Last weekend I decided to get into some clean-up act. Why?
The space between my house and the house behind is covered
by a strong metal grill. Believe me, there is some space there! Grill is to
prevent thieves from getting into my house, trying to steal and eventually hurt
us since they could not find anything worth stealing! And there is a huge mango
tree in my neighbour’s compound only the root being there, the most of the
fleshy part of it is overhanging above my house. Every Jan-Feb it will flower
like nobody’s business. Every time I would count that it would yield at least a
thousand mangoes. And I would be confident that I would be able to get a good
percentage of those mangoes without doing anything.
By the time March arrives, all those flowers will dry up and
fall down majestically on my compound grill. A few mangoes here and there would
be visible on the tree which would also die prematurely. End result, there
would be a thick layer of coating on top of the grill which would constitute a
nice bed for the falling leaves one after another – no free mangoes !. I would wait
April thru June to see whether by some magic this opaque layer above the grill
would go off by itself, which it would never. It would rather thicken. Come
July, my wife will start cursing everybody except the main culprit – the mango
tree. Which would tell me that it is time for me to get into a clean-up act, so
did I last week end.
Although I managed to remove most of the ugly stuff with
whatever blunt tools I had, there were quite a few leaves which didn’t fall
through. I found those leaves with such crazy shapes and curves, they would
stick to the grill till the last breath. I had to use my fingers to guide them down
through the grill. While doing that I had an opportunity to see the green tree
through the grill after a long time which made me over-excited. My enthusiasm
was at such high levels, I didn’t realise my tender fingers were brushing
against the grill in the process. I could see the tree and the sky even better,
but I could see a few bruises on my fingers as well. It still pains. But I
decided to manage the pain in my hands instead of visiting a doctor and inviting
more pain!
In a jubilant, over-excited mood one can inadvertently get
hurt himself, or even hurt others.
An elderly lady was hurt by my cousin, when we were at the
age of just 10. In a boat. Our grandfather had taken us to a temple in the near-by
town and return trip he chose to use the ferry service, the cheapest mode of
transport. Though I was and I am scared of travel by boat, my cousin was more paranoid.
He always visualized the worst, the boat would drown and it would be the last
travel in his life. As the over-crowded boat started moving, tossing started and my cousin started
shouting a bit mildly. Once the boat reached deep into the back waters, the
water was turbulent due to passage of a huge ship in the vicinity, it rocked
more. Shouts from my cousin out of fear became more and more audible to others
in the boat.
Suddenly we heard a loud scream which would have been
audible even to the people on land. It was not from my cousin. From the old
lady who was standing next to him. I realised what had happened. While the boat
driver was trying to balance the boat, my cousin was trying to balance his own body.
Whether you are 10 year old or 18 or even 52, in such fear you cannot precisely
target your elbow jabs. You cannot make them land on parts of another’s body
which will pain least to that person!
Obviously his elbows hit the lady in all wrong places. I know
for sure, my cousin got over with this fear of travel by boat as he grew. I am
also almost sure that that old lady would never have traveled in another boat
in rest of her life. Once bitten like this, always shy then on! For ever!!
Fear can make you
hurt others or hurt yourself.
Even trying to help can cause damage. My broadband service
provider put up No Parking board on
my gate. Nice one with his company name and logo in bold letters. I understand
that message, it is for others. I park my vehicle in front of that board,
because it’s my gate and my vehicle. But there is another fine print on that board
that hurts me. It says “download music 10
times faster”. I cannot take it for granted that this message is also only
for others, it is definitely targeted me also.
As such, from the age when I realised what a song is, I am
trying hard to listen to and enjoy at least one song fully. Trying to hum a
tune successfully. But no luck. My agony multiplies as and when I see people
enjoying music with ear phones plugged in while walking in the middle of the
road, working in office, having food, for that matter while anything they do. Now
he is telling me download music 10 times faster. And then do what? It’s hurting
my ego 100 times more!
So when we are overwhelmed by emotions, we may tend to do
some acts that can hurt others. Or hurt self. We need to be matured and patient
enough to understand that. In all other occasions, we can check whether our
acts can cause trouble to us or others! But over-caution on this is no good
either. We will do nothing then, we will speak nothing then. It will hurt us
more. All we can believe is in our judgment! And go ahead with the activity
with a brave heart to face the consequences. Let me try to sing a song now!
Bye.
