Cruel Mr. Unknown, I wish I had hit you back!!

The scene is not something new. The rich man beating the old. The scene is not something out of unknown, unfolding in front of our eyes. The eyes of young, educated 20 somethings watching the scene unfold, yet we all stood there, dumb in our mute visions. The scene hurt me, for moments uptill now I can feel the pain, humiliation and indignation of the driver, whose only fault was that he is not driving a shining costly car, but just the office bus.

What gives you the right to beat someone? Just that you earn more than him? Or that he keeps quiet when you beat him! I was there I know that the almost accident was both your and his mistake. This man who has gone scot free after beating another, I want to tell you that you weren't hurt, your vehicle survived without a scratch. In your anger you could have shouted, but to beat someone, is plain vicious! The need to beat someone to teach him/her a lesson reflects your inner cruelty. It will always portray you Mr. Unknown as a cruel person to me.

You vented your anger and vent scot free. You weren't there to see the humiliation on the face of this man, whose only mistake was that he crossed your path and the bigger mistake is that he is Poor. What if your car( a Maruti 800) had been crushed by a man who had power and money at his disposal. Would you have had the guts to beat him... I guess No. And thats the kind of inequality our society faces. Its not entirely your fault. It is the society which conditions us to believe that money and power give you the freedom to crush the self respect of someone younger or weaker than you. Its not your fault, simply your innate cruelty.

While you were beating him, we all sat quiet in the bus, waiting for others to react! How convinient. Not that our inaction didnt make us guilty. There was an eeerie silence when the action was done. The bus driver wallowing in his humiliation and we all wallowing at our inaction. I cursed my self for inaction. Too late it was. What could you have done if I had shouted at your cruelty. What could you have done if we all had stood against you and beat you up. Nothing right!! More power to us. But such is our conditioning that we dont want to get involved in the humiliation and pain of others. Such is our selfishness. Its been hours that you came, conquered the poor man and went away. I am still humiliated that I didnt act.

I write this to remind me each time that strength is not beating someone weaker than you, it is not something that you achieve when you break the spirit of another being. Strength is standing up against these small injustices of our everyday lives. I hope I can one day proudly say that I am Strong.