Designs of the Heart

Loving and respecting each other is a responsibility of every individual. It is traumatic if someone belittles you. True, we all have our own set of achievements and at the same time we have our peculiar style of looking down upon the rest of the crowd.

            One of my classmates in college went on an exhausting marathon of words. She kept hurling insults one after the other. Most of the time, I remained silent. Occasionally, I justified my stance, which she refused to take into consideration.

              When I recounted this painful episode to my friends, they embarked upon the next tirade accusing me for being a fool to just stand and stare instead of opening my mouth and defending myself. Time moved on and the incident got buried into the dim layers of my memory bank. Though I can’t recall in detail the words used by the young lady, it is the violent reaction of my friends that lingers in my mind till this day.

            A recent encounter with an epitome of misery was equally painful. She would employ every opportunity to sling stinging words at me. This continued for many days in varying degrees. Once again my sympathizers egged me to give a good backlash. I was even told that nobody can humiliate or disturb me unless I let them. Mostly I came home in a fit of anger after putting up with the human cauldron. To cool me down, my husband reminded me of his favourite one-liner ‘to be angry is to take revenge upon oneself for the faults of others.’

Having decided to put an end to this emotional dysentery, I took up my mighty resource of moral support- The Bible. Wide open before me was the page which highlighted the line-‘if someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong. Try to do what everyone considers to be good. Do everything on your part to live in peace with everybody.’ I decided to give it a try and I shamelessly agree that it was not easy to be good to a person who disoriented me. I succeeded only to a certain extent. I did abort my attempt of making her taste a dose of her own medicine.

            Pondering upon the advice I received from my friends, led to a revelation that we as a generation, believe in the tit for tat culture. Everybody yearns to have the last word and feels mighty pleased about subduing the others. Might is not in demeaning others. Take the other path and prove to the world what is precious.

            All of us are conscious of the fragility and the uncertainties of the world today. Our children are always exposed to many struggles in the school, among their friends, while traveling and so on. They fall a prey to the cut-throat culture of the majority. If parents remain strong in their struggle only then can they light the path of faith while educating children.

             We have many hospitals and palliative centres to treat people who are physically and mentally ill. But are there any such centres for the lot whose ‘thoughts’ are ill? We can make ourselves ‘the critical care centres’ to renew the human heart. If we want such paralyzed humanity to get up and walk the only hope is to take the righteous path.