Human values

Sometimes I wonder at who is human and who is animal. Just read about the injured deer that walked up to the emergency room of strong memorial hospital in the USA only to be carried out on a stretcher and killed. Nobody thought of sending him to a vet. He came because he needed help and was instead killed by the very persons who have sworn to help.
Earlier in the morning, I read about baby Umarali who was taken away from his mother Zarina by the police and sent to a hospital in Russia on October 13th and the next day the mother got a call that he's dead and she should collect the body. The fact that how can anyone separate a 5 month old baby from his mother is horrifying. The authorities snatching away the babies of refugees and not letting the mothers be with them and ultimately leading to the death of the infant are acts of gross violation of human rights.
Everyday there is news of human rights violations from one or the other part of the world. There is a gradual degradation of human values. A society devoid of humanity cannot sustain itself. It's time that the human race checks it's conscience.

Kabadiwala

During our childhood days, one of the interesting and eventful visitations were those of the kabadiwala (the guy who collected recyclable things). Once a substantial amount of old newspapers, notebooks, magazines, bottles and other recyclable items collected, the kabadiwala was summoned. So generally during summer break and Sundays, the morning would be dedicated to the selling of junk. It was an interesting activity, the ladies of the house, kids, servants and dogs had their role. Mummy and amma would tell what all stuff to take out, servants would sort and keep everything out, we would be running around hoping to salvage some of the treasure and dogs would be barking madly.
Once the kabadiwala arrived, he would further sort out the stuff, place newspapers and magazines in bundles of 1-2 kg each, weighing everything and keeping aside. And while he was busy, we will always find some book or magazine that we wanted to keep and would take it as our most prized possession. Once the weighing was completed, came the stage of bargaining the price of the junk. We would want to sell for higher rate than what he wanted to buy it for and will finally settle at some mid price. After that he would collect everything on his handcart and leave.
While this selling of junk was a playful activity for us during our childhood, it was also an important lesson in environmental concern. We would've reusing and recycling. Reducing the waste and preserving nature. The kabadiwala played an important link between us and the recycling industry, without his role our recyclable junk would have ended up polluting the earth more. Those people who do the most meager jobs are the ones doing the most important jobs. They are the environmental crusaders. They are saving our present and our future by spending their time and their energy in doing what we consider ourselves too proud to do.
Coming to the USA, we have to take our recyclable junk to collection points ourselves. And there is no bargaining, everything has fixed price. We collect and sort everything beforehand, there is no designated Sunday or summer day. We have to carry everything ourselves. It does not involve the hustle and bustle of childhood days and we have become our own kabadiwala.

The beef politics

One innocent man was publicly lynched over rumors and all the political parties are cashing over the misfortune of his family. The poor, jobless youth is brainwashed in the name of religion to go and kill innocents and the politicians try to cash in the points in the communal clashes. The issue is not beef, the issue is the amount of lies fed into the weak impressionable minds. The parties try to present the cow as a religious symbol and use it to feed the illiterate masses with the ideas of protecting their religion.
The Constitution of India did not talk of taking steps to ban cow slaughter because of religious purposes. The provision is there because of the utility of cow and its progeny in agriculture as India was a agriculture based economy. The provision comes under the head of animal husbandry and agriculture.
The courts have already ruled that the cow is symbolic not for religious purposes but rather because of its commercial uses. Yet, the politicians use it to divide the masses on communal grounds and breed enmity in order to get electoral gains.