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You see, their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble.
When ‘The Joker Guy’ said these words pointing towards the so called ‘civilized people’, he was almost correct – ‘almost’. Generally we civilized people do not stress ourselves with anything wrong which is going around us or even if we do, all we manage to do is – discuss the issue, point out the moral or immoral aspects of situation, may be a lots of criticism about the system, some may even feel pissed off or at max one writes another anonymous blog about these issues like I am doing right now. But when it actually comes to do something, we all lock our moral values in a safe corner of our ‘mind’ – The so common ‘hamein-kya-padi-hai’ attitude of our society. And we all learn to live one way or another without bothering about these issues. But exceptions are everywhere – so was the Batman and so was the Rachel Corrie !
The moment I’ll introduce you to Rachel Corrie, most of you would skip this post.
In a society where people are not bothered about whats happening in their neighbourhood, why would they bother about a girl who is an American and was killed by Israel Defense Forces in Palestine in 2003. But for those few of you who have decided to know more about this girl, I’ll continue writing. Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old American working among downtrodden Palestinians, was killed in the third week of March, run over by an Israeli bulldozer. Rachel, along with seven others, was acting as a human shield to try and prevent the demolition of Palestinian houses. Rachel, who was to graduate from the college in the United States later that year, had come to Palestine two months earlier. In an e-mail she sent to her parents shortly before she was killed, Rachel had described one such incident in which members of her group “stood in the path of bulldozers and were physically pushed with the shovel backwards, taking shelter in a house” The message went on to say that “the bulldozer then proceeded on its course, demolishing one side of the house” while the protesters were still inside. The incident that claimed young American’s life was eerily similar to the one she had described in her own message. According to one of here teachers at college, Rachel was very active in opposing the ‘US war against terror’ and justice for the Palestinian people was a cause that was close to Rachel’s heart. If you can spare one more minute, listen to this innocent speech by Rachel when she was just in fifth grade – “I’m here because I care” and she went to prove herself true to her words, she could hold on to her morals as long as she was there.
The very first question which I asked to my friend KK, when I finished reading about her in a magzine was – “Itni himmat kahan se aati hai logon main ?” I know I don’t have this much of courage – its a bit shameful but true. I can never ever be brave enough to go to an all together different nation and sacrify my life for those people. Neither that is what I am expecting from anyone. What to talk of such bravery, I may not have even questioned back many times to those people in my daily life, whom I know, were wrong. Because who wants to get into the trouble ! The kind of such extreme examples push us to think for at least once about our responsibilities. I asked again myself what did she got after loosing her life there ? But I immediately got corrected, there will be a lot many like me who would be at least forced to think about such issue by her courage. I am writing this post not to urge people to do something; but here all I am trying to do is to pacify these vicarious feeling within me. I am trying to find answers to so many questions – what is the ‘correct’ thing to do ? Do these moral values are actually more than the bookish philosophy ? Or is it the sign of more intelligent species to get adjusted to the situations ? Or may be its not us who decide if we can do something or not; but its situation or destiny which allows an ordinary man to be an extra-ordinary one.
In a society where most of the people have to struggle for meeting their both ends, they hardly can think about moral values. But our society also has a good percentage of people who are comfortable enough to think upon such social issues, people like you and me – who can spend a lots of time on blogs and internet, may be we can spend some time on such issues as well. Why are we not brave enough to stand against the wrong things which are happening around us ? Thats not an appeal to stand up against something but its just that I am trying to figure out how things should work in a society ! If we can’t go out and stand for others, can we at least manage to do, what we are “supposed” to do – always keeping our moral values in our mind ? That still remains a question for me ! Even if we are not brave enough to oppose the system, we still have some examples where people do contribute for the cause of society like Charity Water without fighting or opposing anyone. Again, I know I am not going to do or contribute for anything like that at least in the near future. After finishing this blog, I would be the same guy, who is sitting in his room , doing things which only concerns himself. But if I am feeling a need to do something, let these feelings be there. May be someday, I’ll realize what these feelings are meant to be ! One cause of all these feeling may be that I am still not exposed to the realities of this world rather ‘harsh realities’. May be when I’ll meet them I won’t be asking any such stupid questions about morality ! But I seriously wish, whatever be the situation, at least I may continue asking such questions, even if I am not contributing anything !
Its not that we don’t have such exceptions in our society. There will be a lot many people around us, who are still sticking to their moral values, some may be known, some may be unknown. But clearly such people are outnumbered by the major section of population. I mentioned Rachel here specifically because after reading about her recently, I was triggered to think upon these things again. There are many popular heroes in our society like our freedom fighters – Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad who sacrified their lives for the sake of nation. There are some unsung heroes as well like Justice H R Khana who stood up against the system for holding onto his morals. Probably we all still remember Shanmughan Manjunath who lost his life for his ethics. I am also getting reminded of one article on Gujarat riots of 2002, which told about some of the courageous police officers who sticked to their duties and morals, even when it meant to be against the government and as expected they were rewarded with quick transfers. More recently Aradhana, who has been fighting against SPS Rathore for justice for her friend for the last 19 years. Infact, ‘civilized people’ of our country have also started to raise their voices and have made sure that their voices are heard – Jessica Lall case, Priyadarshini Mattoo case , Nitish Katara case and I am sure case against SPS Rathore would soon be added to this list as well. Something similar which civilized people of Gotham city showed to the Joker guy. And one more such hero for me is Sam Gamgee, which finally brings me to the title of this post !
Sam Gamgee or ‘Samwise the Brave’ has been my the most favourite character of all the series of Lord of the Rings. Because he represents an ordinary folk like you and me; who doesn’t think much about far away things. But as the journey unfolds he realizes his destiny through hardship and ultimately its his determination and strength which carries Frodo towards his destination. For me he is ‘The Hero’ of the story and just when I was trying to find a cause why one should hold on to his moral values, I was reminded of these words full of wisdom by Samwise The Brave.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.
[ This is one of the best scenes of all three movies, from the 'The Two Towers'. Even if you haven't clicked any of the links above, you can atleast enjoy this one - Watch it here , it sounds really great with the background music effects; Even Golum seems to be agree with what Sam told ! ]
