Life’s Little Things

Author : Prarthana

 

We often go around, complaining about the sad state of the world we are in; where there is a serious dearth of role models that our we can look up to……well, stop looking up, look around!

 

There is a lot we can learn, from our so-called “subordinates”.Take this one example.

 

There is this woman, who i will call “nurse”. She does the un-glamourous job of taking care of the invalid, bathing and cleaning up after them.

She has been battling cancer for the past 5 years, only partly sucessfully, i regret to say.Her husband, though not an alcoholic, is not very supportive of her endeavours, especially her illness. He looks at it as an “additional” burden. She has only one son, who does not get along with his father.

 

This woman, for whom everyday is a challenge,always greets us with a smile on her face, no matter how much pain she is in. Even when we feel sorry for her, and try to sympathise with her, when she’s in great pain; she brushes it off with a grin and goes about her work. Now, nurse is a classic example of the new lower class ( i mean economic class) Indian woman, who, needs not only to balance housework with outside work; but also deal with all the other problems that economics throws on her. With her deep in debt, she has to scramble for everyday repayment, or, face the escalating interest rate with every delay.

 

Scene now shifts to one of the leading hospitals in the city, where, there are these “helpers”; who, no doubt, have blue collared jobs to do, but are given uniforms, protective gear and a considerably comfortable pay packet along with it. These “boys” lose no opportinity to tell you how hard they have worked to take care of the patient, and drop not-so-subtle hints about wanting a tip, everytime they complete one of their jobs.

 

Come to think of it –  why are the richest people among the unhappiest?

Why do we have more and more well-to-do politicians getting caught in corruption scams while we talk about escalating crime rate among the lower economic class ?

Is this a case of too much, too early ?