It happens again

Despite being a part of this city for so many years, the in-humanness which I have slowly started to associate with Delhi , the apathy of ‘Diliwala’ to the pain of a fellow human being, the ease at which the Delhites  ignores those who are weak and cannot defend themselves, still  continues to amaze me and  upset me.

Every alternate day, I come across something that makes me question that why am I living here. The answer never comes. Or maybe it does, just that it’s too ‘practical’ to be discussed.

Today was that alternate day.

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As I was walking towards the gate of my society, not more than 100 meters far, I saw a man collapsing on the ground.

I rushed towards him, thinking that he had suffered a heat stroke. However, going closer, I realized that he was bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth.

He was a rickshaw puller and the blood on his mouth was because of the fist-blows that he had just received from the driver of a car.

The rickshawalla, a man in his 50s,  had apparently parked his rickshaw in front of the society gate, which as per the man driving the car, was obstructing the road and making it difficult for him to park his car.

So, after shouting at him, which the frail rickshaw puller ignored, this man punched him repeatedly and only stopped after he was satisfied that he had learnt his lesson.

This whole incident happened at a time when scores of oversized housewives were taking evening walks to reduce off the extra weight. It was witnessed by a whole lot of educated-civilized people, who, could have saved the old rickshaw puller,but chose to ignore the merciless beating.

As I helped him stand up, he looked at me and said “ Hamari galti nahee thee..Hum nahee suney who kya bola, phir woh maa ki gaali deeya”.

The sight of him holding his broken tooth in one hand, and trying to stop the gushing blood from his mouth from the other, is something that will continue to torment me for long.

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I do not want to write anything more. This was not the first time I had witnessed something like this; the only thing that disconcerts me is that why have we become so insensitive to pain.