The Crab’s Pincers

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.” ― Kahlil Gibran

The advent of winter towed along the festival of lights that bound a holiday break for the schools and colleges. The weather has turned cooler with cold winds blowing, rousing people to  exercise and interweave health. Indians have turned more conscious than ever regarding their physique and general well being. These days people prefer buying small quantities of  pickles and savouries rather than making large quantities of these at home. During our childhood, maids were engaged specially to pound roasted chillies and other spices to get the precise aroma that was handed down the generations, yet we prefer eating a lot lesser of these. Broccoli, mushrooms, lettuce and others have encircled their way into the Indian homes replacing the fiery and oily curries.

The mornings no longer look like the crack of dawn with a huge array of cars and vehicles parked around the walking arenas and man-made forests. The tiny makeshift shops sell vegetables, fruits and vegetable juices to people returning back after a satisfying walk or run.  Recently we had a Pinkathon in Pune under the brand ambassador  Milind Soman, who has supported Pinkathon, a run for cancer awareness.  

During one of these cold mornings, I saw a group of kids aged ten running up the man-made forest that entwines its way 2km uphill. The walk requires  energy  and endurance as it involves a steep climb, however, children are agile and have a sense of infectious enthusiasm when they awaken early. While returning back, I saw a small crowd standing near the children. The children had wooden branches and twigs in their hands, they yelled shrieked and laughed aloud, the curious onlookers looked on and walked away. I peered through the empty spaces to be led to a pale coloured huge crab that must have walked away from the lake. It held its pincers in defiance. It stood close to tiny Croton plants next to the brick fencing and would have never been seen, but for the keen eyesight of these kids. They enjoyed frightening and laughed in apathy. The scene reminded me of ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding where a group of boys gets stranded on a desolate island. They gradually grow into savages and kill a fellow being. It depicts a dystopia where people lead a fearful life in a society that is undesirable. Every human being has a choice of two instincts, a sense to live by the norms, act peacefully, follow moral laws,  against the impulse to appease one’s immediate desires, act fiercely to obtain supremacy over others, and administer one’s will. 

   

A little ahead at the lake I saw  another group of kids hanging on the wall. Luckily the  lake  is bound by walls and is well guarded so that no one climbs down the fencing. The water was still and ran between the rocky wall on one side and the grassland on the other side, it sports a few bungalows too. We lived in one of those for a long time. The cackle of the geese would awaken us in the stillness of the early morning. At times we could see a few youngsters infiltrate the forbidden path till they reached the lonely windmill where the broken fence gave them a path to enter the lake. The  large gunny sacks gave us an indication that they intended to do something more than fishing. We quickly called up the authorities who saved the lonely goose which had wandered to the corner when the youngsters laid a bait for it.

 I  saw a group of teenagers in the land arena ahead. They had a good run, and then began their childish playfulness. In the silence of the morning, the sounds were reverberating. People who were meditating began walking away to places which were calmer, but their screeching voices echoed. They then began running playfully around the people who exercised and meditated. The tranquillity of the morning disappeared. The serene place has the ability to calm the nerves of people and deviates their minds towards the equanimity of nature, yet the youngsters failed to notice that no one spoke in the huge place.

I remembered how  another newly married couple began bursting crackers at midnight. The granite bombs and the others caused tremendous booming sounds that kept us tossing in our bed, the old must have suffered greater. I wondered whether we had troubled others when we were young. Perhaps we didn’t because we respected people and the lives they led. We did have communal riots in Hyderabad that ended with a curfew for a week, but in the colonies Hindus and Muslims remained bonded with great love. The riots were created by a few hooligans and the blame thrown on the common man. Yet these instances were very rare, unlike what we have today. They call it intolerance. I wonder where did it take its roots. The prejudice, narrow mindedness or religious fanaticism is only because the ability to love fellow human beings and treat them well has disappeared owing to the growing practicality in life. If a child is loved and respected, the child  would have learnt the acceptability to  love and respect others, whether they are human beings or animals, perhaps then we would not have faced this growing intolerance. Certainly the crab’s pincers pictured the advantage of cutting and pulling out humanity in a  society blind to compassion.

“Hard times build determination and inner strength. Through them we can also come to appreciate the uselessness of anger”  Dalai Lama XIV