Remember Those Value Education Classes?
Basic manners are something that are installed in us at a very young age or so they say.
I have had value education classes in my school right from first standard. In those periods we used to read stories that had morals like
Honesty is the best policy.
Respect your elders .
A stitch in time saves time and so on.
But those were stories and half my friends didn't learn anything from those classes. Infact, most of my friends learnt many things from real life instances. Like for example, we were taught that we must not steal things. We must not tell lies, and many other things . The reason we learnt it because our own parents and teachers followed it. They make everlasting impressions in us than any value education classes.
I learnt many things from stories like Nancy drew and Harry Potter series. Friendship isn't made based on status and class. You make friends for a lifetime in school. We must not make fun if someone is different. Our parents may be wrong sometimes. Our friends may leave us but they will always find a way to come back and much more. Most of us never had grandparents to tell stories ,but some of us were fortunate enough to read such stories.
Today I witnessed a very disturbing event at the market. I was returning home when I saw a huge commotion at the corner of the road. There were many people looking two people fight. One was a very old lady making a living by selling spinach. The other was a man in his late thirties arguing with her . His daughter was standing by his side and he was loudly abusing her in the grossest words possible . The people who had gathered were looking rather sorry for the lady.
From what I could understand the vendor had asked this man to move his bike a bit forward. Angered by this he had started shouting at her. There were many who were quietly onlooking this (including me :( ) . The man was threatening her that he was so influential that he could throw her in jail.
The poor lady was quietly staring at him. Maybe she had sworn at him or maybe not. But she was so old that the man could have left without saying all the above stuff . He was setting a bad example for his daughter who was looking embarrassed beyond words.
Maybe his parents hadn't taught him to be polite to elders. Showing off your status to someone who isn't in your league of competition is downright disgusting.
It is not the values that are taught that make us good human beings. It is the values that we practice that make our personality. We don't have to be damn virtuous. But we can atleast be human enough.
I didn't stand and fight with that man because he can no longer undo the damage he had done. But I can atleast tell people about it that they don't repeat it .also if our parents do this please have the guts to tell them . Our elders can be wrong at times. Especially when they are not taught manners at young age. The next time you see your elders mistreating their elders or anyone inferior than them stand up to it.
