‘Pilferage’ of character

Col HP Singh (retd)

The second wave of the pandemic is thankfully abating. Almost everyone has lost either a loved one or someone known. While the common Indian rose to the occasion, there were some who profited even in these times of misery. ‘Yeh lutt te huey karwaan zindagi ke...’ anguish was evident as my friend sang this verse from Pyaasa.

Adversity introduces a man to himself, revealing his character. This national calamity has exposed the moral fibre of a section of society. It was ignominious to hear of black marketeers hoarding life-saving drugs and selling them at inflated rates. Exorbitant prices were charged for ambulance services and supply of oxygen to those gasping for life. Death became a costly affair even in crematoriums where ‘touts’ had a field day.

This is not the first time people have behaved in this manner. We have heard of the dead or injured being scavenged after train accidents. After the mid-air collision of planes over Charkhi Dadri in 1996, bodies were stripped of valuables. Barbers fleeced a traumatised lot for cutting their long hair during the 1984 riots. The treatment meted out to migrants in the first wave of Covid-19 is still fresh in our minds.

Given the rich cultural heritage of our civilisation, we took it upon ourselves to be ‘vishva guru’. But these despicable acts have not been in sync with the message of humanity given by Buddha, Mahavira, Guru Nanak, Kabir and Farid, to name a few.

I grew up hearing tales of the ‘golden bird’ pillaged by the invaders for centuries. We blamed the sultans and Mughals for stripping us of our intellectual and physical wealth and the ‘Angrez’ for rewriting our history. We blamed poor governance post-Independence and corruption for our inefficiency. We can blame a whole lot of people for our ills, but who is to be blamed for the pilferage of our character?

‘We are not doing a favour to the patient by serving him, rather he is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.’ Fortunately, there have been many whose thoughts resonate with these words of Gandhi. We have heard of donations pouring in even from those who themselves have a hand-to-mouth existence. Places of worship have provided succour to those hankering for medical support. While one celebrity launched a charity foundation providing a support system for the needy, we heard of an octogenarian sacrificing his hospital bed for a younger person, bartering his own life instead.

The compassion of these mortal angels outweighs the greed of those devils in human skin. These real heroes provide the answer to that song ‘Jinhe naaz hai Hind par woh kahaan hai?’