Have you read 'Filboid Studge' by Saki?
We are Generation G, we have the google power. I have gotten used to using google for practically everything (so has everybody). Search any word and usually results begin with a link to the definition of the word in webster’s or meaning of the word from dictionary. Since google is of such great ‘help’ I googled the word ‘help’. Yeah, yeah... I am getting there, I am not totally jobless to sit and google the words and their meanings.
The result:‘Help’ is not people’s favorite word. Apparently, there is no definition for the word or meaning of the word - not until page three. People seem to have completely forgotten the term. You don't have to learn the word as it is not that important to help others anymore. The mantra of the day is “Make yourself little available to help others”.
There is this young, happy, extremely friendly couple in my neighborhood. Both the husband and wife go out of the way to help others. They offer to help you if you are stranded in a bus stop, if you have no money or don’t want to spend money for the cab but need to rush to the airport, if you have to get your nails done, call them, they are there! I often wondered if they expected anything in return for the favors they shower.
I spotted them in the parking lot of a departmental store and rushed toward them to wish them. As I came nearer to greet them I saw that their car had a flat tire, it was burst open. They were reluctant to call people for help. Wife said “Should we call .Ganesh.. umm.. No …he would still be at the office”.. then he said “ May be Aman, Naah… he has a baby boy, let him spend time with the kid” . They kept debating on whom not to call!! Amazing, I have not once thought like this!!
Coming back to the incident, the debate went on. They had done a lot of shopping and the stuff was not getting any lighter. Finally, they decide to call this person who (by the way has taken the maximum advantage of their car) would probably be free. Getting stuck with a broken car did not seem to him as important as his colleague’s farewell party. So they call this girl whom they helped when she first moved in, She said “I am sorry, I am at work”. One person finally did agree to pick them up (Thank God!) They had to wait a good one hour before he picked them up. Not that they could not afford a cab or anything, but the couple were really generous to all these folks. They helped them buy cars of their own. I don't see why it is so difficult to return a favor.
I biked back home. I couldn’t stay there for long. I felt really heavy in my heart. I don’t know if ‘they’ felt the same way when nobody is ready to help them in return. I don’t have a car to help them. I can’t say I would be at their peck and call but would have not left them that way.
I really got mad at them ‘non-helpers’. They have abused the couple for so long. They should have been more considerate. Do you see it the same way or is it just me?
That evening left me thinking: “Can we expect anything in return of our good deeds and help to others?” More importantly, “Should we?” At that instant I remembered Filboid Studge. I guess expecting 'HELP' in return is just as meaningless as the word 'PLEH'
Wonders!!
Sri Seshabhattar
5th September 2009
