When I sat and talked to my day (part 8)

Early morning and waking up with sound of breeze, chirping of birds and some screeches of hens. The house that I have rented has some poultry farming downstairs - kind of good when I think that this world is not just meant for humans. There is place for other animals, and it is our responsibility to give them that. As a matter of fact, it is the more powerful that should take care of the less powerful.

Here comes the topic of today's discussion. In a society, family, friendship, company, team, in every constellation of people, it is the people in power that should extend the hand and offer help to the people that need help, to the people that are weak. Sounds rather one-sided, or? You are right. I need to finish myself. The power should extend their hand of support and the weak should clutch the hand of the power. It must be a two way game! 

Let me brain-dump my thoughts -

• When we are little child, it is the parents that guide us, teach us and train us. Imagine a situation when a toddler has no one to guide! I remember this beautiful movie by Chetan Anand, called "Aakhri Khat", in which a little child gets lost and how difficult it becomes for the child to navigate through the streets of Mumbai.
• In school, we get the teaching, assistance, from our teachers. In Sanskrit there is a word, Guru. "Gu" means darkness and "ru" means someone who removes it. The responsibility of a Guru is to create a path for his disciples to explore.
• In colleges and university, we meet professors that give us pointers and let us go further. Now this is where things start to take a different turn. In higher studies you will not be told exactly where to look at. You will be given some hints, here and there. A reference to an article or a book, a check to database, or a link to a lecture - the rest is up to the students. Back to the topic of the  "hand which should clutch" to make progress.
• The list of giving and taking goes on - to married life between partners, or, between employee and employers. The Guru or the powerful gives and the disciple or the less established clan grasps - this is the norm that resulted in survival of the Vedas over several thousand years. The teacher taught and gave and the receiver listened and learnt.

In today's world, what is missing them, as I look beyond those open window panes -

• There is almost no one to look up to. The celebrities have become book-covers made of cheap material. They fall apart after a few days. The real face of the so-called important people of the society, country or world come to the fore after a while. And more often than not, the face is not trustworthy.
• There is no system for passing knowledge in today's strange world. The giver is worried that his or her position will be swept away by being liberally open to share knowledge. Someone else will end up learning it and displace the expert from the place of authority.
• The "taker-community" is getting empty. No one wants to join that club. In the age of smartphone and clicks, there is no need to ask! Even experience is not important anymore. Earlier, reading books and listening to conversations of elders were general practices in an ordinary household. Today, how many such families exist!

Sorry for being gloomy in today's post - maybe something to do with the weather outside!

But honestly, the powerful can only extend their power by helping the "others". The needy, too, need to get as much as possible from those that are offering the help - who knows, how long this give and take will persist.