Fortitude

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” ― Plato

The post office at Nigdi is situated in the by lanes of Pradhikaran.  It is  not a very large one but has quarters in the campus for a few of its employees. It has one of its side walls facing another lane which leads to the police station and the Excise office.  We need to turn into this lane to reach our apartments. It is surrounded by trees making  its environs cool,  On  the side facing the lane there is a huge Gulmohar tree. In English, it is named Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant. It is also one of several trees known as Flame tree. The place is beautiful during  spring  and summer due to the  roofed blossoms of red flowers making the tree look discriminatingly lovely as the leaves appear lesser than the red flowers. My son told me that, at this spot a Robin bird flew down the tree and leisurely took a clean perch well away from a Praying Mantis eyeing it, considering the prospect of relishing it.

The Praying Mantis well aware of the predator tried to camouflage itself in the few green leaves and the brown earth. My son looked at the prey and the predator amusingly as he adores nature. He drove his bike a little ahead to see an SUV, a sport utility vehicle race ahead, he turned and looked back only to find the Robin writhing in pain. He went back to the place and saw the Praying Mantis dragging itself on a wounded foot. The SUV had run over the bird.  He stopped and kept  watching the little bird which had closed its eyes, it  wriggled and died. This was unprecedented. He gently picked the bird and put in aside on the roadside under the tree and covered it softly with a paper hoping it would recoup after some time.

The incident saddened him as he had  lost a friend in a road accident a few months back and  would always remember him wondering why God had taken him away so young. He would tell me a range of reasons and deduce causes for his death. At times, he would say that his fear had caused his death. The boy was badly hurt in an accident, and his lungs  were thoroughly damaged in the accident moving him into a state of coma. I told him that death is  unforeseen and that a person lives as many breaths as God bestows him with. He would listen, but I knew that he was not convinced. Each day I saw him drift away into nothingness, trying to swathe his feelings, thinking it might hurt me. Today’ the Robin’s death  had illumined his misgivings, though he felt ghastly that he had to face the truth while trying to overcome the death of an innocent being. He felt better for having waited and moved the little bird aside.

I realized that  compassion is a quality which helps leading a meaningful existence as it fades the sorrows in one’s life, accomplished through kind-heartedness. I remembered the day a car was about to run down a Labrador in the dimly lit street, the dog crossed and fell down panting, the owner rushed and briskly kept ruffling its neck, patting and loving it till it stopped breathing heavily and till its heart beat normalised. The sight was a poignant one where both were trying to diminish each other's agony. In the same lane I had witnessed a man beat his dog relentlessly with a stick till the dog writhed in pain, fell on its back raising all its four feet pleading its master to spare him. It distressed me because the preference of domesticating the dog was the owner’s choice and he need not have tamed this dog to make its life miserable reflecting his own despair.  Life is transient and helps a person overcome any sort of pain with time. Qualities like Compassion help in empathising, being more merciful and less disapproving. The awareness of realities like death and suffering make our lives significant with the understanding of contributing to the society. These  lessons in life help us to gain harmony with truth and leading a momentous life through  understanding. Happiness is a mindful preference which can be obtained only when you are aware of the adversities in life and is attained by leading a virtuous life.

"touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.” ― Tahereh Mafi