DAILY MUSINGS: RUSEN KUMAR. IS THERE A HOLE IN YOUR BOAT

It is said that a picture is worth, a thousand words. Here we see four people on a boat floating in a river, waiting to cross over to the other side. They all believe that what they are looking for is available on that side of the river. Ironically none of them knows how to swim, therefore, they were in a hurry to cross over and reach other side at the earliest. As their boat moves on, a hole suddenly develops on one side of the boat and water starts filling up on that side. Boat starts losing balance. No occupant is rowing the boat now, as they are scared that boat may drown. Shaking, the boat starts drifting in the direction of the flow of water. Out of fear they all forget about their destination, as their priority had changed, now it was a question of life & death. Ironically the two passengers on one side, where there was no hole were glad that the hole was not on their side of the boat and thus were still relaxed. The other two passengers were struggling to throw water out of the boat, as they believed that unless water is thrown out the boat may capsize and drown. No one looks keen to explore the reason about how and why the hole developed, no one has time for such absurd question, since, when your life is at stake, such questions lose relevance. 

Doesn’t this picture precisely depict the current situation in the society and rightly capture people’s narrow thinking. This story is actually about us and our mindset. We are all symbolically riding on a big boat. Every time the ‘boat’ takes a new meaning. Our home is a boat for us, our family is a small boat, and our neighborhood is a boat. For villagers, their village is a boat, similarly a district is a boat, a state is a big boat and finally the country is a very large boat. We are all part of some or the other boat. People are part of the society, for them, the society and the country is their boat. 

Problems are part and parcel of life. Nature periodically shakes us up. Sometime we have a pandemic, sometime a hurricane, a fire in the woods or a massive earthquake that destroys everything. Sometime floods drown cities and sometimes the draught kicks in. Millions parish during epidemic and sometimes billions of grasshopper suddenly descend. Diversity and uncertainty are the unique traits of nature.

There are two kinds of people in the world. The first kind is the one, where people are quite indifferent to the problems and other kind is where people proactively try to find solutions to the problems. The former kind are not bothered since fire is not on their side of jungle and the latter kind start thinking of ways so that the fire does not spread across the jungle. Fire is unforgiving, in line with its nature, the fire will burn whatever comes in its way. Water drowns, thus when a boat capsizes, everyone on board drowns. When it rains, it drenches everyone. Problems impact everyone. Storms blow away everything. When Sun shines, it warms everyone. When greenery spreads, it soothes everyone. When love blossoms, it cheers up everyone, and when music plays, it calms everyone.

Every component of nature in the world belongs to everyone, to be used by everyone. Nothing is a personal property. Everything is shared. Please introspect and ask yourself which boat are you on? What kind of person are you, one who ignores the problems or one who finds the solutions? 

Please check out, if there is a hole in your life boat !

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The article is authored by Rusen Kumar. The article first published in Hindi. 

Translation by Arun Arora, a renowned communication professional, who is fond of reading, writing, and learning, all the time. 

(Note: Please take author’s permission to reproduce this unique story in the newspaper or web-mediums. The request may be sent to rusenk@indiacsr.in)