WAS enjoying my toast and butter this morning, when my wife told me, “He’s been staring at you for the last ten minutes!” “Who?” I asked, then realised it was Noah, my daughter’s dog, who is kept at my home, whenever my daughter and family go out.
I looked down and saw his eyes, steadfast on the piece of toast I was about to bite into and realised how easy it was not to get bothered by a hungry stare.
Today’s papers have hardly any news then details of the lavish pre-wedding bash a billionaire is giving his son. Millions have been paid to performers to perform at a series of planned events and the papers carry pages and pages of pictures of dignitaries arriving and expenses involved. All this while millions upon millions of our countrymen, with no food in their belly stare. Nobody notices their hungry stares, because we have also told the world that reports of where we stand on the hunger index are all fabricated. But the stares are real. Around ten years ago, I was elected president of an international club, in which my installation would have been held in a posh hotel. A few weeks before the event, I saw the ‘stares’!
They came from the old and ill people around the area where I lived, and I told the members we would have my installation in the open pergola of a local park, call these old people for refreshments and distribute four pronged walking sticks to them, with money we would otherwise have spent on a lavish five star installation.
The members agreed, and what a joy it was that for the first time in the history of the Rotary where an installation was held in a shed with plastic sheets shielding us from the rain, but with all the seats filled with the old and needy.
The next day seeing them walking around the park for the first time in many years was a joy to behold. My club had noticed the ‘stares’, looked back and addressed their needs. Today it is almost become a crime to get affected by the ‘stares’ as those who fight for the rights of the poor and marginalised, are branded with all sorts of names and even jailed. Priests, activists, and social workers, whose hearts are filled with compassion are despised and terrorised.
How are we allowing ourselves to reach this state, where only these garish activities of the rich make news, while help given to those unfortunates are viewed as a crime? Noah, stares at me, his eyes steadfast on my last piece of toast, and I guiltily give it to him, even as he lifts his head, then looks at me with grateful eyes..!
—Emil: bobsbanter@gmail.com
