Date: 11-08-2024 at 8:31 AM
At this time of writing these words, neuroscientists have proved: our mind sees what we want to see or at least pushes away the rest of the things, that we don't care, from our consciousness.
In the past few days, I have seen similar incidents on the streets of Patna. This can be because I am reading Sean Carroll's international best-seller book - "The Big Picture On the Origin of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself".
The last part (part 6, Caring) talked about morality, ethics, values, virtue, inequality etc. TBH, these are still subjective compared to scientific theories but part 6, sparked more neurons inside my mind.
Yesterday, (10-08-2024) at 9:00 PM was unlike other days. This rainy season was at its peak. After torrential rain for about a few hours, it was drizzling, hence I still needed an umbrella to walk on the road.
I walked from the Cafe (Cafe Hideout Saguna More - my favourite Cafe in Patna because it has a book section) to the main road, took a shared cab, and got down to Gola Road because I live in Ramjaipal Nagar.
It was still drizzling hence an umbrella was necessary and in that drizzling most of the vegetable vendors on their Thela were standing beside the road.
When I think about their business models, I feel emotions, most of these “Thela Vendors” deal with purchasing vegetables daily and try hard to sell in a few days otherwise the chances of losses are super high. And the daily sales are the bread and butter.
I may have walked some 100 steps towards Ramjaipal Nagar, a SUV came from my back on the right side and in less than a second I could hear the abuse by this Dude (a man height 6.1 in the early Forties, with multiple Chronic diseases in the early stage observation based on his BMI ) to the vegetable Thela Vendor, standing in rain.
This Thela Vendor (a young early thieres man) was not wearing full cloth - a vest, half paint, and wrapped in a gamchha - he must be feeling cold. He was listening to the abuse of this Dude in shock from behind his Thela filled with different vegetables on it.
In just another few seconds, this Dude still abusing, opened his driving gate, and started threatening the Thela Vendor. And the next moment, I saw this Dude was destroying his setup.
This is the typical setup of a Roadside Vegetable Vendor: two or four bamboo stands and a plastic cover on the top. Since this Vendor set up below a tree two bamboo stands were enough because the rest he had tied with the tree.
This Dude kept abusing, started hitting the bamboo stands, bringing down the plastic cover, and pushing his thela. In all these, the Vendor was standing and saying mene bola kya (what did I say?)
However, with all this abuse and vandalism the Thela Vendor was kept standing there with his thela. The next moment a man aged 55+ (maybe his father) came from the other side and moved the thela with vegetables on the other side.
This Dude, still abusing, destroyed his setup, opened his driver gate, started his SUV and parked in the place where the Vendor used to sell for many months (maybe years). And walks to the other side of the road, dialling his phone.
By the way, this Dude parked his SUV on his father's Road and hence abused and vandalized.
At this time, like me, there were many standing and watching this inhuman, cowardly, illiterate behaviour by this Dude. Many fellow local vendors also circle that young man.
In the entire 15 minutes of the incident, I stood there, feeling emotional, and kept thinking about the mindset of the Dude but I wanted to know what provoked this Dude to invoke this inhuman behaviour.
So, I walked to the Vendor (man) and asked what he said to him initially. And his answer will make you think.
Here is what the Vendor said: “Car thoda side mai park kar lijiye” - Please park your car on the side, not in front of my thela. I can vouch for the fact that - he must be polite while saying this.
This is not just one Dude’s behaviour in Patna. Almost every individual who is doing relatively better and fortunate behaves similarly including the local authority and systems.
Every other day, the police with municipal support destroy roadside Vegetable vendors without any prior notice or proper instruction. Imagine, their condition because their livelihood depends on daily sales.
Patna is a growing city and as the localities are increasing the folks with no other income stream are choosing to be the Roadside vendors. This is also convenient for local residents.
However, this indeed creates a traffic problem. But instead of finding a permanent solution, very often, the people in the system behave like that Dude.
I have stayed in Chennai for 5 years and Bengaluru for 5 years but I can't recall an incident in which a Dude in a Car abused a Roadside vendor. There might be such incidents but I never saw them, in fact, I have seen Roadside vendors abusing Car Wala.
The title of this essay is incorrect, there is nothing wrong with Bihar - there is something wrong with Bihari (and that includes me as well). Of course, this has a lot to do with our economic state - we are the poorest state in India, our women workforce participation is the lowest in the world, and we are a status-driven society with no fundamental understanding. At the same time, we are also the 2nd largest population state in India - multiple times of many developed countries.
I don't know the solution, I never thought of it, yet. When we have such deep-rooted problems at such a massive scale the solution also has to think from the first principle that could be scalable.
If 5000 years of recorded history taught us anything, it is that inequality is the by-product of progress. There will always be less fortunate humans in the majority. Every entrepreneur who breaks out creates some form of inequality at a direct comparison.
For example, I want to be a billionaire in the next 5 years, which essentially means from a wealth pov, I will be among 3000 humans out of 7 billion. Technically, my aspiration will create inequality on a direct comparison.
But on the net, our society becomes equitable and has access to fundamentals. What we all want at the fundamental level is that every human must have access to fundamentals - a house to live in, clean water, food, quality healthcare, and productive life - they should be treated with respect and dignity irrespective of class, race, economic condition etc.
I have asked multiple times the same questions, Suman, in the realm of this universe, your moment is not even a second therefore what kind of life do you want to live? I have that answer however, I follow the Bayesian model of the world hence, I keep updating that as I collect more data about myself and this world.
Recently, I loved Sean Carroll’s argument on the purpose of life in his book - “The same goes for purpose, meaning, and our sense of right and wrong. If you are moved to help those less fortunate than you, it doesn’t matter whether you are motivated by a belief that it’s God’s will, or by a personal conviction that it’s the right thing to do. Your values are no less real either way”.
There are multiple ways to bring equity to society and be helpful to the less fortunate. Ford did not distribute money to Americans rather he built the “Model T” that allowed anyone to afford it and improve their productivity and quality of life, Hippocrates did the same in the field of Medicine.
Today, I know that making quality healthcare accessible and affordable to every Indian will function as power, leverage, and advantage. And might all these will function as a tool for an equitable society? Hence our mission is more important than our personal goals and personal wellbeing.
If you are reading this and ever behaved like that “Dude” good time to reflect on that behaviour. I think we are a bit fortunate doesn't mean we treat other species with consciousness as any less or inferior.
At this stage of my life, I can only feel emotional, and wish the “Dude” like them would learn about the fundamentals of humanity and behave humanly.
With this, I can only hope that in the next 10 years, I will not see such incidents on the road, or the number of “Dude” will be negligible in our society.
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