UNTIL ITS YOU...

 

A story that stayed with me was one of the TedEd talks given by Bill Gates about Malaria. 

To give you a context, there were many people who died because of malaria and the unavailability of vaccines during that time. Malaria was most widely affected in poor nations and the majority of rich ones had already tackled the problem. Since the nations were poor, funding to improve the conditions was not allotted. 

Gates then goes on opening a jar full of mosquitoes into the auditorium saying, let some rich have the disease. He tried to bring in the concept of empathy to describe the seriousness of the problem. 

We don't care until it's our problem - Simple.

One day you see stories of friends going on short trips, posts about moving abroad and the next day it's DEATH.

A friend died recently. We studied together for 4 years, had fun, cleared exams, and walked into our paths. Not everyone is bound to stay connected, life gets along the way and we miss staying in touch. We only know about friends' lives with the status and posts that they put on social media. Learning about the deteriorating health condition of a friend over a call is sad than I could express. By the time I knew about it, he was on a ventilator battling life. 

A few came forward to take the initiative to provide some help and did what they could. But to my surprise, many did not even care to ask what happened when they learnt about him getting admitted to hospital. Isn't it the basic curtsy? 

UNTIL ITS YOU...

Everyone is active on media. Everyone has situations going on, but my expectation to enquire in just a sentence is too much to ask for.

This incident happened around the same time as 'Pahalgam'. People were sad, and angry and expressed their opinions on the media, hoping to retaliate back.  This is totally our right to ask for justice. I am not questioning this behaviour. 

In a conversation with my sister she expressed she is sad that she cant find people react the similar way when incidents like these happen to soldiers. When we hear of a soldier's death in the war, why is not similar anguish expressed? I am in no way questioning the sympathy. I am questioning empathy. We don't see ourselves as soldiers, we feel sad for the loss, hope for the best to their family, support and move on. 

Can you dare say you would visit Kashmir after this incident? Can you move on?  - The majority won't. 

Until it's us, we don't take it seriously.

Until it's us, we don't expect to help.

Until it's us,  we don't question.

Until it's us, we don't show a basic curtsy.

My Dear Friends, 

Sorry to say but I judged everyone who did not care to enquire nor help but gave gyan about 'Pahalgam' during this time. I judged because you could not react to what was happening in your circle, but put a post and enlighten your audiences.  I judged you because you did not reach out asking what happened to our friend. If a friend cannot ask what is happening and move mountains for you, they are just one of the many connections on LinkedIn.

Until it's you...you will never know.