Vekupa Rhakho George
Rarely, had I paid attention to a T-shirt that I was using for quite some time which had a label: “attitude may matter more than talents”. Late one evening, I was with another friend chatting with a medical officer of a certain remote town, who began intensive sanitation campaign in the health centre upon his arrival. Though the campus had a deserted look, there were often queue of patients frequenting it. He shared that the people trained for the work spend their time in the big towns while they appoint substitutes on their behalf. This struck me because in a place like hospital which deals with life, substitutes cannot be appointed on random basis.
Very humorously he puts that most of his staff were like programmed robots who operate only on command and retreats back to the former position. We all had a good laugh. This I feel is what is happening in our Naga society today. Many people have become very selfish and possessive. We want to accumulate and build up our fortune using certain shortcuts. Do minimum and receive maximum seems to be the code of the time. This is the reason why our state has become corrupted, filled with people who wish to preach without practicing, roam about every corner making empty promises.
The sense of belongingness is out of question. We use and abuse things to the maximum and leave the things in miserable conditions. Just take for instance, many of the government institutions will be painted with the spittle of beetle nuts. It is not ignorance but lacking sense of belongingness. We see something is clean and neatly polished but we disrespect others hardwork by dirtying it. Who is responsible? The answer seems to be the most educated people. Take another instance; the government has appointed staff to monitor the overall cleanliness of the state transport buses. What we often see is dirt beyond explanation, collected for years. I had seen someone write an article sometime back and redefined the abbreviation NST to Neglected State transport. How true!
Both government staff and the general public need to feel the sense of belongingness for the common property. We are brainwashed many at times. There are certain poisons in us which needs to be removed. Let me bring in another aspect of how we respond to situations the moment we see any government property. Very handful of people in our society has a sense of care. The major portion of the society are least bothered about all that happens. We give a dame care.
Many have only look for ways to gain and hardly bother for the common welfare. I do not intend to overlook the good deeds done by many and I am dame sure they would continue. As we turn our heads around, we find an ‘I’ consciousness everywhere. People want to elevate themselves, built their fortunes by hook or crook and just by-pass the things that happen around. It is wrong to do so because the society around us makes our life beautiful. We are never alone in our onward march in the cosmic journey. We are accompanied by a host of pilgrims just like ourselves.
Qualities like faithfulness, compassion, truthfulness, love etc. need to be operative in our system by responding immediately as and when the need may arise. All these factors make our lives and the lives of all other pilgrims beautiful.
We are all gifted with many potential but it all depends on how we make use of them. No one is born useless as many think. We are all born with unique features. We need to cherish this precious life. Be that as it may, our talents and gifts are but a useless entity if it is not used for common good. Today, we enjoy many things because of the fact that some people down the centuries used their potential for the future of humanity. This is how we need to respond to the common global need. We are inter-dependent species. We do not have the power to do anything as we like because the power to do so does not lie latent.
It is true that we are all pilgrims in this world. Nothing belongs to us. Everything will come to pass. But we have an obligation to take care of our mother earth. Often some people tend to be very selfish and try to own everything as theirs. It is wrong to possess everything because we are not the owners of the things rather we are all caretakers of this world. Jim Reeve very rightly puts: this world is not my home.
When we look at the society around us today, we are confronted with a variety of options either to descend or ascend. Attitude plays a significant role in our day to day life. It is this driving force that helps us to descend in the ladder of life.
We may be blessed with a variety of talents but it is our attitude in responding to these talents that finally counts. In most of our institutions, there is a lack of attitude towards making things flow in perennial order. We feel that it is the property of the government and therefore we feel we can abuse it. It is not morally sound to do so because it is through it our survival is assured. Anyone who feels reluctant to be different in the aspect of building a just society is really not fit for existence. Today, we need global persons who think globally and not just locally.
There is a grave danger that lies ahead of us if we continue to move on with the crowd without foreseeing the possible hazards anchored. I am afraid we may all be led to the pit where compromising might be out of question.
We must wake up and see that the world in which we live today is no more an innocent playground. The game that people play today is disastrous. This I mean in terms of the dangers attached to the excessive use of the technology and the unhealthy races people have enrolled themselves.
The growing world today needs global persons in terms of culture and personal relations. We need to rise above the ordinaries of daily life to scale a step higher in our thought patterns. Human today look like an alien to this world in many ways particularly in terms of extracting the resources beyond requirements. There is a need to build bridges rather than creating and promoting enmity.
Very often we take for granted and fail to see that it is the society in which we live that makes our lives beautiful. It is in others company that adds fragrance to our lives. We live and move and have our being in the presence of the other and not by being in closed up cocoons. Let us all live this short life gracefully by promoting peace and happiness through sincerity and the obligations we are tied to. Doing the insignificant in an extraordinary way will enhance and promote growth for the future of humanity.
