Mind the Playfulness

“Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.” ― Robert Brault

The train zoomed past Vikarabad near Hyderabad. It was a perfect afternoon, sunny and clear. It was a Monday, I felt the crowd in the bogie would be less, but I found there were just a few vacant seats for the travellers from Gulbarga. The Railway station at Begumpet in Hyderabad had borne a deserted look initially. There was an unknown fear amongst people, perhaps it was the advent of  Swine Flu. People feared coughing and looked aside in their blue, green, and white  masks as a preventive measure against Swine Flu. I held a perfect health for the past two years due to the stringent routine, but a sprain in my leg led to a sedentary life making me vulnerable to diseases very soon. It led to a slack in the habit resulting in a low immunity leading to a bad cold as soon as I boarded the train at Pune. However, the journey to Hyderabad was an enjoyable one since I was travelling with my school teacher. My teacher has maintained her grace and health, she looked every bit the same as we remembered her. She said that she owed it to a schedule she had wedged on after her retirement. We lived the thirty year span in the eight hours of travel. Possibly women are gifted with this art of transforming years into minutes. My siblings feared my cold cautioning me with the dos and donts, but my classmates and friends were wonderful. 

The hectic three days of our School Reunion at Hyderabad flew joyously till I boarded the Shatapdi to go back to Pune. My teacher yearned to spend a few more days with her friends, and I felt sick due to the loneliness, perhaps they were the pangs of separation from my loving siblings and friends. I rested doing nothing though I had planned to do many things. At times doing nothing other than  perceiving the outside world as the train moves is a great consolation to the heart. I saw the world moving past sprawling buildings, the reducing mountains and greenery till there were large stretches of agricultural land. The greenery soothed my agitated nerves, it also comforted the others as they fell into a state of tranquility.  The peace was disturbed by a loud thud which brought us back to the present. We saw a glass window with circular cracks from the central point where a stone had lodged. Since the glass was tough, it did not break or drop the pieces of glass. An attender pulled the green stretch to cover the glass. The bogie was a new one and had cushioned seats with huge glasses. It was clean and well kept for a change.Someone had callously flung large pebbles for fun. No one was injured and the authorities noted the situation.

It took me back to the summer of the year Nineteen Ninety Two when we were travelling from Hyderabad to Mumbai by the Mumbai Hyderabad express. It was hot and sultry around seven in the evening. The windows were wide open to fill in fresh breeze when we heard the dull sounds of  pelted stones. We looked around to find a few well aimed ones enter the compartment, on an impulse we lowered the metallic shutter of the window. The family sitting opposite was however a little late in lowering their window. To our horror we heard the  bang of a  granite stone as it hit the bar of the window, it unfortunately gained greater strength as it propelled into the compartment to hit the forehead of the second passenger. The loud howl attracted our attention to the spilling blood from the forehead of the lady. There was a lady doctor in the bogie who attended the lady, but the wound was a large one. It definitely needed to be stitched. Within minutes the people in the compartment tried making the family comfortable. The family later disembarked at a destination earlier than theirs for medical aid at the nearest hospital as the lady felt weak with the loss of blood. Today’s incident could have been as bad as that day’s  had we not been travelling in an Air conditioned compartment.

The playful pelting of stones was perhaps to gain attention or to ensure the ability to hurl it as far as possible in a competition with friends unaware of the consequences. The fling might have been a form of relieving anger and hatred. Whatever the reason be the incumbent was self-centered to forget its outcome. It could have been worse too. A physical injury does not take a long time to heal, but the wound remains embedded as a hatred for another fellow human being.

 Playful acts of hurting people is also known as teasing. People tease the old, the disabled or the poor to satiate their ego as an act of playfulness. It’s a pitiable act of putting oneself in an inhuman state as we are unsure about what is in store for us tomorrow. Laughing at the flaws of others, jeering or bullying others gives momentary fun, but when  the roles are reversed it becomes agonizing to bear. Perhaps active steps to foster care and compassion as any other societal act is the need of the hour. Empathising a situation teaches one to  practise gratitude for what one has been bestowed with preventing one from attempting such playful acts.

 It also reminds one not to rebuke others, hurting  fellow beings perhaps to despise or merely to satisfy the ego. This kind of an injury  caused does not heal as easily as a physical injury.An uncaring act to hurt another person is carried out effortlessly and forgotten, some bear a guilt while many validate it by saying that the person deserved it. The hurt remains, but acts of kindness and decency require the mettle to set free a respectable personality that you are.

“It is astounding what power being kind, mannered, polite and considerate has in transforming your life.” ― Bryant McGill