About a week back, a very learned, well known journalist friend of mine tagged me in one of his posts on Facebook. The post had a very poignant story about Pulitzer winning photograph by Kevin Carter, during 1994 Sudan famine. If you remember that world famous photograph, it depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards the UN Food Camp. There is a vulture, lurking in background, waiting for the child to die so that it can feed on it. That picture received enormous attention world over.
My friend gave a brief note about the trauma, the photographer underwent and disturbing details about how he was in deep trouble at the time of taking the picture and how the photographer finally ended his life by committing suicide. After the note, was a request to express our views on the subject.
It was a very tough call to comment on that serious, sensitive issue of such magnitude! However, when the comments started pouring in, they made an interesting statement about how easily we tend to judge situations and people, without considering the necessary factors involved! Some people had opinion that instead of helping the girl reach the UN food camp, the artist tried to exploit the child's suffering to his advantage. It made me reflect on how incessantly judgmental we are just about everything in life! It reminded me of a recent incident when I had shocked myself with a very harsh judgment which was inconsistent with my principles.
Last month, me and my hubby had gone for a weekend at Kashid. Soon after we checked in a hotel, the manager suggested we visit more secluded part of the beach and showed us the way to reach there. It was a narrow path that could accommodate only one car. As we reached the beach, we saw a small cement structure and we parked our car at the slope there and headed to the sea. Hardly a few meters away, there was another car parked and a man wearing nothing except a tiny, thin towel emerged from it. He was short, dark, had a huge paunch, wore thick gold chains, cheap looking sunglasses and was speaking very loudly in a crude manner over cell phone. I was instantly appalled by his repugnant demeanour (atrocious ! what an eyesore, I thought). I was extremely angry with the man for dressing like that at public place!
After spending some time at the sea, when we returned to our car, we spotted the man atop his car enjoying his beer. I was so shocked with that sight that I secretly wished that I could make him disappear! My hubby had some difficulty taking the car out from the slope as it got stuck between cement slope and the sand. He kept trying but in vain! It became tricky and required some expertise to get the car out. Before we could even think about anything, the same man approached us and started guiding my hubby and helped him. He was surprisingly polite and patient. It took almost thirty minutes to finally get the car out. When we thanked him for his kind gesture (there was still trace of anger in me and a big dent to my ego because the "eyesore" that I had so despised had helped us at a crucial time when there wasn't anybody around) he smiled very gently and followed us in his car and made sure that we reached the main road properly. He waved us good bye with a big smile and returned to the beach.
As we drove back to our hotel, hubby could sense some sadness in my eyes. When I told him about how insensitive I had been to the man and that I was ashamed of having failed in my own eyes, he said in his typical, always forgiving style, "It is okay baby! That's how one learns about life, about people." He started playing my favorite music to cheer me up. I smiled at him and closed my eyes. I knew, no matter how cautious I had been about not letting my judgments be colored by anything, I had wronged by completely ignoring someone's existence! I had judged that man by his appearance and had failed to see him beyond it. If he had not bothered to help us, I would have never known this side of him and would have even preferred to forget him completely!
The experience taught me how deep down some part of my inner self was completely disconnected when I became judgmental about that man. And believe me, it was not at all a good feeling! I realized, I have to keep a constant check on my inner compass and that is going to be a continuous work in progress till my last breath!
