The short-sighted

It is so painful to come across people who are myopic, short-sighted, who cannot look beyond their nose, as it were. All that they can see is the tip of their noses, and their shoulder blades. The problem is aggravated if this kind of people are placed in charge of some other simple, gullible people, who may not have a voice. Sometimes the life of a person may be at risk if the person who sits on top were to think something other than what common sense may demand. In order to assert one’s superiority, authority, or even dubious spiritual power, this person may do something which may cost a life or more, and still they may remain what they were, and may not reconsider the futility of their arrogance or myopia.

As I sat sitting the emotionally-charged words of one of our friends, who felt how the person who was in-charge of him turned a blind eye to him, leaving him to semi-existence. Tears were welling up in his eyes, as he narrated to me how he felt, and what he was contemplating of. I cannot just disregard the sentiments of this companion, who is no small child to shed tears, because he did not get what he wanted; he was senior to me, and in age at least six or seven years older to me. That is to say, he should be nearing 50, and it is not easy to bear a man of that age shed tears, and I could see that he was not faking, it was genuine. He could not resist the tears, and had to go to the sink once to wash his face. I was helpless as to how to console him.

Though I would not agree to all that he had told me, I could understand that there was a point in what he was feeling, and how he was treated. I could understand that he did not receive a fair deal from his boss, who could decide on his fate (thanks to the religious vow of obedience that the inferior had professed). I knew only too well that this boss had too little time to think about the men he is to look after; his eyes were fixed on something higher and noble, and he would not stoop to be bothered about the dispensable men. He had made decisions, which involved this sick friend, without even properly informing him, and this sick companion asked me, ‘what will happen if I refused to accept his proposal?’ and there are more chances that he may not agree to it.

Those who wish to succeed in life are invited to focus their attention on what they wish to achieve, and exclude from their perspective and attention everything else which may distance them from the goal they wish to achieve. Our boss was doing exactly the same, and there are so many victims, who could have been retained in our company, were they given proper guidance and directions. One person’s determination to achieve what he was craving for was going to let another person lose in the battle with life, and I felt sad for this friend, but I had no strong words of consolation. Sometimes I felt I was as powerless and hapless as other people who needed the strong hands of some powerful people to save them.

Living a life of dedication for some 30 years and contemplating leaving this kind of life, in order to explore avenues to save one’s life is something I find it hard to accept. There was so much of sorrow in his heart, and maybe this is the first time that he had dared to pour out his heart to someone. I was asking myself, have we become so very indifferent to human feelings and sentiments that we could continue to hold on to our own guts, even at the expense of letting others who are under our care to perish silently. Have we closed our ears to listen to their silent sobs and screams of agony and pain? Why is it that we cannot just question the personal evils of a select few spewing venom on a group of well-meaning dedicated people?