It was around 10ish on Sunday evening, when a friend of a friend of mine, offered to drop me where my other friends were. The guy was a typical well-to-do-early-20-something-rich lad. On the way, we slightly brushed past a vehicle, and my friend screeched. From there we went on to the topic of how he would deal with his car damage if there ever was one. He mentioned that if would bang into another car he would claim insurance, since he was paying a good sum of 20K+ but hasn’t claimed anything. He proudly pointed out that his sister, more often than not, damages the car and that he is the one who has to get it repaired with out letting his father know about it; hence no insurance claimed.
As blunt as I am, I asked whether she drinks and drives. He responded that she doesn’t do that, but irrespective, she doesn’t give a damn and is simply a reckless driver. Slightly uncomfortable with his attitude I asked if she had ever run over anyone, being reckless as he claimed she was. He said “NO”. My feeling of relief lasted less than a Pico second when he promptly asserted, “Even if she did, big deal! We’d take care of it”
I couldn’t believe my ears and repeated like a parrot, “Take care of it??” I remember him not having an ounce of doubt in his statement. All I said was that it’s not cool, it is someone’s life that we're talking about. I did not go on and on about it because it would be a waste of my time. The conversation ended and my destination had arrived. I got off the car thinking how can people even think like this? That needs some level of conditioning.
I grew up (and still live) in a middle class society, where if you screwed up, you were punished for it. I genuinely had faith in my generation. I thought we would be the renaissance youth of the 2000s; we would be conscientious citizens, working for the betterment of the nation, people, nature and the world. My bubble had burst quite a long time ago, but this was a hard blow and mind you I am not a fragile soul.
I tried to put the conversation behind me and enjoyed an awesome Sunday evening with some new friends I made.
Monday I got text message stating that my one of my friends' sister had expired.
It was on Tuesday when I was informed that it was a case of HIT AND RUN.
(The conversation and the incident happened in two different states of India and are not correlated)
As blunt as I am, I asked whether she drinks and drives. He responded that she doesn’t do that, but irrespective, she doesn’t give a damn and is simply a reckless driver. Slightly uncomfortable with his attitude I asked if she had ever run over anyone, being reckless as he claimed she was. He said “NO”. My feeling of relief lasted less than a Pico second when he promptly asserted, “Even if she did, big deal! We’d take care of it”
I couldn’t believe my ears and repeated like a parrot, “Take care of it??” I remember him not having an ounce of doubt in his statement. All I said was that it’s not cool, it is someone’s life that we're talking about. I did not go on and on about it because it would be a waste of my time. The conversation ended and my destination had arrived. I got off the car thinking how can people even think like this? That needs some level of conditioning.
I grew up (and still live) in a middle class society, where if you screwed up, you were punished for it. I genuinely had faith in my generation. I thought we would be the renaissance youth of the 2000s; we would be conscientious citizens, working for the betterment of the nation, people, nature and the world. My bubble had burst quite a long time ago, but this was a hard blow and mind you I am not a fragile soul.
I tried to put the conversation behind me and enjoyed an awesome Sunday evening with some new friends I made.
Monday I got text message stating that my one of my friends' sister had expired.
It was on Tuesday when I was informed that it was a case of HIT AND RUN.
(The conversation and the incident happened in two different states of India and are not correlated)
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Hmm..Wasted generation! It's definitely an agony that we call ourselves "educated". It reminds me of an article on value-based education (http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/vertie/forum/valuebas.htm)
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely a shame that in our dear country we think earning money and getting more and more western in our lifestyle should be the ideal result of education,completely forgetting what human values does our education brings to us.
I think that is the case everywhere and it is a few, in every generation who are beyond all that. I'm trying hard to stay positive.
ReplyDeleteEmpathy is a lost 'feeling'!
ReplyDeleteAnil, I believe it always was.
ReplyDeleteI agree to whatever u have said!!
ReplyDeletei also have a cousin who is the son of a rich-daddy..
and suddenly when he was speaking abt his rash driving, he exposed that his dad says even if he rolls someone out to death, then also he'll make everything normal, the son is only required to keep the license with him at the time when he's driving!
That was shocking, but later i had to believe that there are these people too!!