost my appetite. No thought of having breakfast occurred to me; my stomach, like my heart, was sufficiently filled with sorrow. 

When the train crossed the dense maze of wild greenery, my ache was relieved to an extent by the sight of fashion-conscious scarecrows. All of them flaunting their multicoloured attires. A momentary diversion that brought a smile to my sombre face, as did the sight of the luxuriously green fields, dotted with white egrets.

As the train headed towards its destination, an image embossed itself on my mind. On the periphery of the fields were some trees, spreading their skeletal branches towards the sky. I imagined this was a picture of lost humanity extending its arms towards the heavens, beseeching and pleading God for peace. Praying for humanity! Was it too difficult to love and be human?

Here’s hoping that humanity regains its lost image before it is too late.... Dilli abhi bhi door hai.