A very short thought-provoking story

 “A boy’s mother died due to cancer.”

That’s it. That’s the story. 

Now, I’ll ask you a few questions. 

• What is the political inclination of that boy?
• What is the religion practiced by them?
• What is their caste?
• How rich or poor they are?

Every day I see people fighting with each other on things such as politics, religion and what not. They don’t get together to solve problems. Is there anyone who can’t be affected by cancer? Someone is living a normal life, suddenly they get cancer and boom, everything gets over. 

Why can’t we get together to devise a permanent cure for unwanted things like cancer? Instead of solving such problems, we are busy fighting with each other. We don’t realise that there are many problems still to be solved by humanity, and we won’t do that if we keep wasting our time on hate. 

Many years ago I stopped being a regular user of social media because people there would spend time talking about disliking someone. I cannot handle that much negativity, so I distanced myself. There are some WhatsApp groups which I’ve kept on mute and stopped conversing with few people who’d talk non-stop about problems, instead of creating the solution themselves. 

• We haven’t solved the problem of people dying prematurely due to cancer. 
• We haven’t solved the issue of depleting water table. 
• We haven’t reduced air pollution. 
• We haven’t figured out ways to recycle things properly, especially plastic. 
• Above all we haven’t made crime zero on earth. We think a messiah will come and solve these problems forever.

That won’t happen, until we realise that change has to come from within us. 

And that change will not occur , till we stop finding faults in others, and start working towards a better future. 

A Solitary Pursuit, by Arjun Suri