Security of the Insecure

Walking through some of the main thoroughfares of the city and coming across several people living on pavements along streets, I was wondering what the security of these insecure people is. I have seen the people who are living for almost three generations just in front of one of our houses, look for cover as soon as the rains started pouring, or as soon as stormy wind begin to take their rooftops forcefully. Everyone knows how the families living on pavements with small children suffer during the monsoon, when the members lose their jobs, and have very little to eat. I would like to think aloud about the security of the insecure. I am all the time conscious of my security, be it material or moral or social or cultural, or even spiritual. But what is the security that the people who live on slums and pavements or railway platforms experience?

If I were to take a survey about how the so-called insecure people living on the fringes of the society themselves feel about life, I should be prepared for some startling facts. One of the facts which I hardly ever take into consideration is their happiness quotient. I would think that these insecure people would strangely rank much higher in the happiness quotient than the so-called secure people, you and I, or in that case all those who are living in palatial buildings. No amount of natural disaster or human-made calamities can take away the joy and happiness of these people, and even in the worst of privations, there would still be meat being cooked. What is the secret of the high ranking of the happiness quotient of these people?

We would be surprised to observe that these people have no bank accounts, no savings for the future, no gold and silver jewels, no extra-ordinary electronic gadgets (they hardly burn candles or kerosene lamps, thanks to the street lamps, and how can they use any electronic gadgets), and yet they are happy about life, and nothing seem to stop their zest for life. This is a riddle for which we may have no answer, and even these people may not have any satisfactory answer. Living on the third floor of a building I used to look down on these people often, and they seemed to be having more peaceful sleep with all the noise and pollution than I with less noise and pollution. But I feel my search for an answer to the high rate of happiness quotient in these people is finally arriving at some sort of an orientation.

It may sound again like a riddle, but the security of these people is in their insecurity; I am reminded of a proverb in my mother tongue, which says, why do you need a scarf for a person who had got wet completely. If I am wet thoroughly, I don’t need to protect my head with a scarf; and if we are to apply this theory to the insecure people, we will realize that they have lost almost all the greatest pleasures of life, such as money, possessions, influence, muscle-power, and like Maurya in Riders to the Sea says, there is nothing the sea can take from me, these people could look at the world around and with a beaming smile say, there is nothing you can take away from us. That is where their security lies, and that calls for a serious questioning our so-called securities.

If we dare to learn a lesson from these people, then it is obvious that whatever we consider as the harbingers of true security do not in fact make us secure. This implies that the more we give up and welcome insecurity in life, the more secure we become, and that is when we begin to be happy, and the happiness quotient slowly rises. Is it possible that the haves will ever dare to give up their much hard-earned money, wealth, riches and power to go in vain? It may be painful for someone to give these up, especially if one had risked one’s life and earned it with sheer sweat, but ultimately what matters is not to perish with the riches and welcome an untimely death; those who dare to slowly detach themselves from these worldly securities are sure to gain something far more enjoyable and lasting, true security and happiness.

Mountains out of Molehills

To make mountains out of molehills is something that everyone is good at; exaggeration is an easy art which all of us master without our knowing. No one needs to teach us how to exaggerate beyond all proportion the mistakes of our companions, friends or coworkers, and exaggerate our own achievements as well. In the same way, over reacting to things, persons and events is yet another thing which we get used to too easily. In all these things mentioned above, there is surely a truth factor, but if the fact is only 25 per cent and the rest is mere fabrication and exaggeration, then even the little bit of fact may get submerged in exaggeration.

I did not mean to react to what had happened to my friend; it was something to do with her personal relationship, and it was not proper that I reacted very strongly towards this incident, which had disturbed my friend, and later disturbed me too. At the bottom of it all, there were several lays of insecurity, jealousy and possessiveness, which surfaced in the form of anger and over-reaction. When the mind is too agitated, it does not see any reason; it tends to look at everything through a particular color glass, which might be quite different from plane reality. I was carried away by what happened to her, without looking at it in a proper context.

To probe into facts before reacting to pigment of the mind is something that most of us are not used to; we are used to reacting to things, persons and events, and only later seeing a point in what had taken place; if only I had taken time off to calm my mind to see the incident with objectivity, probably I would have saved the excessive emotional outbreak, which smothered my spirit at least for half a day. There is a tendency in me to react to things, persons and events sometimes too strongly; so when I am biased and prejudiced against certain person, I have learned to postpone the confrontation, anything which might force me to break out, because of the exaggerated nature of the negligible amount of truth.

There is no human person who does not have bias and prejudice towards particular person or groups of people. In the recent times we had been reading about the attacks on Indians and people of Indian origin in Australia, a clear sign of prejudice and racism, though the Australian government seems to deny the charges. Most often these bias and prejudices are based on either ignorance or lack of proper information. If an Australian attacks an Indian, because the former thought the latter was there to swindle Australian resources, it is surely not a fact; or it could happen the Australian thought that the Indians were “untouchable” and had no right to live in Australia, the argument may not hold water. At the core of it all is prejudice leading to exaggeration, further leading to overreaction.

There is not a single day in our lives, when we do not over react to things, persons and events; at least two or three occasions in a day we exaggerate things beyond all proportion; this has become our second nature, and most often we do it quite unconsciously, and we may not even realize the need to look into it. If only we learn to pay attention to facts and truth, then we may be spared from so much of mental tension and anxiety; but it is also true that not always we have access to all facts and figures, and that only complicates the matters to our disadvantage. But being alert not to exaggerate and thus overreact to things, persons and incidents can save high blood pressures!